Releasing my inner beast!

Domayne

I stopped shaving about 6 months ago - underarms, legs, bikini...everywhere basically.
I decided that, After 15 years, I'm sick of bowing down to societal pressure to remain as smooth as a babies bum.
I'm tired of razor burn. I'm tired of ingrown hairs. I'm tired of scratching like I have some STD after the 1st day. I'M TIRED OF IT ALL!
My mum thinks I'm depressed because I stopped wearing make-up too and bothering to do anything with my hair except shoving it in a bun.
I'm not depressed. I'm just...tired. Tired of being dictated what I should wear, what kind of car I should drive (and the fact that I NEED a car, despite the fact that I live in London and having a car is actually more of a hindrance than a help...congestion, no parking, congestion charge etc etc..) That I should be looking to 'advance' in some kind of career, which I'm not even remotely interested in, That I should be settled down with some guy by now, That I should be thinking of having babies at my age because I'm 'getting on a bit'
T.I.R.E.D
It's taken me until the age of THIRTY to realize that actually, I kinda like my body hair. I don't WANT to shave it. It feels nice to me. I'm not itchy, I have no crazy rashes and ingrown hairs. I feel quite free!
I don't have a bf, but I have a fwb situation who I've been seeing on/off for 11 years now and he is fine with it, he doesn't pressure me to shave or anything.
So my point...Today while I was coming home on the Victoria line, for the first time this year I've felt the need to shed some clothes because it was just too hot. So I took off my cardigan.
While I did, there was 4 guys sitting across from me who must have caught a glimpse of my underarm rug. I then spent a 15 minute journey with them laughing at me because I'm a female who dared to have some hair. They didn't do it discreetly either - then were flat out STARING AT ME AND LAUGHING IN MY FACE. Luckily I don't know what they were saying because they were speaking polish/russian.
Ok, you can think I'm gross. It's your opinion. My best friend told me to my face that it's gross and I need to shave, but it's ok because she's my friend and she is allowed to say that to MY FACE
BUT YOU ARE A FREAKING STRANGER! What right do you have to try and make me feel inferior because I don't fit your beauty ideals?! By all means, when you get out of my face feel free to laugh at me all you want and rip me to shreds, Think I'm bigfoot or whatever, I don't care....but why be so rude about MY body and what I decide to do with it IN MY FACE?
Sorry for the pointless post. Just needed to rant :mad:

Rambosmum

They think it's gross coz society has programmed them to see it as gross- which suggests the size of brains they have if they can't see that. I personally don't like body hair (on either gender) but that's coz I don't like the feel of it, the look doesn't bother me. I quite like the photos of women dying their underarm hair.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Don't worry about it. They're the sort of morons who would have been laughing in your face about the size of your boobs had you been lasered, tanned and polished like a mirror.

The world is full of them. Much like cow pats.

lostinrates

My DH quite likes a bit of underarm hair on a woman. ( I think this is a non British influence) So he marries a woman who just has never grown any. Leg hair on the other hand he's not that fussed for, though when I apologise for not having shaved my legs he says mockingly 'that's not leg hair....' When it very much is.

With the new norm being everything off but eyebrows and lashes, hair is the new kinky. You are living on the edge. Enjoy it.

PuzzledDave

One of the hardest but most liberating things in the world is simply not caring what strangers think of or say of about you. Double points if you can achieve this about negative comments from friends and family.


Suggestion: If a future partner finds it unpleasant, agree to start shaving if they do the same parts they want you to shave. If they stop, you stop too.

Kaye1

Good for you.


I don't shave my legs either. The sky doesn't fall down.


I also find it a bit weird about the whole waxing of the lady bits, so you look like a pre-pubescent child.


I have given birth without pain relief but pull my pubes out without a full anesthetic? No way.

pickledonionspaceraider

Domayne wrote: »

I'm sick of bowing down to societal pressure

If the reason you were 'hair removing' in the first place, was to fit in with society, no wonder you began to resent doing it

I couldn't imagine having hairy pits, but I remove the hair for myself.

I applaud you for doing what makes you comfortable, and ignore those ignorant people

onomatopoeia99

Realising that you don't need to conform to societal pressure over appearance or actions is liberating. Yes some people will consider you odd for refusing to kow-tow to convention, but those that do aren't worth your time, just like anyone that can't accept you as you are.

In my (male) opinion (which I'll probably get shot for or something), the most appealling look for a woman is a natural one. No make up, hair not massively manipulated with rollers / perm/ spray / colours (although some of the really bold, unnatural ones like blues, purples and turquoises can look *amazing*), and in a more intimate setting, with all the hair she's supposed to have in all the places she's intended to have it. At some point since I became an adult, liking a woman to have all her hair became a kink rather than the norm. Well, it's a kink I have, so there

The behaviour of the men on the train was appalling and ignorant and there's no excuse for it.

Ames

I'm about half way there. I do sometimes shave my pits when I'm not able to shower every day, and I shave my increasingly substantial beard (when I remember to check if it's noticable). If I'm wearing an above the knee skirt I shave my legs otherwise not. I've got drip white skin and very dark hair so it's noticable.

I think it's probably 50-50 political stance vs lazyness for me!

marisco_2

Domayne wrote: »

What right do you have to try and make me feel inferior because I don't fit your beauty ideals?!

They didn't have the power to make you feel anything. How you choose to react to them is within your control. If you are totally happy with your decisions, what other people think would not matter a jot.

Elsewhere

If I shave my armpits the sweat trickles down my body - makes me sore - it's nasty - rather than it catching on the hair and evaporating.

And body hair is like cat's whiskers - cut it off and you've cut off one of your senses and one of your protective layers - you can't tell wind direction for instance, or feel a touch before it reaches your skin and you can't fluff up your hair to capture the warm air near your skin to keep you cosy in cold weather.

And I think the sight of healthy skin in the sunshine with the light glinting off the body hair like an aura is most attractive.

I do get rid of my facial hair - PCOS runs in my family and I reckon I could grow a beard to rival Father Christmas if I left it a month. However the NHS says that 1 in 5 women in the UK have PCOS, so if we all left our beards (LOL, we'd probably give the guys an inferiority complex)... Maybe we should join the guys in "Movember"??