“Let me buy you a razor, honey.”
This is only one of the many things I’ve heard since I entered adolescence at the young age of eleven. Hair was growing everywhere; my legs, vagina, neck, arms, and belly. I didn’t ask for it, but my body was made that way. My body is still made that way. And so, even with shaving my body was still prickly and I always felt like an outcast.
Ostracized by my own peers through middle and high school, I found that the only way to be accepted was to take a razor to my skin and remove the hair. Sometimes there would be cuts and nicks, but it didn’t matter as long as I was accepted by my peers.
I am 20 years old now. I stopped caring about shaving at the age of 18, although I had never really cared all that much to begin with. It was mostly the ideas of others ingrained in my mind of the idea that women need to shave everything but their heads.
This article will contain the answers to many questions, answered by women and those who may not identify with any gender, that ask: Why don’t you shave? What are the harmful things people have said? What does femininity mean to you?
I am Nicole Ouimette, age 20 and I rarely shave because my hairy body makes me who I am and and I prefer to live outside gender norms, rather than adhere to society’s beauty standards. Although, I understand why many would do it.
Camille Cassingham, 19 who stopped shaving at 16 tells why she stopped shaving:
I realized that not shaving was an option. It slowly dawned on me that it was unfair that girls have to shave all over their bodies and boys don’t. Then it became a conscious decision and I stopped shaving all together.
Olivia Burton, 21 stopped shaving last summer and explains why she stopped shaving:
I don’t like shaving. It takes a long time and wastes water. It’s unnecessarily expensive and capitalistic.
Lydia Nelson, 20 stopped shaving earlier this year and tells their story of not shaving:
I realized there wasn’t a point to shave. I don’t care if people think of me as masculine and I don’t see why males don’t have to shave when females do.
People can be cruel, especially when an individual doesn’t adhere to norms and mores that society has set up for us. These can have damaging affects on young women and men’s self esteem, but the following women have triumphed in the face of insecurity.
Lauren Dobinson, 22 who stopped shaving at 17 tells what has been said to her as a result of not shaving:
People will stare or take a second look, guys at the bars will say “ewww” and call me disgusting.
Emma Vroom, 17 who stopped shaving at 17 explains what family members have said to her after she decided to stop shaving:
They [family members] have told me I am gross and that people won’t be attracted to me.
Katie Roeth, 20 who stopped shave at 14 describes names she has been called from a result of not shaving:
I get called disgusting, gross, dirty, unhygienic, a heathen, a hippie, a bum, a boy, a tree hugger, an amazon woman.
Then, there is the attack of one’s femininity as a result of not shaving. I’m less of a woman, more of a man. I have “manly” arms, legs, stomach, neck. But what exactly is femininity? Who decides what is feminine and what isn’t? The following women answer just that question.
Hannah Russell, 19 who stopped shaving earlier this year says on femininity:
It’s more like a feeling than a set of qualities and behaviors.
Heather Smith, 21 who never really started shaving says feminity:
It [femininity[ isn’t an outward appearance, but rather a state of mind.
Lauren Dobinson says on femininity:
There are a lot more ways to be feminine than the socially constructed definition. I view it more as a spectrum instead of key ideas or characteristics.
Being ostracized by your peers can hurt a lot, but it really doesn’t have to. You can be self confident in your own skin, hair or no hair. It’s really great to have a support system, either from your friends or family.
Everyone is beautiful. No one is ugly. And it’s time to stop letting people put us down based on our physical appearances. Those shouldn’t jabs to our self esteem, they should be passing comments that go through one year and out the other.
Love your body. Love yourself.
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