‘I’d always tried growing my body hair out,’ recalls Florence Given, ‘but I’d never committed to pushing through the discomfort of the weird looks I’d get until I had my first break-up.’
The author of 2020’s Women Don’t Owe You Pretty – a cultural moment in the book and Instagram worlds alike – adds that this was the moment in she ‘really stopped giving a f*ck’. And so, her armpit hair grew out.
Championing her body hair has helped Florence ‘have more acceptance’ for her body. ‘I also find my body extremely hot when she’s hairy,’ she adds.
It’s 2023, and yet still most shaving adverts depict women shaving already-smooth legs, so it’s no wonder research by Estrid found that 61% of Brits don’t feel represented by the beauty industry.
Their recent campaign, ‘For Human Beauty’, shows people with body hair – Florence being one.
‘It was so amazing to see the campaign’s billboards all over London – I actually couldn’t remember a time where I’ve ever seen hairy women in a billboard campaign like that,’ Florence says.
‘This is how our bodies look like! I want to see it that way. It’s strange that we never see hairy women in campaigns in the first place and I think it’s hard to trust a brand that sells only “perfection”.’
She believes we all need to start questioning why we want to shave in the first place.
Having experienced going ‘cold turkey’ in the throes of heartbreak, the few times she picked up a razor in recent years were when she wanted ‘a fresh bush and soft legs’.
Campaigns like Estrid’s are important in fighting against the stigma around body hair for women, she believes – the more we see something, the more normal it becomes.
But right now, we’re far from reaching that point when strangers won’t give odd looks to those with hairy legs poking out of cropped trousers.
‘I have honestly had a largely positive experience with my body hair, especially when it comes to romance and dating,’ Florence says.
‘No one has ever directly or verbally expressed discomfort with my body hair.
‘I honestly think it’s mostly come in the form of weird looks on public transport, or comments in school from other girls who just put the pressure to conform on you.’
It’s been three years since Women Don’t Owe You Pretty came out, and Florence believes women are still facing the same issues – especially when it comes to beauty standards.
She says: ‘A lot of the beauty rituals we perform are habits and not something innate, something we must do because it’s what “women do”.
‘Over the past few years, particularly because of the pandemic, women had a lot of time to reflect and a lot of stuff came up because of that stillness.
‘Nothing can be changed unless it’s brought into the light and that’s what I hope to do for the rest of my life as I learn along the way too.
‘I think that if women are asking me the same problems over and over it’s because they are seeking a permission slip from an outside source to give them that “go ahead” and honour what they already know to be true.
‘I don’t have the answer, they do, they already know what to do, but often we feel alone on our struggles and women particularly look to other women to judge whether an experience is “normal” or not.
‘That’s what I hope to do with my platform, show that we’re not all alone in what we experience.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2023/05/19/florence-given-i-find-by-body-extremely-hot-when-shes-hairy-18799468/
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