Back in May, Miley Cyrus was in the news (again) for revealing dyed underarm hair.

Around about the same time I was experimenting with underarm hair, in the sense I was growing it! I wasn’t putting any dye on there, but I had a period where I was quite happy not shaving under my arms and I quite liked the look. I just got lazy in respect of having to do it all the time…a week went by…then a second…

‘Eewwwwww!!!! Gross!!!’ said friends when I mentioned it (or if we had a rare warmish day when I’d be in a tank top and it was visible). I went to the swimming pool, as I do most weeks. ‘Disgusting’, a teenage girl muttered to her boyfriend as I raised my arms to put my swimming cap on, ‘I bet she doesn’t shave anywhere‘, hissed the boyfriend before they both giggled. Just my legs, dear, just my legs.

Strange how we’ve all become conditioned to think of what grows naturally as ‘gross’.

Or do we?

I’ve read that females with unshaven armpits is a bit of a trend on instagram. The NY Post also has done a piece on this in the past few weeks, with one Mum who has stopped shaving her armpits saying “it was kind of startling that these gender stereotypes were already so ingrained (in her five year old daughter). I do it, or rather don’t do it, for me but also as a reminder to my daughter that it’s up to the individual what we decide to do with our bodies.”

Others have taken to youtube to show their approach to  the issue, and explain why shaving is now, for them, ‘out’.

As a result I took to wearing underarm hair in SL. It did attract comments.

‘Are you like that in RL?’ asked one avatar, and even in text form on the screen you could almost sense a disapproving wrinkling of their nose at the idea.

I didn’t do it to attract comments but just to reflect RL as it was at the time. Besides, I’m operating my life (and Second Life) for me, not you. Your opinion is worthless to me.

We all change hairstyles from time to time, many of us will wax our shave our ‘bikini line’, and many of the younger generation now routinely remove all traces of pubic hair. I suppose there are positives and negatives to this: received wisdom is that pubic hair is there to cushion friction against sensitive parts, and removing it can lead to infections. On the other hand, pubic lice have been practically wiped out around the world due to many women removing their pubic hair. In times gone by, pubic lice, often known as ‘crabs’ was linked in with other venereal diseases.

In the past, apparently, it was not uncommon to hear people talk of having to visit a ‘VD clinic’ because they had ‘a dose of the crabs’ or ‘a dose of the clap’ (gonorrhoea). Nowadays these are referred to as STI’s (sexually transmitted infections) after a period of being known as STD’s (sexually transmitted disease). The reason for the ‘rebranding’ is obvious. These are often easily treatable infections, not a full-blown ‘disease’.

Winning World War 2 by not having sex.

But we’re drifting away from the point of the initial post here. Let’s get back on track.

Body hair is natural, there is nothing gross about it, and it’s high time that the media stopped perpetuating the myth that there’s something wrong with it. There isn’t. What there is something wrong with is the idea you can or should be belittled, sneered at or held in contempt for making your own body choices. In a time of tattoos being fashionable, would we stand for people like the media adopting the same approach to tattoos? ‘Ooh, they’re gross. You look like a tramp‘, etc, etc. No. It would be regarded as bullying. The same applies here. A woman’s decision to grow her armpit hair, or even dye it thereafter, should only be reported as that person indulging in ‘a bit of colourful fun’.

During research for this piece, I discovered that it’s not just armpit hair that’s getting colourful. Some ladies are extending use of that bottle of dye downstairs as well.

I don’t know about you, but I think these two photographs (above) are absolutely stunning and beautiful. They make me want to….well….

..where’s my alt? 🙂

Hahaha! I like it! I actually like it a lot! 🙂 I got this short hairstyle at Boon & Saikin. Perhaps I need to give my main avatar a radical makeover! 🙂

As for ‘downstairs’, we’ll take this back to where we came in, and the shock revelation that, yes indeed, Miley isn’t a total fan of the razor (follow the first link in this post).

Ella