54 Women Embrace Natural Body Hair During ‘JanuHairy’ Movement

“There was this time where puberty was just commencing and gifted me a full-blown pube-stache, and to be given a razor to snip it off was a dream. I was thrilled to remove my hair and have baby soft, hairless skin. I was excited to finally be "beautiful". Until this little fantasy turned into a nightmare. Wherein I found myself disgusting. And if I couldn't wax it off, I shaved it all. If I was too lazy to do it, I just wouldn't go out. Because I couldn't look like that when I was going out, could I? I associated myself with something untidy, unpleasant, and loving myself turned into this tedious task because I couldn't. Until I was spotless. I had to be spotless every day. I couldn't miss a patch. I couldn't feel like a "cactus". I couldn't have them calling me a cactus. Because that's how it should be, right? Because that's what they said, that's what they like.
I now know I could. I could grow, and be just the way I am and be loved for it.
I want to grow. And I want you to see.
That I'm done. I'm wild and goddamn free.”

“It’s incredibly validating to see this image Alex took of me shared with the intention to create a conversation how we see hair and femininity. Since this image has started to be shared I’ve gotten a lot of questions around the journey of my body hair. It’s something I’ve run from my entire life until about 3 years ago. To the point where I had developed anxiety around hair & didn’t want to even be around people who had a lot of it too. It was a deep self hatred reinforced through bullying & overall beauty standards. The last day I shaved was actually Valentine’s Day. I was told by my current boyfriend he would never take me anywhere nice with facial, armpit or leg hair so in order to please him I shaved everything so we could “have a nice date”. HE FUCKING DUMPED ME ON THAT DATE. And from that point on I made the decision to NEVER alter my body to appease someone else. That decision was probably one of the best I’ve ever made regarding my relationship with my body. Which only grew stronger when I was starting to be approached about modeling & making adult content. Modeling was something I’d wanted to do since I was a child but when I started maturing I noticed even after shaving how prominent my leg hair was so I literally just didn’t bother before. I grew up hating & hiding a part of my body that now people were LITERALLY worshiping. There are still hateful people yelling what they think of me in public but honestly who doesn’t deal with that? People will always find a reason to dislike who you are & what you’re about. That’s why I hang on to the people who love me & the kind words people send me. There’s also another reason I don’t shave that many don’t think of. I have Lyme Disease which causes chronic fatigue & an overall weakness of the immune system. So it takes a lot of energy for me to shave allll the hair I have that grows SO FAST. And when I did shave I got ingrown hairs & infections all over. My body literally had to deal with more bacteria on it JUST from shaving. This isn’t a PSA to shave or not shave. This is a PSA to choose to do what makes you happiest with your body. Thanks for reading my lil journey.”

‘I stopped shaving my legs about 20 years ago, and have never looked back. my armpits followed about 5 years ago, and they have become one of my new favourite parts of myself! I feel like they add a beautiful splash of colour and texture to my outfit when I wear tank tops, and they are so soft! plus when I shaved my armpits, my right armpit was really hard to reach because I am missing my left hand, so this is way easier! I love showing off my body hair on my youtube show 'Stump Kitchen' because it portrays body diversity and more possibilities for what a woman's body can look like!’

“I have palestinian heritage so I’m really hairy; I hate waxing cuz it’s pain, time and money; and I love my hairy legs cuz they make me feel like a bee (bees have really hairy legs and that’s one of the reasons they are the best pollinators)"

“I went to a red carpet event without shaving my legs!! This may sound really dumb, but it was a big deal for me. I’ve finally gotten to the point where I feel (almost) totally comfortable like this.
I stopped shaving my legs and armpits about a year ago as a practice of self-love. I grew up HATING the hair on my body. I was teased for it, snuck my mom’s razor at age 9, and would pray that god would remove my hair from the neck down. I would panic every time I got invited to go swimming and hadn’t shaved.

When I got pregnant, I decided to work to overcome this insecurity. It’s not about “not believing in shaving”, it’s about believing I AM BEAUTIFUL, ATTRACTIVE AND “FEMININE” NO MATTER WHERE I HAVE HAIR ON MY BODY. It’s about showing girls you don’t have to listen when society tells you your natural features are ugly or gross. It has taken months to get used to it. The horrible online comments don’t help. But I’m getting there.

Remember, if someone has a problem with the way you look, that’s an issue with THEIR mentality, not YOUR body.”

"See me // within it all I never saw myself seen I didn’t know of a language to make it make sense, feel real, to make it stick. surface living to quell the anxieties of not knowing who you are and where you come from. a void is not a dormant soundless hole, it can be a chaotic dissonant space, it can be a vortex at your core that wrings you out and leaves you broken. if I don’t see me, am i real? our stories buried and burned, histories willfully misrecorded, bodies brutalized and distorted. the heavy labor of our existence, the work that works to piece the pieces. our tongues cut, leaving us speechless, their language was never meant for us, our work is our narratives in flux, sounds, words, images, movement that is us. all new but rooted in a knowing that is before us all. even in my younger days where I never knew a world like this could exist for me, I felt a stirring that pushed me forth despite no blueprint or support, whatever that force was I thank it every day, and I work to nourish it."

“I feel powerful and beautiful with my hairy pits. I feel even more powerful when it’s colorful. It makes me feel so powerful knowing that just some hair can cause an uproar, make people uncomfortable or angry. That they cannot stand hair on a woman. We’re all human beings and grow hair for a reason. So why is it okay for men but not women? I don’t think it makes me any less of a woman having it. I feel beautiful, sexy, comfortable, glowing, a goddess with or without it. I don’t care if you like it or not. I don’t care what you have to say on it. I don’t care what anyone thinks on it except me. As long as it makes me happy, that’s what matters.”