I was observing myself and my girlfriends the other day just before we had to leave the house. It was hot so we wanted to wear something short, but we weren’t freshly shaved or waxed, and we were freaking out.

It somehow made me think why this feels more natural than just wearing that skirt no matter what our legs look like.

I had to ask myself: why do I keep removing my body hair (and even pay for the pain of it)?

I wasn’t really sure why, and if it’s really what I want to do or just something I picked up by the society and beauty industry, so I decided to stop removing my hair on my legs, yoni and my armpits for a few weeks (which turned into a few months). And no, where I was at the time, it wasn’t winter, so covering up my hairy parts wasn’t the solution.

Let me share a little bit more about my experiment.

I wanted to be able to say with certainty that I am shaving my hair for myself, and oh baby, I want to love myself no matter how long my armpit hair is.

The interesting thing was that several times I caught myself thinking, “Gosh, put your arm down, what will they think?”
But then, “Wait a moment, what about giving myself some more love right now? And accepting my body with as much love and gratitude no matter what it looks like?”

Of course I want to take care of myself and feel comfortable with my body and soul which is exactly what I’m doing by eating healthy vegan food, living my life in harmony with my heart, not listening to society, learning to love myself every day a little bit more, using coconut oil for my skin (I don’t use any other beauty products or makeup anymore!), going for massages or pedicures and practicing yoga.

But it’s important to realize that the hair on your body, the circles under our eyes or this new lipstick (that was tested on animals and is full of chemicals) or expensive lotion won’t make us more or less beautiful. Inner beauty comes from accepting ourselves and giving our hearts, souls and bodies love—no matter what.

And that’s why I don’t freak out anymore if I’m not shaved or waxed. I want to love myself—every cell of my body, every part of my heart.

My boyfriend isn’t always amused by it, but in the end it’s more important that I stay true to my values and don’t do something just because it’s expected of me. Of course, I sometimes catch myself thinking, “Oh my gosh, I should do this or that…” but now I’m aware of it and I’m learning to create new thinking patterns.

I don’t say that I will never ever remove or shorten hair on my body (no self-pressure, it takes a while to create new beliefs), but next time I want to do it, I’m going to decide mindfully and recognize whether it is social approval I’m looking for or really something I feel inspired to do from the inside.

What about you—do you know why you shave your hair?

~

Author: Aleks Nikolic

Image: Author’s own

Editor: Katarina Tavčar