It is RIDICULOUS that anyone should be made to feel inferior because they take a natural approach to hair. And that’s what it does. You see people saying logically it makes no sense, but they still feel BADLY and ASHAMED about having body hair. If you want to shave do it, but there shouldn’t be a preference for one or the other, because what that does is perpetuate that preference onto others. And you want to know why it’s REALLY popular to be hairless? Because now you’re spending money for the rest of your life battling it making companies a fortune.

I’m a girl, but I’m not a feminist. As some people have reasoned on their own, doing stupid things just doesn’t make sense whether it’s women doing them or men. I think women do a ton of retarded things to themselves (men as well) for no reason! If everyone just left well enough alone people wouldn’t feel horrible about being hairy.

And for the record being hairless is in no way more or less hygienic so that is utter crap. You aren’t less clean if you have hair. Does having hair on your head make your scalp a less clean place? Just shower, wear deodorant and you’ll be clean and smell less. THAT is being hygienic, showering. What a concept!

And for the post above mine, clothes should be optional as well. But see even clothes serve more of a purpose than shaving. Clothes at least keep you warm. And civilization is an ambiguous term I think. People living in social groups and caring for one another was probably in place when we were climbing around in the trees still, so technically that is actually natural.

Anyway, you can say people who like being hairy shouldn’t make people who shave feel badly, but then why should we feel badly? How is it more alright to bash a hairy person than a non-hairy person? Not that I’m saying that’s what you were doing, just using that as a vague sample for a general statement. People do this with all sorts of things. Weight, race, ethnicity (not the same as race), curly hair vs. straight hair, everything. What is the need to make other people feel like crap? God… know what? I’m moving. This culture is driving me crazy.

Face: I like to see what my face looks like. Everyone with copious facial hair ends up looking the same. I also get really annoyed when my beard hair starts catching on EVERYTHING. Plus, my girlfriend deserves kisses from a soft, smooth, non-stinky/hairy/whatever set of lips.

Pits: I don’t do this every day or anything, and I wouldn’t care that much if my girl was the same way (she shaves every day, though, and always has, as she just really doesn’t like the feeling of having prickly hair on her body and every shaveable part of her body in the time it takes me to do my face). I shave here maybe once or twice a month, basically keeping it around a quarter of an inch or lower. I do this because it raises the effectiveness of antiperspirant and I like the silhouette better if I’m wearing a tank top or something. Pit hair will also hang on to sweat and stink more than hairless skin, so off it goes!

Pubes: This I will not budge on. I do it out of respect for the girl I am with, and I expect her to do the same. Basically if I am going to have my mouth all over something that’s going to be getting pretty sweaty and slimy, I would VASTLY PREFER it not also be filling my mouth with hair and getting caught in my teeth and whatnot. Plus it makes the area smell better (this is true for guys and girls).

As for legs, I dunno. I shaved my legs once just to see what it was like. They felt wet for a long time after. It was strange. I chalk up the girls-shave-legs-guys-don’t thing like this. Girls’ clothing, pants especially, are more likely to be fitted and contoured to the shape of the female body. Men’s attire fits more like a geometric shape that men are installed into. Women’s attire plays off the natural beauty of the feminine shape, all opposing curves and whatnot. Having hair under close-fitting pants all the time would get really annoying.

Before you attack the horrible patriarchy for enforcing clean-shavedness on your downtrodden sisters, think of this first. Shaving may be unnatural, but you know what else is? Clothing. And civilization. Sometimes we alter “natural” behaviors because we, as a society, feel we have evolved past them regardless of whether our physical evolution agrees. This is not necessarily bad, for instance that mindset is what has kept Stephen Hawking alive even though nature says he should be dead, and he obviously has much to offer the world, right? If living in a civilized society and wearing clothing is made less appealing by having ungroomed body hair, it is within the rights and abilities of a person to edit that hair if they so choose.

I am not one of those people that expects a girl I’m with to pluck her eyebrows away to nothing, shave her arms, wear a ton of makeup, etc., and that’s okay. I have a beautiful girl I love with all my heart and we are both perfectly comfortable and happy with each other’s aforementioned level of grooming and hygiene. There may be people that would want more, and that’s okay, as there is someone out there for them that is more than happy to accomodate that. There may be people, such as yourself, who don’t want to put in that much effort and that is also fine, as you will find someone out there who is comfortable and happy with your described level of grooming.

What I’m getting at is that you don’t need to “speak for all women” or “for everyone” or rail against this perceived injustice, as your answers may not be right for everyone. Decide what you like for yourself, and let other people choose what they like without you telling them they should feel bad for it.

My father is a VERY hairy man, and I got all the hair from his side of the family. Awesome.

I have bushy (non unibrow) eyebrows, which I enjoy despite myself being the only lady I know who doesn’t pluck/wax/shave them. Seriously. I get the occasional comment about them, but I like leaving them alone. I waxed them once, it didn’t hurt that bad, and they looked nice, but I have always loved good expressive eyebrows, and fucking with mine wasn’t my deal.

I have chin hair, some neck hairs, a very fine mustache, and mole hairs, all which get shaved at least once a week. They drive me crazy, especially the chin. When I get absent minded or am pensive I touch my face, so facial hair = NO.

Once a week at least the pits get shaved, I’m fat and therefore I sweat and stink, so it’s a necessity. Also, shaved pits feel better to me.

From my very lower back down I am fuzzy. I am considering using nail or another hair removal technique to remove butt/back/lower belly hair because I feel ugly with super dark hair all over my bottom parts. That said, I don’t go Lolita and shave the sheath. Ingrown hairs, razorburn, red bumps, the look, and the absolute annoyance of being shaved/shaving down there doesn’t set well with me. However, I do trim it so it isn’t the mighty amazon, both for my own comfort and the boy’s.

Legs get shaved when they need to. Shorts, dress, skirt, going to bed with the boy- shaved. Pants or none of the above? Fuck that. When the hairs get long it feels nice, just as when they are fully shaved it is nice. The stubble? not so much.

I once met a woman who said she shaves her legs but once a year– during fire safety month, for safety reasons lol.

I have shaved my legs and pits once since the summer of 2007 for my high school graduation. I don’t like the act of shaving, I don’t like the raw red sensation of hairlessness and I don’t like the political implications of altering my body for the sake of “beauty.” I went to a conservative all-girls religious school, and for the sake of avoiding a spectacle, I shaved for graduation (we were required to wear [virginal] white dresses and white gloves for the graduation ceremonies. i wish i were joking.)

I have appreciated being able to regrow body hair in this last month and get back to my old self. Truthfully, I am often self-conscious about the unusual practice of being true to my own body, but the compliments and looks of approval from fellow pro-woman individuals far outweigh the negative comments directed at me, usually from boys my own age.

I also have a little mini trimmer that I use to remove the hair on my upper lip. It is very blonde, and not at all noticable usually, but sweat will accumulate on the “upper-lip fiuzz” and it makes me feel unattractive.

Paridoxically, I don’t shave all that often. Once a week, usually. I rarely wear shorts or skirts, and I have been with my husband for almost six years…he witnessed me give birth to our child; a little armpit hair doesn’t freak him out.

I don’t shave my pubes, either, but I do trim them, This is mostly for comfort – when things get too bushy (forgive me) down south the hairs will get caught in my undies.

~Olympia

It’s the hair on my face that’s problematic. Because I am so hairy, I have spent many, many hours in the beauty salon, getting my sideburns, cheeks, chin, forehead, upper lip, lower lip and neck waxed and threaded. As the years passed, it became an increasingly humiliating experience. More than once, I stood outside the salon — all rosy-cheeked, polished, and “clean’’ — sobbing because having to alter my face in such an extensive, painful and embarrassing way only reinforced the fear of how fundamentally ugly I felt I was.

However, a couple years ago I had a truly life-changing epiphany about beauty and body image, and I no longer look at my body with shame. This is not to say that I now love my hairiness, but that I no longer hate it and I don’t believe that I am unlovable or worthless because of it. (God help me, as soon as I get the chance, am going to electrolosyzzze that stuff off. I like the look and feel of a hairless face.) But in the meantime, I enjoy being me and I enjoy experiencing life through my body.

On an individual level, I have no problem with hair removal. I think it should be a personal choice. But I do think that hair-removal on a mainstream societal level is a feminist issue. Expecting women to be hairless, poreless, wrinkle-free, etc., is an effective way to dehumanize them. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the other shoe has dropped and I’ve noticed an increase in unrealistic beauty standards for men. Maybe this will start a dialogue about the destructiveness of a homogenous, oppressive and thoroughly artificial standard of beauty. Maybe it won’t – there is a lot of money to be made playing off of people’s insecurities. But God bless the internet; it’s been an invaluable resource for me in my search for body diversity and acceptance.

as far as the pubic region goes, i’m on again off again with removing the hair. my boyfriend mentioned i’m the only one he’s dated who didn’t remove it, and he’d feel a bit more comfortable if there was less of it *in all fairness, he removes his* being hairless down there, while a pain in the ass to achieve, is so comfortable, it feels cleaner for some weird reason. i can see why people would find it infantilizing, but at the same time, it’s just smoother and more pleasent, i don’t think people are actively equating hairless with child, i think it’s just in the same category as armpit hair, something funky that needs to be groomed. (i’m just stating that from my personal experiences, not as some general cultural statement. )

if it didn’t take stupid amounts of time and a constant supply of fresh razors, i’d do it more often.