Pull Your Hair Out

In response to my request to 

Veet 

Asking them to remove their ads

Purporting that hairiness will turn a woman into a man

My friend wrote about 

“The poor girl 

With the hair on her upper lip”

Poor 

As in tragic, bad, ugly

Because she was born into a society

That deems body hair

On women

Ugly, unwanted, uncool

Unfeminine 

I read a book as a child 

The story of a baby

From the baby’s perspective 

Where 

Daddy = hairy

Mummy = smooth 

And I thought 

Well, I’ll never be a mother 

At least not the quintessential one

Because I’m not smooth

I am hairy

And I grew up in a family

Where that was a bad thing

Hair = Ugly 

And must be shaved off 

Gotten rid of

My body was a place of shame and disgust

This notion reinforced by 

Magazines, films, music videos where

Women did not have hair

And those who did

Were Unattractive 

Or Hippies or Deviants and Therefore

Socially. Unacceptable. 

And for someone who is 

Naturally hairy

That is utterly, utterly crushing

It made me nervous to go swimming

Terrified to wear a bikini

“But you’re so skinny! Show off your body!”

I could never say why I was afraid

Being hairy was less than womanly, less than feminine 

Less than human 

We live in a world

Where there exists a 

Multi-billion dollar industry

For the removal of hair

Waxes, razors, lazers

Bleaches 

Lotions, creams, gels

Epilators, tweezers

And sprays 

To serve the purpose of 

“Looking Good”

There was a magazine

In the University Women’s Room 

(A safe space for women)

That someone had defaced

By drawing hair on the models

Adding in eyebrow hairs

Underarm hairs

And sprouting pubic hairs 

And I thought it was shocking

That someone would do that 

Hair was Ugly. Inappropriate. 

Distressing. 

Let me say this

Because no one ever said it to me

In varying degrees of

Darkness, thickness, and density 

Women. Have. Hair. 

On our heads 

On our legs, on our arms

On our hands

On our knuckles 

On our feet 

On our bellies 

On our lower backs

On our nipples

On our pubic bone

In our underarms

On our upper lips 

Sometimes even from the chin

And cheeks. 

Women. Have. Hair. 

It is not ugly.

It is convention, history, and the desire to control women’s bodies

And what happens in them and on them

That states that hair on women, in particular places, is ugly. 

Hairiness does not make you less attractive

Hairiness does not make you a failure at life

Hairiness does not denote how feminine or masculine you are

It exists.

And it is a Woman’s. Personal. Choice. 

Whether she wants to get rid of it or not. 

Stubble on her legs 

Does not make her manly. 

Hair on her upper lip

Does not make her ugly, unfeminine, or unworthy

If your judgements on a human being

Go no further than the presence of hair

I ask you to please

Re-assess. 

The world is full of far more important things

Worth pulling your hair out for 

The end. 

For an amazing story about dealing with hair, go here.