Women’s dilemma of shaving
As if women don’t have enough to worry about with the onset of wrinkles, grey hairs, weight gain and chipped nail polish, the armpit (or the “oxter” as I know it) is under constant scrutiny.
Why is it OK for men to let their hair grow free but not for women? Is this need to cleanse, depilate, purify and denude all in the name of hygiene? Can’t possibly be because most men continue to leave their pits ‘au naturel’, and no one fears bacterial contagion from them. Quite the contrary. They consider it macho to let loose all their pheromones. More the revulsion at the sight of female oxter hair is a cultural issue based on the West’s relentless focus on how women should look.
Most European women, and American women too — if only they had guts enough to admit it — regard winter as a blissful time when underarm hair can rampage free and unchecked. It’s the time when that sprouting growth can double as an extra vest for warmth.
Many Scandinavian and eastern European women can use the “winter” excuse all year round knowing that there are only a handful of summer days in which they would even take their ‘cardigans’ off, let alone expose their armpits, shaved or not.
Prostitutes in the early 1800s were the first women known to have hairless armpits. Hmmmn! But post World War I is most likely the time when American women began shaving. This is when we began to see advertisements for depilatories and women’s razors.
Women go through so much discomfort for the sake of society’s perception of beauty. I mean, one would never see a Rubens beauty with shaved armpits.
Hollywood celebrities have long been injecting Botox into their armpits to stop sweating. Botox is injected under the arms and paralyses the sweat glands. Each treatment costs about $700.
An old-fashioned method was to make a thick warm paste of sugar and lemon juice. Spread it over the armpit with strips of cloth applied on top. When the sugar cools, rip the strips of cloth off. Torture!
Nowadays there is laser therapy or Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) treatment that kills hair follicles by firing them with a short burst of light. It’s very expensive and needs about six sessions and regular maintenance thereafter.
We are all — men and women — blessed with armpits for a reason. Behind the knees, the ears, the groin area, and armpits are all designed to purge toxins in the form of perspiration. To prevent perspiring by using anti-perspirants or cosmetic work means those toxins are staying in our bodies.
Thankfully, there is a growing awareness that women should be able to choose whether to shave or not. In 2012, a group of women formed Armpits4August. Its aim was to encourage people to grow their body hair for good health and for charity. Armpits4August asked women to grow their armpit hair for a whole month. The group aimed to raise money for polycystic ovary syndrome as PCOS symptoms include excessive hair growth. Their motto is “Let it grow, let it flow, let it go: The power of female armpit hair.”
And currently trending on “Weibo”, China’s version of Twitter, is “Pit pride” where women in China are bombarding social media with pictures of their unshaven armpits.
And if men think that only nude armpits are attractive, some shaved armpits are just plain ugly. Gnarled and knobbly and discolored from constant rough and blunt razoring. It’s very sensitive under there you know and some armpits just cannot tolerate all that unnatural handling.
Women should be free to decide whether or not to shave under their arms and not be condemned for it. Sadly, I am a conformist. It is the easy option for the majority of women.
For those who don’t shave, wear your hair and be proud!
Sue Quigley is a former editor at Hernando Today. She lives in Spring Hill and can be contacted at [email protected].
