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Doesn't look so bad, does it?
I first got the idea to stop shaving my legs in high school, when I was shocked to see a friend’s hairy legs sticking out from under her skirt. When I asked why she’d let her leg hair grow, she said something like, “I don’t see why I have to shave.” This seemed like a perfectly good answer, and so, out of my own curiosity, I decided to stop shaving immediately, after five years of doing so religiously.
Fast forward many years, and here I am, sitting around in shorts with my leg hair visible in all its glory. Once I grew out my leg hair and got used to the feel of it blowing in the breeze (got to admit, that was pretty weird at first), I came to the same conclusion as my friend: why do I need to shave my legs? Because commercials and magazines tell me I need to? Because it’s expected of me by my society? It has no impact on my health, intelligence, or, truthfully, my ability to get dates. (One rather conservative guy, upon learning my legs are au natural, asked me, snidely, if guys ever date me. Yes, idiot, they do. And I would NEVER date anyone who cared so much about leg hair that it would be a dealbreaker. Appreciate me for me, not for having hairless legs).
“Can I touch it?” people ask me, upon seeing it. I guess having hairy legs makes me somehow exotic. I’m happy to let folks feel it, and they frequently seem startled that it’s soft. Yep. Soft leg hair. It’s not long; I just measured it at about 1-1.5 cm, and much like your arm hair or your eyelashes, it hits a certain length and stops growing. Don’t pay attention to that “if you shave it and let it grow back, it’s super dark and worse than ever,” because it’s not.
Free your legs, ladies! | Source: Shutterstock
To answer a question people ask all the time: yes, I do shave my armpits. I grew out that hair once, and I didn’t mind how it looked, but having hairy armpits made me even more in need of deodorant, and I drew the line at being stinky. So yes, smooth pits, although I’m also lazy about keeping them stubble-free.
What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without shaving? Have you ever thought about letting your leg hair be natural? Could you ever commit to having hairy legs? Tell me everything in the comments!
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Body hair on women was a very accepted thing up until the 1920′s. Prior to that decade ALL American women did not shave anywhere on their body. Then the razor blade companies went on a campaign to maximize profits by spreading the lie that leg and underarm hair was “BAD” on women. Women began shaving those areas, but the pubic region remained untouched until the late 1990′s when that lie about body hair spread to the pubic region. This enabled corporations to rake in untold sums on razors, lasers and waxes to satisfy misplaced notions of vanity. Bottom line…the pubic region on both men and women needs to remain unshaven, it was NEVER addressed in the 1920′s as it was a ‘private” area out of public view. Some of the classiest women in history sported full pubic bushes and it is indeed a classic, iconic look on women. It is not “unhygienic”, “bad grooming” or “a 70′s thing”. Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Bettie Page and Elizabeth Taylor all had thick full bushes. Kate Middleton has a full bush and Prince William LOVES it. Leg and underarm hair were never shaven in Europe and it was as accepted as a natural part of a woman’s body. The key is every woman should have CHOICE and not be put down for what she chooses. If you like your legs unshaven, so be it, plenty of men share your like. I am male and I love body hair on women.