Body hair is a big issue especially for those who have it. Some cultures adore body hair on women and men, others deny that women actually grow body hair on their arms, legs, face, and even chest. Muslims have a haram and halal guide to body hair, and Jewish women remove theirs every month before they go to the mikva when relations with their husband can resume.

Middle Eastern women can be hairy and those not wanting it use threading and sugar wax or sugaring to remove it. Removing hair, as men who shave daily, know, is a big hassle. Some get it removed permanently but that could be a big mistake as Januhairy and a new body hair trend is coming back stronger than Brooke Shield’s eyebrows in the 80s.

What’s a woman to do? Like Movember when men started growing moustaches for a cause, a new movement called Januhairy is encouraging women to stop removing their body hair. Look at Cypriot-American model Sophia Hadjipanteli and her unibrow. And the TikToker Unibrow Girl. Will you join the movement?

If you look to Takijistan a woman’s beauty is measured by the size of eyebrows. Traditional Tajikistan songs including Bukaran songs by Jewish Tajikis extol women and their large eyebrows. Tajikistan women paint their eyebrows a la Frida Kahlo to appear more attractive.

Egyptians are credited with inventing sugaring, believed to predate shaving. It’s similar to waxing, but uses a sugar-syrup paste that gets spread onto skin. When the mixture cools, it’s quickly peeled off, yanking hair out at the roots. You can eat the sweet pre-product if you use our recipe.

But why bother shaving? Women leading the Januhairy movement like Queen Esie believe that body hair can help a woman reclaim her body and redefine what is beautiful.

She offers some tips, “Most women have shaved and removed their body hair all their life that they don’t know what they look like natural, and feel shame when they body hair slowly starts growing back. If you want to stop be afraid or ashamed of your body hair and slowly start embracing it, here are a few tips:

Tip 1: Accept that you’re a hairy woman & that’s ok ?
Tip 2: Wear clothes that reveal your body hair in the comfort of your home?
Tip 3: Compliment your hairy body in the mirror ☀️
Tip 4: Let your body hair grow during the winter

“Once you get use to seeing body hair on your body you will slowly stop feeling shame.”

If you lived past the 90s and notice some women have bald eyebrows, that’s because women over-removed their eyebrows and they never grew back. Some women, already back then and it’s always been more common in Europe, have stopped removing armpit hair, leg hair, nipple hair and all hair down there.

Say no to a Brazil body wax

What is a Brazilian wax? In a Brazilian wax common in the west pubic hair is removed from around the external genitals, between the upper thighs, and around the anus. Some women can choose to remove all hair in the area or leave a small strip of hair in the front.

For the last 15 years or the Brazil body wax has made it common for women to remove their pubic hair as though they are pre-pubescent women. The Januhairy movement is encouraging women to keep all their growth, personal and down their intact and to embrace one’s body as it is: hairy and beautiful. It starts with a few women but if women of the world unite, you can stop shaving forever. The other option: get married and save yourself the hassle.

“Female body hair challenges not only the world’s status quo on a superficial, visual level but also our deeper stigmas and beliefs surrounding female pleasure and sex,” says Caley Draws, who discusses sex and hair.

Thinking about growing out your hair?

Follow the Januhairy movement.

Thinking, no way, help me out. I got to this page for the wrong reasons: Start here with a simple sugar wax DIY recipe.

The post Grow a unibrow for Januhairy and embrace your body hair appeared first on Green Prophet.

In 1793, radical revolutionary journalist Jean-Paul Marat was killed by a female Royalist; fatally stabbed in his bathtub, where he would sit for hours treating a skin disease that had plagued him for years. (Image above spoofs “Death of Marat” painted by his pal, Jacques-Louis David.)  His bathroom ritual helped do him in, is your daily routine killing you too?

Now legions of women weary of razor cuts, wax burns (start using sugar wax – here’s our recipe) and depilatory rashes are teaming up on social media in groups dedicated to the unshaven female body. It’s a revolt that arises every few generations against a style norm; a buck against an estimated 6,000 years of human slavery to shaving.

Sugar Wax

Shaving evolved not so much for vanity as for health (ancient Egyptians went hairless to deter lice and prevent disease). It eventually gained secular style status and significance in religion too with Jewish and Islamic laws specifically addressing shaving practices.

The act of shaving (or not) has frequently been political, used to convey personal rebellion. More recently, it’s assumed an environmental component – with disparate groups such as The Sierra Club and beer-brewer Budweiser urging men to grow beards to save water (3 gallons is used for a typical facial shave).  A hirsute-ladies trend is also gaining traction online.

Fish around on Facebook and discover groups such as a Swedish gang named “Ta håret tillbaka!“, Hairy Armpits, and Hairy Legs (which turned out to be a dog-walking service). Some are clearly fetish groups, others offer bona fide support and encouragement to women considering a foray into fuzz.

WANG (Women Against Non-Essential Grooming) believes, “Everyone should be free from coercive gendered bodily norms.  We look forward to a day when people can present their bodies in whatever way they choose, free from social constraints.”

The Hairy Legs Club Tumblr site self-describes as a “positive space”, and the Very Hairy Legs blog celebrates women who decided to stop shaving.

An unscientific survey (of friends who answered my calls this morning) showed no takers for this trend. There were waxers and sugarers, predictable for the Middle East where girly body baldness reigns supreme.

Shavers were divided between those who do it every day versus only when they “need to” (qualified as beach visits, jobs that require wearing a skirt, or important dates).

So will you ditch your depilatory? Reject the razor? Give it a test-run with a pair of “hairy leg socks” like those shown below.

Share your views, but please – no pictures!

Images from WANG’s Facebook Page

The post Ditch your razor or sugar wax instead? appeared first on Green Prophet.