I wrote earlier in the week of how, after 20 years of not shaving, I’d attacked myself with some depilatory cream and scissors and adopted a ‘smooth’ look.

In some ways it feels great, in others I’m not so certain about it, although any change in hairstyle, anywhere, sometimes requires some getting used to.

I also wrote earlier in the summer of how ‘girl fur is back, but not to 1970s jungle levels’. I was wrong.

Out by the pool is a rather hippy couple. He with long curly hair reaching to his waist and her… with wild, untamed girl fur on display. Both of them looked beautiful.

While I’m not sorry I’ve gone (temporarily) smooth -it has been interesting to have slightly different sensations of the air on bare skin for example – I expect to be going back to my usual look.

I prefer it.

And equally, whether smooth or natural, it’s terrific that others feel the same way, happy to be themselves within naturism and, as usual, no one judges.

Ella

Observing naturists or, indeed, anyone, you pick up their body language.

Here in Spain people are very sociable, and it’s quite evident that people invite their friends or family to stay for a while. Not all will be naturists, but there seems to be such a Spanish ‘go with the flow’ attitude that they join in, some more readily than others.

Last night was one such night, where it was evident an extended Spanish group had been for dinner, come back and decided to go for a swim in the pool. Some march confidently, nonchalantly to it. Others, male and female, have towels wrapped around themselves.

You can almost read the minds. ‘In a moment, I’m going to be naked in front of friends and family and I’m terrified.’

One young woman reached the pool’s edge, let the towel drop and possibly as a way of diminishing her embarrassment at the moment, waved her hands triumphantly in the air. And still you could read her mind. ‘God, but this feels fantastic, this feels liberating!!!!’

You go, girl, and have many more naturist moments in your life like that.

Ella

My sister in law Mary remains resolutely textile. I’m not generally a big drinker, but Mary likes to have a glass of wine or two in the evenings. Imagining that she might have some sense of lowered inhibitions after alcohol intake, I was socially drinking with her last night and we made it to the pool near midnight but the alcohol hadn’t lessened her resolve to remain textile.

Despite what she says, my betting is on a public nude debut before the week is out.

Ella

I’ve been out visiting my Spanish friend Mercedes this morning, and she pointed me at an article that she thought I found find interesting.

1 in 3 Spaniards has experienced naturism at some point in their lives, (article in Spanish) even if they don’t regard themselves as naturist. Further, 2/3rds of Spaniards say they would take a naturist holiday, which -the article suggests- makes them the least inhibited people in Europe!

Ella

Back in June, right at the end of the holiday, my husband surprised me by taking the scissors to his pubic hair and going for a heavy trim, speculating out loud about him going totally  ‘bare down there’!

When we got home, he did, and adopted a totally ‘smooth’ look for a few weeks, although as he’s not the world’s most enthusiastic face shaver he soon lapsed from a daily ritual and it’s growing again.

I have shaved before, just around the time it was coming into fashion and being ‘the norm’, and I didn’t like it. I grew it back and have been hirsute ever since, against ‘fashion’ for all this time. Perhaps it was a little too much wine last night, perhaps it’s my usual desire to not run with the crowd in anything I do, but one pair of scissors and some depilatory cream later…I’m now bare down there for the first time in years!

I’ve sent my husband some pix, but I also wanted to share one with you, the readership of SLN2 because my naturist hols, in recent years, have also included some ‘me in real life’ photos.

Of course, as anyone who reads SLN2 and its precursor SLN will know, I’m generally rather coy about this, with the photos not really being close ups or particularly clear.

I got Mary to shoot a little video of me walking along past our apartment when I was going down to the beach for my early morning swim, now free of girl fur. My first impression is that I feel a little ‘exposed’. My vagina is now on display and I feel…naked! Hahaha! I never did with it hidden ‘in the bush’.

It did almost feel like being a ‘first time naturist’ again. On our public debut we feel the entire world is watching, even though they aren’t. Walking down to the beach it felt like everyone was looking at my vadge!

My husband approves, apparently! I’ve sent him some…um…’naked selfies’, something else I said I’d never do. While previous holidays have been others embracing something novel, this holiday is one for me embracing novelty.

I’ve also nipped inworld to update my avatar accordingly…

Ella

So why won’t sister in law Mary, the non-naturist, go nude? ‘Body issues.’

This is probably a familiar tale to many women and their partners. ‘I’d love to have the body confidence to go naturist but…’

Mary is a number of years older than me, beyond 50, the mother of three adult children, but in speaking to her there’s definitely a sense of her thinking, in her own mind, that she should be the teen-shaped body there somewhere, despite the incredible, wonderful journey she has been on over the past three decades.

Boobs ‘saggy’, bottom ‘too big’, C-section scars ‘too ugly.

Apparently. Allegedly. I’ve not seen to be able to confirm as even in the privacy of our apartment she’s incredibly body-phobic. While I wander around naked, she’s uncomfortable with her own nudity.

Over the years I’ve met many women for whom a ridiculously false ‘body image’ has been the bar to them embracing naturism.

Society and the media have created such a sense of ‘the imperfect body’ that women often feel repulsed by their own mirror image. It’s quite ridiculous. None of us have ‘the perfect body’. All of us feel that  we have imperfections which we magnify to ourselves. And society and the media reinforce this negative image constantly.

Nowadays, even governments are in on the action. While ‘childhood obesity‘ is certainly a growing problem, and action must be taken to make children much more active rather than being welded to their electronic devices rather than cycling, exploring, playing sports, the focus on it can’t help with body image either. From an early age we’re bombarded with the idea that we’re overweight, ugly, imperfect.

By all means continue to encourage people to be more active, government, but maybe a bit more pro-activity in the sphere of not being hand-in-glove with the international food companies? Maybe a bit more in the way of taxation on sugar-coated breakfast cereals. A bit more in the way of discouraging fizzy drinks. A bit more in the way of creating a society wherein chocolate is a treat, not a meal.

To my mind, Mary is by no means ‘fat’. Age, and that ‘middle-aged spread‘ contribute to a broadening body after 40, and for women the menopause also contributes.

This might be Mary’s reality. She’s an active woman who goes hill-walking a lot, but drilled into her is the sense of negative body image to the point she doesn’t feel comfortable looking in the mirror, let along going comfortably nude in the pool or elsewhere.

We sat up last night drinking wine, talking a lot about this. Eventually, at midnight, when it was dark and no one could possibly see her at all, we made it to poolside, her in a swimming costume. I did”t press or push for her to do otherwise, as it’s important with all potential naturists to encourage them to find their own comfort levels.

What was good about it is that being outside in the pool, after midnight, was for Mary a hugely positive experience in itself, even clothed, which means that we’ll almost certainly be making that a regular night time thing over the course of the holiday, and her sense of ‘wow!’ was such that, in the company of a little more wine and an evolving holiday sense of relaxation, there’s a framework on which to encourage her further.

Ella

…for my travelling companion, the (currently) non-naturist Mary.

We went down to the beach earlier and in for a swim. Mary was wearing her £100 ($130) one piece swimsuit which was riding up into those sometimes difficult to reach places, filled with sand and was by her own admittance uncomfortable.

My swim suit, by contrast, cost nothing and fitted perfectly!

I think I know whose logic works best on the beach, any beach, and it isn’t textiles!

Doesn’t naturism make more sense than swimwear the more you think about it?

Ella

In Spain with me this time is a new travelling companion, my sister in law Mary (her real name) who isn’t naturist. She has said she will not be going naturist for the duration of our week! 🙂

Dear reader, we know differently, don’t we?

I have to say that on this, our first morning, she hasn’t even stepped out of her shorts and tank top, undies firmly in place, even though we’re not overlooked and the only person who can see her is me.

Naturism is beguiling, however, and people get drawn into it quicker than they imagined. I have a feeling she’ll eventually get naked, though, and I’ll be tracking her progress as she (hopefully) immerses herself over the coming days.

My bet is that it’s Tuesday night/Wednesday before she’s in the pool. I intend to follow this on SLN2 over the coming days. 🙂

Ella

I’m back in Spain for another 10 days of ‘Postcards’ of real life naturism. Having arrived exceptionally late last night, I’m still up very early. It’s not quite daylight yet (at 700am) but I’m already out on the balcony and ready for my holiday to begin. But first (it’s the British way), a cup of tea…

Ella

Firestorm viewer, maybe others, have recently introduced an ‘avatar complexity’ facility, whereby you may not render fully to other avatars and appear, instead, as a ‘jelly doll’.

Image via New World Notes.

I’ve not seen any myself yet, but they’ve been (partly) the talk of SL for a few weeks now.

They seem a bit counter-intuitive. People spend all that money to have a great looking avatar, only to be rendered as a blob to those they may be trying to impress.

I’ve read that ‘mesh’ isn’t the issue here, my thinking being that mesh avatars were more complex and therefore increased lag. I’m still of the opinion that mesh was another counter intuitive step by Linden Labs. Flex hair looks real and moves, mesh hair is static. Retrogressive, to my mind.

My nod towards accessorising my avatar (hair apart) is often limited to a necklace and ear rings, as I might in real life. In the interests of research, I recently added as many accessories as I could to my avi, while remaining naked (i.e many piercings, tattoos, etc as I could muster), and I found it impossible to make my avatar reach the level at which it might not render correctly to other avatars.

I think the solution is clear here. Strip away the complex costumes and go naked! You’ll look great to other avatars and feel good about yourself not fretting about stupid clothes!

Which is pretty much how it works in RL naturism.

Trine

Further reading on this is at New World Notes, with several commenters remarks mirroring my own regarding the ‘retrogressive’ element of it.