This past weekend, Funmie and I attended a couple of events. At one of the events, our friend – a guy – was there and we all chatted and laughed together. He introduced us to a girl as his wife. He said it jokingly, so I didn’t know if he was serious or not. But each time he said something like, “This is my wife …” she’d look at us and just look away. And I’m thinking, ah ah, warris the problem? Are we dragging boyfriend?
I didn’t even look at her face very well, as there was nothing remarkable about it. However, because of the way she was sitting, I could see her arm pits. And all I saw was long, black, curly hairs. In the name of all things good, noooo! See, if you’re going to be having an attitude like that, the least you can do is shave your pits. Without even knowing her, I already felt like she might smell bad.
I know that the issue of women shaving their hairs (arm pits, vagina, legs) is somewhat controversial – silly, I know. Some feminists people believe that women should not be made to feel like shaving their hair is a must, or that not shaving their hair makes them somehow less feminine. Whatever. For me, I am most comfortable without a lot of hair. I will not sit here and tell you that at any given moment in my life, I am completely hairless everywhere.
My feeling about body hair is simple: less is more. I’ll admit that it’s easy for me to say that less is more because naturally, I already have less hair than the average person. My parents aren’t hairy either. I don’t know if my father has hair on his legs, but I know that my mom doesn’t. If she does, the hairs are so few and fine that you don’t even feel them.
So you might disagree with me, but I really think that hairless pits look better on a woman. On a man, however, I’m okay with a little hair. Key word here is little. I don’t want him to look like there’s a lion’s mane trapped under his arms, but a little hair is okay.
Speaking of pit hair, there’s a campaign called, Armpits4August. It’s going on right now as we speak from August 1st to August 31st. It’s for women and people with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). “Participants grow underarm hair for one month, and ask friends and family to sponsor them to raise money for Verity, the charity for people with PCOS.”
You must be thinking what I’m thinking: why the heck do people have to grow armpit hair to raise money? Well, one of the symptoms of this illness is excessive hair growth. So when people deliberately grow their hair in order to show support, it’s kind of like how you shave your head to support someone going through chemotherapy. But there is more. They also believe that society has placed a ridiculous standard of beauty on women, making them go against what is otherwise natural: hair in pits.
Growing my armpit hair for a cause? I ain’t about that life. But if this is something you may be interested in, then you can find out more about it here. Feel free to send in a picture of your pit hair for blog publication.
How do y’ll feel about pit hair?
Picture source: Daily Record
![On Patriarchal Cultural Norms That Don’t Serve Women ft. Ola Bisi [Jopa’s Daughter] (I Am African Podcast #12)](https://verastic.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Cultural-Norms-That-Dont-Serve-Women-cover-150x150.png)
a female with rich grown armpit hair….#SMH vigorously, its gross on all counts!
and they will conveniently accessorize with a sleeveless outfit (because in this case the armpit hair on its own na d main outfit,..every other na accessories)
That’s the crazy part … the fact that she wore a sleeveless blouse. Tufia kwa. It was such an eyesore.
I shave my underarm all the time but I can’t help but wonder sometimes why people make so much ado about it. It really does not mean that the person smells. I think it’s one of those beauty standards that we have come to accept as normal.
Women have to do everything. Shave underarm, shave between the legs, shave their legs, shave their sideburns, do their hair, do their nails, paint their nails. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I sometimes wish I was a man!!
But Manny, arm pits do smell though. Not all the time, but hair increases the chances. I agree that part of it is the standard of beauty that
the societywe have imposed on women. I guess there’s something not quite as feminine with a woman that has all that hair. *shrugs*There are others who claim leaving the hair in your pits actually reduces odor. I don’t know, I’ve never tried. But I would also never write an article suggesting that all women should shave their armpits just because I don’t like hairy armpits. And if you’re not close enough to smell someone, you really should not care what they smell like.
Heather, thank you for reading and commenting. Appreciate it. Now, this is an opinion-based blog. Most – if not all – of the things I write are based on my opinion. Having an opinion and making it the norm in my head/life is something we all do. Per her smell, I really don’t care what she smells like. We all have things that irk us, and long visible armpit hairs are one for me. And let’s remember: I did not say she smells. I said I felt like, just because of the hairs. It’s the same way you feel like food tastes good (or not), based only on what it looks like.
I hate how within our socially constructed gender binary, women must shave and wax in order to be ‘womanly’ and men usually cannot shave as they’ll seem “too feminine” or “gay”. I shower every day. I use deodorant. I smell like a fucking flower, so what does it matter that there is some impressively clean hair under my arms??
This isn’t a matter of my preference of body hair to yours, this is a matter of every human’s rights over their own body.
Why would you bully someone and make them feel fucking self conscious about something that shouldn’t matter to or bother you. This is the matter of human beings letting socially constructed norms get in the way of seeing the truth: Human beings should be judged by their character and by the way they treat others, not by things like body hair.
This chics’ attitude made d hair situation worse for her.
if you want to do yanga with attitude with madam Verastic, be atleast fine LOL
i am one of dem hairy (very hairy in fact) chics and there are days that i dont give a shot about the hair really… but i cover up..
its like a crime(unwritten atleast) to have a hairy armpit and still wear a sleeveless top.
p.s— chai Vera, u blogged about this sha> Now u will have everyone we saw checking themselves. meanie.
Fufu, lol, I did not mention names nah! People should just check their pits, and if there’s hair in it, I might have been blogging about you.
Ha ha! Armpits must be free from hair….yuck! I just imagine how gross it would be with hair there, especially in hot regions. Im quite hairy in places I ought not to be i. e arms, legs, and errrr. But i could d with more hair on my head! I recently started shaving my legs, thats after my colleagues saw my hairy legs when wore a skirt. They campaigned that I must shave the hairrrrrr! I had not even noticed how hairy my legs were, I can conveniently braid it! lol.
Looooooool *falls of chair*
Unlike you, I am not hairy anywhere. But like you, I would also like more hair on my head. Nowhere else. But maybe you should shave your leg hairs and use them as some variation of Peruvian hair (weave). Tehehe. Igwe doesn’t notice whether I shave my hair or not (because they’re so little to start with), but I notice the difference. And I LOVE it hairless. I don’t use a shaving stick though. I use Nair/Veet.
When nature has given hairs in arm pits and other private body parts, it must have some usefulness and I always wonder as to how the vaginal or armpit hairs are useful in sexual or acts of procreation? Can anyone has any idea?
I stopped shaving my legs/pits back in the early 1970s when I was 19, and I can tell you hairy pits do NOT make you stink.
I lived in a very hot, humid climate with NO air conditioning. Furthermore, I did not use deodorant, only splashes of isopropyl alcohol. (Of course, I was young, healthy, and basically vegetarian – and I showered at least once a day.)
I don’t know about the science of it, but from what I can tell, the hairs added surface area helps your sweat evaporate faster (as opposed to soaking into your clothes or pooling up and nourishing the bacteria your skin – both of which DO foster odors).
As for my legs, I did shave them once since then (for what seemed like a good reason at the time), and almost instantly regretted it. At first my legs reminded me of liverwurst, then I had to endure ingrown hairs – one of the reasons I stopped shaving to start with.
Also, I’m not one of these women that just has a little fuzz on her calves. I had to shave my thighs, too; otherwise I looked like I was wearing hair shorts. And the only thing worse than having thighs that rub together is having PRICKLY thighs that rub together.
I made a conscious decision to accept my body hair and learn to not only live with it, but LIKE it. And I didn’t have any trouble finding men – smart, sexy, witty, fun, good-hearted, and, yes, nice-looking men who liked it too. This all made it easier for me to learn to accept – and sometimes appreciate – my other physical “flaws”.
I count this as one of the best decisions my younger, foolish self ever made. I have never done the math to figure out how much time and money I have saved over the decades, but I know it’s been a lot.
This decision was maybe easier for me than it would be for some people, because I’m the “earthy” type who almost always prefers natural over artificial, so I never went for the super-girly look to begin with. I will wear casual dresses with bare legs, but if I choose something besides a long dress (or pants) for work or formal occasions, I wear opaque stockings. And I would never wear sleeveless clothes in these situations. (I didn’t want to look like a guy in drag!)
These minor wardrobe restrictions are a tiny price to pay for my freedom. It’s sad that now days, most young women (at least in the US) would not even consider this and instead, will end up spending a significant part of their lives on a boring, unneccessary routine.
Life is too short to begin with, and human beings are too vain. Girls, at least THINK about breaking these shackles! You can always change your mind.
You know, it would be nice if more people were not afraid to be different than the “norm”. I think that they’d be a little less stressed about trying to keep up a “perfect” image, like I am. I’m really caring less and less about what people think about me, and noticing more and more how much people try to get me to do or change about myself. And it annoys me! Also, Hi again, Vera!
Lol.
Hi Jonathan!
I love a woman with a nice hairy vagina and arm pits …if you see the hair in the pits you see the hair on the love canal and it’s exciting…hairy legs….not so much …but hey women are the owners of their bodies not the fashionista….crowd it’s like implants…yes or no….hell no! if you can’t be satisfied with what you have then by all means grow a pair,,,,,but really small regular breasts are awesome….here’s the kicker:
“there is perfection in imperfectio, and there is imperfection in perfection”
cheers
Hmmm! I actually feel uncomfortable having hairy armpits and vagina, probably because I am fat so these bad boys need extra room to breathe, I actually shave at least once in 10 days. I have no problem with my legs, there’s little or no hair there. Some people don’t or can’t shave their pits and pubic region, that’s okay however don’t go sleeveless and if you are in a relationship, discuss it with your significant other. Some men will only stick their dicks and nothing else in there if it is anything less than sanitary/hygienic.
Looooool at “probably because I am fat…” I don’t know why I laughed out loud at that. I personally prefer shaved pits, do doubt.
I LIKE to shave my armpits. THey smell better. I feel better about my body odor when I shave my armpits. ANd I use deodorant. THank you for your articles!☮️☮️💛💛💙💙