#superhairylegs

Earlier this year, I conducted a 7-month-long self discovery experiment on not shaving. I kept my legs covered most of the time but I really wanted to push myself through the uncomfortable feeling and feel normal in my natural state! I just really wanted to fight the stupid gendered and unnecessary bull that is expected of females. And so I did. I went out multiple times, leg hair on display, and gained confidence each time. I’ve never really made an effort to keep my legs bare but this was the next step up. I am a firm believer in all people being able to make their own decisions on their bodies.  Think body hair is gross? Blame society, blame the media, make your own decision. Question the way your mind works, fight what you know. I was made fun of for my body hair from 2nd grade on–2nd grade! My arms were quite hairy so I would wear a sweater every day in the hot classroom until I was questioned by a teacher about it. I started shaving my legs and underarms in 5th grade. I started waxing my eyebrows when I was in 6th or 7th grade. In 8th grade my friends made fun of my belly fuzz so I started shaving that too. Why do so few people see this as an issue? Why should a 7 year old girl have to focus covering up her arms and overheat rather than learn in the classroom? Why does a 12 year old girl have to worry so much about keeping her eyebrow groomed or else somebody will comment on it? It’s disgusting. The only reason I ever removed any hair on my body was either because I WAS made fun of, or I was worried I WOULD be made fun of. Because being hairless is the norm. I always hated shaving and in high school I only did it every once in a while or when I was going to wear shorts. I remember a classmate seeing short hairs poke out of the hole on my jeans and calling it gross. I shrugged it off at that point although it still made me uncomfortable. After high school, I removed hair even less frequently. I shave every once in a while now but that’s the whole point of it. Do whatever the hell you want and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. And for those who try to tell you that body hair is unlovable, tell them they can screw off. I’ve had a partner that has loved me in all of my naturalness for the better part of the last decade. Do what you want.

I finally got the chance to submit my legs to this awesome blog! I’ll tell a little about my life with shaving/having hairy legs.

So I’ve always hated shaving. I find it so pointless. I do like the feeling of shaved legs but it’s totally not worth it. I have pcos which is polycystic ovarian syndrome. This syndrome causes cysts on the ovaries as well as weight gain, excessive body hair, and other symptoms. I’ve always had a hairy body but when I was diagnosed with this, I noticed even more body hair. I get hair on my feet, stomach, face, chest, and pretty much everywhere and there’s a lot of it.

I honestly don’t care anymore about shaving. Part of the reason is because of my depression and it being really hard to do anything at all. I now have decided to not care about shaving anymore. I have a tattoo on my leg and I know now that it is not going to look worse because of hair. Men naturally have leg hair too and they wouldn’t be told to shave because it makes their tattoos look bad. I’m at peace with my body hair now and hope that others can learn that it’s okay to not shave.

Anyways I wrote a lot but I hope it helps add to the blog!

41 days of not shaving anymore. I haven’t even seen let alone legitimately met another girl who is doing this in person yet. And the reactions from my best friend and my brother (people I’m closest to and thought I would get a more vivacious response from) have been lackluster at best… found this blog and just made a tumblr literally so I could follow it, cause I could really use some genuine enthusiasm and support right now . I was shaving every day from 10 years old until a little over a month ago (I’m 22 now) and I have never ever felt comfortable unshaved for even more than several hours when my legs would start to feel prickly again and catch on the material of my pants and stuff. I would feel so physically uncomfortable sometimes it would make me cry but shaving too often would too because I have super duper sensitive skin… perhaps that’s why the feeling of them being prickly has always seemed to bother me so much more than any other females I’ve ever met. The longest I had ever gone without shaving before this was 5 days when I was 14 in eighth grade and it was only because I was in bed with Swine Flu (lol). So I decided to stop doing this to try to see if I can get to a state where my legs are comfortable all the time (which is impossible when I’m shaving them because of how intensely them being prickly bothers me and how they become prickly within four hours of shaving so there’s barely anytime to even enjoy the soft feeling) and because I highly resent the fact that I am stuck now in a state of physical discomfort that is very hard for me to resolve for myself all because I was made to start changing how I am naturally or “normally” when I was a fricken little girl BECAUSE I was a girl. There is nothing that isn’t fucked up about that to me, to feel now like I had not been given the choice of growing up with leg hair and then as an adult deciding to shave it if I wanted to. I definitely do not feel like most of us or at least a lot more of us would choose to shave as adults if we were allowed to without judgment grow as children and teenagers without needing to modify our appearances because of our gender, because perhaps we would feel no need to, perhaps it would feel so comfortable and normal and attractive and feminine at our basal states to have the body hair we literally all have that no one or fewer people would want to… In my experience regarding shaving as a little girl I was totally being made to feel like it was a behavior that girls HAVE to learn how to do, a behavior as essentially feminine as learning how to put a tampon in. My mother was completely shaming of women who don’t shave one thing or another or even who haven’t shaved in a few days or a week, and she still is. And I’m honestly terrified for her to see me now that I stopped. And I’m still waiting for the time when it feels completely comfortable because I still have like really short prickly hairs all over in addition to the really furry parts now lol. But I guess ultimately I’m posting here because even if this was easy or silly for some people to start and stop doing whenever they felt like it (I envy you so much that’s so awesome) this is really really really hard for me. I feel like this is what a therapist would tell me to do to try to begin resolving my intrapersonal troubles that I trace back to both my relationship with my mother, and my probable obsessive compulsive amplification of my chronic pain and chronic physical discomfort. LOL so basically my point is that this feels really intense to me and it’s also very important to me. But friends and family wise I kind of feel alone in it… so I guess I’m saying all this cause I could really use some likeminded acquaintances right now. Thank you for reading.