Celebs Embrace Their Body Hair

Desire to fit in can override the desire to let hair grow

Celebrities are increasingly embracing their body hair and telling the public to deal with it. Women do, of course, always have the choice whether or not they want to remove their own body hair. Still, when nearly every image in the media that features women portray females without body hair, the desire to fit in can override the desire to let hair grow. In 2015, a study found that 99 percent of American women remove their body hair at some point in their lives, with 85 percent of women doing so daily. With female hairlessness serving as the norm, the societal pressure can make women feel like they have few choices.

Another poll conducted by British beauty brand Escentual found that women spend an average of 72 days shaving over the course of their lives. That’s 1,728 hours a lifetime. Things are beginning to change, though. A 2017 study showed that nearly 25 percent of women between the ages of 16 and 24 chose not to shave their armpit hair. Some celebrities have embraced their body hair as well. Singer Miley Cyrus posted a picture to her Instagram in 2015 where she rocked hot pink armpit hair, while actress Thandie Newton openly talked about keeping her body hair natural for nude scenes in “Westworld.”

But despite a recent shift in support of body hair positivity, there’s still a lot of progress to be made. Here’s what a TMZ reporter had to say about Madonna’s armpit hair… “Let’s just throw up a little bit together, okay?” It’s something that’s entirely optional based on personal preference, therefore the decision to do so, or not to do so, is at the liberty of the individual in question, and this is something that other industries need to realize in order to adopt a more inclusive genderless language that celebrates the diversity of attitudes that people have towards body hair.

Brut.