This article explores the societal pressures on women to remove body hair, particularly underarm hair. Drawing from personal experience, the author reflects on the history of hair removal practices and the influence of advertising campaigns like Gillette's.
Growing up in the 1980s, all the teenage girls I knew shaved their legs and armpits as soon as they could. I was 15 when I started. I borrowed one of mum’s razors without her knowing and dry shaved my calves. I can still remember the beads of blood forming after I nicked the skin, and how surprised I was that the hair started growing back so quickly. Amazingly, I didn’t meet a woman with visible underarm hair until I was backpacking across Europe in my late teens.
I stayed in youth hostels where everyone seemed more confident than me about getting changed in the dorms, and many of my fellow travellers were surprised that I still shaved. I stopped shaving my legs and underarms when I had children. I wasn’t intending to stop. Initially it was an act of laziness during the winter months but, when summer came around, I found I’d grown attached to the growth of wispy hairs. Now I wish that I’d never started shaving, because then my armpit hair would be thick and wiry instead of fluffy and thin. I like the feeling of having hair under my arms. I like the way it looks when I wear bathers. I like catching sight of it when I’m slopping around at home in a singlet and pyjama pants. And I like having the choice.Women’s bodies have long been politicised in ways that men’s have not. And we can thank Gillette and the launch of their campaign urging women to remove unsightly hair from their bodies for helping to popularise the desire for hairless female skin. Like all advertising campaigns, this was designed as a way to sell a product. In this case, it was the first safety razor for wome
Body Hair Shaving Social Norms Advertising Feminism
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