The Hairy Truth: Why I Stopped Shaving and Started Questioning the Norm

Growing up in a small town with extremely hot summers, I loved wearing skirts as a kid. They were pretty, airy, and convenient. However, I stopped wearing them as soon as puberty hit. Suddenly, I had a new concern: the prospering hair on my legs.

At first, I didn’t understand what was “wrong” with my body hair. I have always been proud of the thick hair on my head and my eyebrows. People actually compliment me on them constantly! But when I wore a skirt and displayed the natural hair on my legs, those same people gave me weird looks. Feeling ashamed, I spent a small fortune on hair removal products. I cut myself with razors and had allergic reactions to hair removal creams. Yet, my hair continued to thrive.

Eventually, I felt like I “had to” give up. But I couldn’t stop wondering: why didn’t my male peers have this trouble? For them, body hair was a sign of growing up and hitting maturity. It wasn’t something to be ashamed of. Why does body hair, once it grows below the eyebrows, become “gross” for women?

Try this: type “body hair” into a search engine or social media bar and see what comes up. From my experience, the content is almost exclusively about how to remove it, featuring endless products claiming to wipe it away without harm. When we are bombarded by these commercials, you can’t blame anyone for believing that women ought to shave their legs, or else they are just being lazy. But behind these commercials normalizing the “hairless” woman, there is a deeper history.

Although body hair removal feels like a strict rule for women today, this wasn’t always the case. For example, shaving legs and underarms wasn’t a requirement for US women prior to 1915. Almost no one did it, largely because fashion at the time covered so much of the body. It wasn’t until the 1920s and 30s that smooth skin became a beauty standard. Before that shift, paying too much attention to shaving was actually seen as scandalous or “immodest.” In fact, some people thought it was immoral because the only women removing body hair back then were dancers who showed off more skin than was considered decent (Hope, 1982).

The shift of public consensus was driven in part by advertising campaigns from “beauty experts” in the 1930s, alongside the rise of skimpier fashions. Hair removal quickly transformed into a “social convention” for women (Toerien & Wilkinson, 2003). A survey of over 200 US women conducted in the 1990s showed that the vast majority (around 80%) removed their leg or underarm hair at least occasionally. The study found two main reasons for shaving: to feel feminine/attractive, and to fit in with social norms (Basow, 1991).

Today, the pressure to be hairless is still everywhere. We are so used to seeing smooth skin in the media that when someone breaks the rule, people get upset. A famous example is when Julia Roberts walked a red carpet with unshaved underarms. The media was so focused on her body hair that they completely ignored her starring role in the movie (Day, 2024). We can see a clear transition in public opinion from “removing hair is immoral” to “hairlessness is the norm.” Effectively, altering a woman’s body has become a social arrangement that distinguishes women from men, subject to patriarchal interpretations of what a woman should look like (Toerien & Wilkinson, 2003).

Many women worry that having body hair makes them less feminine, but biology tells a different story. Hair growth (even on the face) isn’t just a “guy thing.” In fact, scientists have a hard time defining exactly what counts as “abnormal” hair growth for women. Research shows that perfectly healthy women often grow dark, coarse hair in the same places men do. What’s even more confusing is that some doctors diagnose “hirsutism” (excessive hair growth) based solely on whether the hair embarrasses the woman, rather than on a specific hair count. This suggests that our obsession with hairlessness isn’t about health or biology. It is mainly about social pressure (Toerien & Wilkinson, 2003).

(Georgia Day, Vogue / Mark Cuthbert, Getty Images)

For many girls, picking up a razor for the first time is a major rite of passage, much like a teenage boy shaving his first peach fuzz. But there is a huge difference in why they start. While boys are usually counting down the days until they can shave, girls are often pushed into it before they are ready. Many women recall that they actually had zero interest in shaving until a parent or friend dropped a hint that it was “time” to start (Basow, 1991). I was definitely one of those uninterested girls. I didn’t want to spend my time and money getting rid of my hair. I don’t know about you, and of course, you have the freedom to choose what you do with your body. But I hope my story can serve as a reference, if you are also tired of “managing” your body hair. Once I confirmed I was healthy (no PCOS!)1 through medical checks and realized that hairlessness is just a sociocultural construct, I stopped shaving and let my hair grow. I’m proud of my hair now, and I will continue to wear skirts during the summer, letting my legs breathe without hurting them, just like most of my male peers do.

1PCOS: Polycystic ovary syndrome is a common condition affecting how ovaries function. Doctors typically diagnose it if you have at least two of these three main symptoms: irregular periods, enlarged ovaries with fluid-filled sacs (which aren’t actually cysts), or high levels of “male” hormones. It is those high hormone levels that often lead to increased facial or body hair (https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/polycystic-ovary-syndrome-pcos/).

References

Basow, S. (1991). Women and their body hair. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 15, 83-96. https://doi.org /10.1111/j.1471-6402.1991.tb00479.x

Day, G. (2024). Julia Roberts remembers that “scandalous” underarm hair moment. Vogue. https://www.vogue.com/article/julia-roberts-remembers-that-scandalous-underarm-hair-moment

Hope, C. (1982). Caucasian female body hair and American culture. Journal of American Culture, 5, 93-99. https://doi.org /10.1111/j.1542-734X.1982.0501_93.x

Toerien, M., & Wilkinson, S. (2003). Gender and body hair: Constructing the feminine woman. Women's Studies International Forum, 26(4), 333-344. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-5395(03)00078-5