Have you ever wondered why women shave more than most men? Epilation should only be a woman’s choice, but it can generate many controversies. A woman who decides not to shave is considered to be dirty, sloppy and ugly, but the truth is that body hair does not harm hygiene or health. Growing hair on your private partes, legs or armpit has its function within the body as they are responsible for regulating temperature and for additional protection against physical damage to the skin and infections, in addition to facilitating the secretion of sweat, fats and pheromones. But then, where does the belief that women should shave their bodies come from?
- The historical reason
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Epilation is something that comes from antiquity, in Ancient Egypt wax was already used for it. But from the 20th century, the practice began to be more imposing on women than men. With the insertion of women in the job market, the fashion has changed. The dresses lost their sleeves, to allow more movements, and the hair of the female armpits caused strangeness to society. The creation of mini skirts and mini shorts also made people think that women’s legs needed to be hairless, and then the female razor blade and the epilation service started to be commercialized.
- “I started to feel less angry about my body hair”
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“I remember when I was younger my body hair started to appear and my mother started taking me to remove it with wax, she said they were very ugly, so I grew up with it in mind”. The Law student, Maria Beatriz da Fonseca, 21, tells us. She says that she always had an angry relationship with her body hair. However, she chose to stop waxing. The student says she was always worried about the consequences of waxing her body, and her boyfriend was a great supporter at the beginning. “He said that people shouldn’t pay attention to that”.
From the middle of 2019, after discovering that body hair removal can cause inflammation in the vaginal glands, the student stopped shaving the vulva. “Since then I started to feel less angry about my body hair, but I was very careful not to show that I had it”. The quarantine also helped her in this process, Maria Beatriz says that as she spent more time at home she realized that the only person who had problems with her body hair was her mother. “I stopped shaving completely five moths and I’m very well with it”. The young woman has an Instagram profile (@dfuriousfemme) dedicated to feminism and proposes conversations on topics related to women and society such as body hair.
Maria Beatriz also points out that this relationship created on top of female body hair derives from esthetic patterns. “We grow up thinking that we have to shave, because boys think shaved girls are more beautiful. And boys grow up hearing that shaved girls are cleaner, more educated and careful”, she analyzes.
The student says that a major milestone in the process of stopping body hair removal was to let the fluff grow. “I see how I thought I was ugly with this type of hair, which is actually not even a thing that appears a lot”. She believes that this thought comes from a root of dirt and sloppiness that causes fear. “We are afraid to put on a T-shirt, go out on the street and somebody says something rude about the hair that is coming out of the armpit”. But even though it is very complicated, Maria Beatriz believes that the more you progress, even in baby steps, it is always good for the naturalness of the body.
- “I see these women as free people”
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“For me it’s a personal choice, they are just people who don’t want to shave. “I see these women as free people”, says Ana Ferrari, president of the Lisandra Feminist Front, a collective at the Cásper Líbero College. The 19 year old young women believes that many people relate hair removal to feminine hygiene, but she also believes that progress is being made in relation to women’s hair removal. “Currently, I think there has been a lot of progress in this requirement to shave. Our mothers’ time had an obligation that women did not have to have hair on their bodies, it was an unhygienic thing, which was not aesthetically pleasing to women. Nowadays I have seen women who have let go of this taboo. ” Ana does not deny that this practice is still very stigmatized, but she sees a transformation. She points out that debates are building that lead to the idea that hair removal is a choice, that hair is natural, common on anyone’s body, including women.
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The article above was edited by Beatriz Cristina.
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