I grew up being told female body hair was gross by boys, but stopped shaving at 24 and now I love the way it looks
AFTERSHAVE? More like an afterthought for women who don’t care about societal expectations towards body hair.
One such woman revealed that she stopped shaving at 24 and hasn’t looked back since.
Sierra (@schultzzie) shared her thoughts in a video with over 300,000 TikTok followers.
She explained that in her youth growing up, shaving was not optional.
“It was mandatory, it was something that needed to be done, female body hair was gross and shameful and unfeminine and it needed to be dealt with and hidden away,” she said.
The ideology led her to shave nearly every day up until she was 24 when the pandemic hit.
Due to Covid-19, she was seeing fewer people and decided to film a YouTube video about her experience of not shaving for 30 days.
“Little did I know, that video would completely change my views on shaving,” she said.
“I realized that I wasn’t shaving for me at all and I like my body hair, I like the way it looks and I don’t mind the way it feels.”
She realized after filming the video that she was still “carrying around middle school boy stigma” about her body hair.
“The thing is, my hair grows naturally on my body in the same way that this grows naturally on my head,” she said, lifting her arms to show off her armpit hair.
“Why is this feminine and this is not when both are a part of me as a woman?” she asked, tugging at the strands of hair on her head.
On top of the double standard that shaving has for women and men, Sierra was encouraged to let go of shaving when her husband said he didn’t mind her body hair either.
Since her realization, she no longer holds herself to intense shaving routines: “You can fall in between, it’s your body, you’re the boss of it, you can do whatever you want, shave if you want to,” she said.
People took to the comments to share their thoughts: “I love that you are taking back and owning your own anatomy!” said one commenter.
Many were inspired by her take: “I think I might grow my arm hair out again because of this video. I’m so tired of shaving them,” said another.