Shaving our legs is something many take for granted, something that many see as normal and even preferable for women. But should shaving be viewed as natural? Endless time, money, and effort is spent to remove something that ultimately will grow back. What does a beautiful woman have to look like? Would you ever choose not to shave? Maybe not, but I think you should at least consider it. Here’s why:
Why I don’t shave my legs…
I don’t shave my legs. I haven’t shaved my legs since 2015. Yet there were around five years or so where I did shave my legs – so what happened?
The answer doesn’t start with feminism, it started with me being lazy. My senior year of high school, I stopped routinely shaving my legs during the winter. This wasn’t a conscious choice, I just wanted to save some time in the shower when I was wearing pants in the cold weather and no one would be seeing my legs.
When the holidays came, I decided I would shave my legs because I wanted to wear a dress and didn’t want the criticism of my hairy legs from my family.
I reveled in the silky smoothness of my just-shaved legs and went about my life without a second thought. But then, a couple days later, the hair started to grow back. It grew back in sharp, prickly stubble— to my surprise, I really started to miss my long, soft leg hair that had been growing before I shaved it. I missed the hair!
What a strange and surprising feeling. For the next few months, I chose not to shave my legs— even into the warm summer months. The following Christmas, I kept my legs unabashedly hairy, and now it’s nearly been three years without a single purchase of a razor.
My leg hair has become something I love about my body. It is soft and comforting, and I feel proud of the hair, like my own personal garden of wildflowers growing on my legs.
What had started as a decision that stemmed from laziness became a decision of personal choice.
And as the saying goes, the personal is political. Actress Mayim Bialik, in her article on why she doesn’t shave, notes “if we never told girls to shave, would they? If we modeled a cultural acceptance of our body hair, would they spontaneously feel the need to remove it weekly, monthly, or daily?”
Why I don’t think you should shave your legs either…
Honestly, why do women shave their legs or any other part of their body? It’s time and energy consuming, and it actually costs more than you think!
This article estimates that women that shave (not to mention those who wax or use other hair removal methods) spend more than 70 days of their life shaving and $5,000 in a lifetime on shaving razors and cream.
If you decide to stop shaving your legs or other regions of your body, you save time, money, and effort, but it can be hard for many women to face the negative social stigma that surrounds leg hair. However, the more women that decide not to shave means that gradually it may become more socially acceptable to see female leg hair as normal, and even beautiful.
Recently a photo of a girl with her leg hair went viral. It turns out that the photo is of Morgan Mikenas, a fitness blogger who had decided to make the conscious decision to stop shaving.
It’s time we hear and understand these words and apply it to our own lives, start re-defining beauty, and make conscious decisions about what we do with our bodies and why we do them.
Try not to shave. See how it makes you feel.
If you end up being really uncomfortable with leg hair, that’s O.K. We need to create a world where women’s choices about their bodies are respected—whether you choose to shave or not.
A personal note…
I was actually a late-bloomer when it came to shaving my legs. I didn’t start shaving until into my eighth grade year—and some of the pressure leading to my decision to shave came from being bullied for my leg hair.
Since I have made the decision to not shave my legs, I have never received an out-rightly disgusted or negative response to my leg hair. Most people probably don’t even notice, and if they do, they don’t say anything. My friends approve, my mother doesn’t but still accepts my decision, and my sisters think of me as the quirky family feminist.
However, does some of this non-response or acceptance come from the fact that my leg hair is light in color, and therefore not as noticeable? Do women with darker or thicker leg hair have a harder time finding acceptance?
The answer is yes, and yet there are beautiful women that embrace their dark leg hair as part of their ethnic identity and grow it proudly. Ayqa Khan is a Pakistani-American that uses art and social media to spread the message of women of color feeling beautiful and proud of their body hair.
You don’t have to shave your legs to be beautiful.
Shaving your legs isn’t always about feminism, it can be about convenience and efficiency. Shaving your legs is about making a choice. Don’t let anyone tell you that natural parts of your body are gross and should be removed or changed. Those decisions belong to you.