What is it about unwanted hair that grabs our attention or rather raises our brows? This fascination or morbid hate relationship with hair is common and prevalent across cultures and social strata. Besides the obvious aesthetical significance and evolutionary reasons behind having hair on the top of our heads and other significant areas of the body, why are we so concerned about considering some hair as 'unwanted' and how did we decide that it is unwanted or ugly or gross?
Much business has been generated by the quest for hairlessness and further consolidating hatred of “un-wanted” hair while many made a fortune out of it. Are we paying the price of capitalism and westernization? Is it a fad? Or is it an evolutionary tool for determining the survival of the fittest? Our ancestors didn’t seem to have a problem with abundance of hair if Darwin is to be believed. It might have just saved us from joining the dinosaurs (this conclusion drawn after watching a BBC documentary on facial/body hair and it’s evolutionary significance and role in mate selection over time: Findings suggest hair kept the body cool and protected the sensitive body parts from insects and forces of nature?)
But more recent surveys reveal that with the increased exposure to the ‘www’ and easy access to images of unclothed (plastic and hairless?) beauties; hairy women don’t quite cut it anymore. I would like to suspect that it is another concept invented by man to subdue women yet again as, different rules apply to the different genders or are we womenfolk that susceptible to inception? Bald is certainly beautiful when it comes to women’s body parts (supposedly).
Most of my male friends certainly don’t go for the hairy look in their women, further strengthening the notion that no hair is good except for those on our head. That kind of hair is always described at length in poems, songs, and romanticized in the movies; and plays a huge role in fueling the romance, imagination and fantasies of men and women throughout history. A glorious mane is always scoring brownies points everywhere. But ever heard of anyone writing odes to facial or body hair? I guess not. I was bemused to see a newspaper clip of Lady Gaga showing off green armpit hair. I thought well, only Gaga could get away with something like that. And my next thought was, what the hell is wrong with having unshorn armpits?
My personal tale of woe is that I am the hairiest among my family of absolutely hairless siblings and kin but lacking in the hair on my head. The beauty gods seem to have played a joke on me by sprinkling fuzzy on my arms and legs but not enough on my head and I am the butt of jokes among my hairless siblings. They call me ‘Gori’ as in ‘Gorilla’ Well, I do have thick skin.
And Uh, I certainly am lucky to have very little unwanted hair compared to my less fortunate or rather more generously 'haired' sisters around the world but it does irritate me that I have to shave/wax when I have that special date and planning to wear a short dress; and I totally empathize with the poor ladies who have to go through routine torturous waxing sessions in the name of acceptable standards of beauty not to mention the financial aspect of shelling out 500-1000 bucks every week. No! I am not going to talk about electrolysis and laser. They are for the financially blessed (though one can see that a spurt of pocket friendly ventures coming to town to help you get rid of “the disgraceful hair” as if they are doing you a huge favor. Thank you very much!)
Coming back to my tale of woe, how is it that we have become conscious of sporting the deadly fuzz in our armpits and arms and legs? Every time I am wearing something sleeveless, I have this paranoia attack that I might be showing more than my beautiful arms and putting on a display of my less attractive fuzz which might have miraculously grown overnight just to torment me. So a razor swipe is necessitated.
Some days, I have this fantasy of letting them grow out but I haven’t been brave enough to let them actually do so. I chicken out at the last minute and terminate their existence, if only temporarily. I can’t believe I am so shallow but hey! I am a social member and I need to conform sometime or the other especially since having unsightly fuzz in your armpits is considered unhygienic (actually only for women, I guess for guys it is a sign of virility) and I have come to believe, unattractive. I can’t imagine why we have them and what purpose they serve if not to complicate our feminine lives. Cosmic joke again or a man-made burden?????
 |
| Really? |
So here I am toeing the line and admiring my fuzz free arms and legs! They do look much nicer without the fuzz or is it social conditioning that makes me think so? Or maybe I am just vain. Well! I am a confused person now on matters of hair. As for hair where the sun doesn’t shine, I guess it is a matter of personal preference but there too, I would assume less is always more and so we continue to go through the regular hair removal rituals. And honestly, perhaps not to conform to society’s diktats this time but just so t experience being like a baby again and au natural, if you please. Let’s just say, sometimes one has to conform for the greater good of society and if shaving gives me an edge to survival or closer to being civilized, then do I have a choice?
They now have Brazilians for women and "Bro-zilians" for the men I hear. Any takers?
Content copyright © Tetseo Sisters 2011- 2012. All rights reserved. Do not use any images/content without permission. All photographs by Tetseos except where indicated.
