No-Shave November lives on?

After almost two decades people seem to be growing pubic hair again!

So back in the late 1990s or early 2000s some celebrity or another (I keep thinking it was Gwyneth Paltrow but I could be SO wrong) mentioned to a lifestyle reporter that they were loving their “Brazilian wax.”  Fast forward just a few years and nearly half of all women had started seriously grooming their pubic hair.

This was… much discussed in mainstream, alt, feminist, and even rustic/rural circles. Shaving became so popular that a whole new “fetish” popped up for those who were interested in women who don’t shave!  And naturally a whole crop of boys (and perhaps too many girls) have grown up imagining it’s gross or unfeminine. 

Well.  Sometime around the first of February, based on naked selfies, it looks like a surprising number of women have stopped shaving.  Not all, but it seems to be making a comeback far faster than the reverse.

I suspect Gwyneth Paltrow or some other fashion-setting celebrity mentioned it in some venue I don’t follow and so while you can’t say “everybody’s stopped shaving” it does seem to have become fashionable to stop shaving.

I say three cheers for fashion.  It’s your body and you should be able to do what makes you happy.  And that includes fashion.

For the record, historically and culturally the question of whether to keep or grow hair below (or above!) the eyebrows has changed, repeatedly, on every continent and in every climate, since humans started using sharp-edged seashells to cut their hair and shave with.  It’s been that way for a very, very long time.

Also for the record: it’s just seemed so weird to me that in spite of nearly two decades of shaving the most popular English euphemisms for vulvas remained “pussy,” “kitty,” and (at least in rural cultures) “beaver.”  Even if no one else cares, I’m sure etymologists are breathing a sigh of relief!

And finally for the record do I care very much?  Not very much.  As I said it’s your body and everyone who’s adorable and sexy with body hair equally adorable and sexy without.  Everyone who’s sophisticated and alluring without body hair is just as sophisticated and alluring with.  With any luck we’ll get to a place – my favorite place! – where you can’t go wrong no matter what you do.

0