I picked up a story this week from various UK news outlets, regarding women binning the razor and going ‘au naturel’.

It’s slightly depressing to read the line that ‘New trend for celebrities to bare their own body hair has emboldened women’. Why do you need a ‘celebrity’ lead on this issue? Why not embolden yourself by making your own lifestyle choices, regardless of what any shallow ‘celebrity’ is doing?

Other than that, I welcome news that women may not be slavishly following what any fashion industry is telling them how to dress, do their hair, apply make-up or anything else.

Julia Roberts possibly led the recent upsurge in celebrities not shaving their underarm hair

Julia Roberts was famously photographed with underarm hair, almost twenty years ago, and since then it has become a much more visible thing, both on red carpets and the High Street, at least in the UK.

While I’ve long been an advocate of not shaving ‘down there’, and have periods when I don’t shave my armpits either (and reflect this in SL), I do like to shave my legs. Kudos, then, to model Willow, who agreed to sport an essentially full set of body hair for us, utilising some of the same body hair I would – notably the Nearly Tactile pubic hair and Route 666 underarm hair. (price L$59 on the Marketplace) I don’t think I would step out in SL (or RL) with leg hair

What she’s added, though, is leg hair from Jaryth’s Barber shop (price L$250). It’s quite a ‘whoa!!!!!’ sort of look, it’s going to turn heads, big time. It’s very striking.

I wondered if the initially radical look of a hairy-legged nude would be softened by the addition of clothes, so I also got Willow to pose while clothed (now there’s a first for SLN!).

And yes! The look is somewhat softened by the addition of clothing.

Willow is an avatar who likes a bohemian, hippy look, and she has been sporting both pubic and underarm hair previously ‘as a reflection of real life’, so I asked her what she thought of the addition of leg hair.

‘I don’t shave my legs in real life either, but they don’t seem quite as radically dark and hairy as they do on my avatar. My initial reaction was ‘yuk!’, but having lived with avatar leg hair for a couple of days I’ve grown to like the look. There have been negative comments, yes. There’s sometimes negative comments about wearing pubic and underarm hair, never mind leg hair, but negative comments about either leave me dismissing the commenter as shallow and unworthy of wasting any more of my time, and I think I’m rather going to stick with the leg hair too, as you can either accept me for how I represent myself in Second Life, my Second Life, or you move on, muted. I’m not prepared to live my Second Life in accordance with what you think is a female ideal. I don’t play for you. I play for me.’

I’m not convinced that we’re about to see hairy legged women become a trend, but evidence grows that women are letting their armpits and pubic area become a little more hirsute. The trend in SL has been for more women to sport more pubic hair, so it will be interesting to see if this continues, either under arm or underneath. After all, we seem to inhabit a society in which what grows naturally, hair, is often described as a ‘fetish’ as opposed to ‘natural’.

Ella

It may not be quite so important in my generally cloudy, damp, drizzly part of the world, but when out in the sun, it’s important to stay hydrated, use appropriate levels of sun block, and wear a hat!

The latter is something many people often forget to do, and I’ve been guilty in the past of doing it myself. It’s not even a naturist thing, you can quickly develop sunstroke in a textile context too. While this is essentially a Second Life naturist blog, there’s a slight blurring of the real and Second worlds in that we do deliver a message from time to time, and this is one area where I’ve tried to impress the hat message again and again  as posts from myself and Pookes will testify.

One Fab Free gift currently available is beach accessories for men, free from The Man Cave.  And I’ll use any excuse to drill the message of keeping your head covered home.

Above, Ori sports a rather nifty looking hat that’s part of the gift set, the sandals (for slink feet) and shades that are also part of the set aren’t shown. I’ve picked up a copy of this gift set myself and while it’s designed for men, I note that it’s also entirely suitable for women avatars too, although I had to modify my usual hairstyle into an updo to make it fit under the hat (which is precisely what us ladies would probably need to do with a hat in real life too).

Ori was photographed, by Harry, at Hibiscus Atoll, a sim which features a naturist beach and one which we’ll feature in greater depth subsequently. Note, possibly, that there is a slight change in the quality of photography. After years of using Picasa, Harry has pointed me at the software he’s currently using, a system called Aurora, and I was impressed enough to pick up a copy of it myself for use in future SLN photoshoots. I’ll be out and about in SL later today experimenting with this new system.

I don’t care what type of headgear you utilise to protect yourself, bandana, baseball cap, straw hat or gloppy sun hat, just remember to stay safe out there as the UV rays are on the rise in the northern hemisphere!

Ella