Bras are supposedly a girl’s best friend. Every woman who wears bras has their favorite, that bra they haven’t washed in a couple weeks to avoid not getting to wear it. But then there are the women who choose to go without, living free from the entrapment of the bra.
I can tell you confidently that I’ve lived in both worlds, and I want to discuss the pros and cons of each one.
THE PROS AND CONS OF WEARING Bras
Pros:
- Support: If you have a bigger chest, then you know that a bra is the only way to ease the back and chest pains that come from walking or running.
- Coverage: Especially if you catch a “nippy” breeze.
- Compliance with societal norms: Sometimes you just don’t want someone to notice that you aren’t wearing one.
Cons:
- Too tight, or too loose: Everyone who wears bras knows that awful feeling of your boob slipping out of the bra pad, or the better feeling of finally taking it off so you can actually breathe. And if the bra rubs weird and creates a rash… don’t get me started on that uncomfortable possibility.
- Underwire and strap lines: After you take off your bra (especially if it’s too tight), the blaring red lines on your shoulders or under-boob look and feel horrific! I swear the pain grows when I realize just how tight the bra strap really was.
- Size variation from store to store: The worst part of bras is finding your size! Every store has such different ideas of what a 32D or a 38F are. A 32D could be a completely different size going from Victoria’s Secret to Target.
- Expensive: What do you mean I only bought 2 bras, and somehow my bill is $60?
THE PROS AND CONS OF GOING BRALESS
Pros:
- Freedom!: That freeing feeling you get when the bra comes off at the end of the night is no more with bralessness. Now you can feel that every day!
- For smaller chests, it’s easier to move around without extra fabric: I’m part of the “itty bitty titty committee” and when I started going braless, it was so relieving to stretch and move around without worrying my bra would slip or rub or move in a weird way.
- For bigger chests, no pressure from the push up support: When you have a bigger bust or are just starting to develop breasts, the tightness of bras can feel suffocating. Going braless means you don’t have to worry whether you can breathe or not throughout the day.
- Save money: I’ve said it before: bras are expensive. You don’t have to worry about the price when you aren’t going to wear it anyways.
Cons:
- Runners’ nipple: Yes, it’s a thing! If you’re not aware of the bleeding/rawness caused by your shirt rubbing against your nipples, well… now you are. When I started running, I had to buy a sports bra just to keep them from hurting.
- Uncomfortable/embarrassing at first: It’s hard to get into the habit of not wearing a bra, especially if you’ve worn one most of your life. The first week I went braless, I remember feeling so embarrassed, sure that everyone could tell I wasn’t wearing one. I would go back to bras between braless days just to have a sense of emotional support.
- Too much awareness: Remember when you hit puberty and suddenly realized you had breasts, and could always feel whether you had a bra on or not? The same thing happens when you go braless for the first time, except you can always tell that you’re not wearing a bra. For a little while, going braless will make you much more conscious of your chest.
Bras vs. Braless: Who Won?
Neither!
What matters is your overall comfortability and whether bras, braless, or something in between works best for you. Only you can know what works and what doesn’t for your body.
To avoid the usual underwire in traditional bras, I switched to bralettes, a mix of the bra and the tank top. Bralettes are comfy, don’t make my back or chest hurt by the end of the day, and don’t result in raw strap or underwire lines, but they still give me the freeing feeling with the comfort of protection and coverage.
Even if I do wear a type of bra now, I would still recommend it to anyone. Going braless set me free from societal pressure and the torture of traditional bras. The years that I spent braless made me feel powerful and feminine.
So give it a try. Even if you go braless for only a day, it’s still worth the freedom.