Hair down there, don’t care

Growing up, I sometimes felt like I was the only one dealing with changing body-related things. Case in point: pubic hair. For some reason I was convinced no other girl my age had to trim that region down below.

This may sound a bit strange, but I don’t have any sisters nor did I grow up in a naked household, and as a (sensitive) teenager I never had the courage to ask my friends about their hair-down-there experience. As a result I spent the majority of my teenager years avoiding the pool and wearing a lot of grandma-style knickers.

I tried to find answers in other places though, in fashion magazines for example. And sure, they often write about the latest trends in shaving/waxing/laser treatments, but rarely do they spend much time on the region in between the legs. To make things worse, models in said magazines NEVER seem to have any hair whatsoever anywhere on their body below the neck, nor pores for that matter. Yet somehow they all have the perfectly styled hair of a Greek goddess on their head.

So anxiety. Feeling very alone and very hairy.

Of course my personality has something to do with my lack of communication about these feelings, but I’m pretty sure society played a big part as well. It has a knack for making us feel unnatural in our most natural state. Weird in the body we have been given, making it very difficult to feel and see the beauty of it all.

If all the images we ever see around us are of the beautiful hairless ladies in fashion magazines and porn movies, and on top of that we read articles about the increasingly popular trend to turn to cosmetic surgery to look ‘better’ down there, then how on earth are we expected to love ourselves as we are, in all our different shapes and sizes?

There is something so unnerving about all that picture perfect smoothness, surreal in a way you can’t even grasp, and at the same time it looks like a possibility, and thus an obligation, to look the same way. And so you end up feeling bad for having some more… structure. A pimple, a hair, even for having a birthmark. Realness. It’s a mindfuck all the way.

That is why I look up to women who aren’t afraid to let it all grow, whether it be down there, or on the legs, or anywhere else really… I think in our society that is very brave.

I would love for young girls growing up to see more images of women in all their wonderful variety – hair and all. Images they can relate to so they don’t have to feel weird or different when all they are is beautiful and normal.

Of course, I’m all for having the option of shaving/waxing/tweaking whatever and wherever you want, if that is what you choose to do. Yay for free choice and variety! But what I am very much against is the shaming of women who choose not to do it, especially if the only reason for all that very painful waxing is first and foremost to please a partner.

He can’t handle a little hair down there? Can’t handle much anywhere!

So, let’s try to celebrate each other and ourselves more, in all our beautiful natural uniqueness and perfect imperfections.