Accept Your Hair- Here, (Down) There and Everywhere | A Look Into Grooming

I don’t know why we don’t talk about ingrown hairs more often. They’re sprouting up all over! Well, for some of us, anyway. 

How an Ingrown Hair Starts its Journey

Ingrown hairs are most commonly found in areas that have recently been shaved or waxed (nipples, armpits, the pubic hair region, legs, etc). When the skin breaks from shaving, a small pocket opens within the skin. A small hair, or sometimes even two can grow inside that pocket. Our pubic region is full of little hairs. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s only natural and pubic hair was widely accepted at different times in pop culture, in fact, it was promoted to keep hair growth in order to protect the vulva from bacteria and other pathogens. Sociologists suggest that the recent desire to remove pubic hair is due to cultural trends. We are wearing more thongs and bikinis and the appreciation for the hair that was once there has disappeared.

A study was done by Basow and Braman in 1998 in which men and women watched a video of a woman in bikinis with visible body hair & without. They found that men preferred the women without visible body hair AND found that the participants deemed the women with body hair as less:

• attractive
• intelligent
• sociable
• happy
• positive

when compared with the women without body hair.

Another study was done by Toerien, Wilkison, and Choi studied women’s practices regarding their body hair, and removal techniques and found that out of 678 diverse women ages 16- 70:

99.71% reported removing some body hair at some point in their lives and the majority recalled doing so by the age of 16.

We are often misguided by the media’s portrayal of pubic hair and seek to copy and resurrect the hairless body. Even just the mention of the “Brazilian” wax in Sex and the City in 2000 brought the once obscure request to every salon in Manhattan and beyond.

Should We Accept Our Little Hairs?

If you’ve ever had a nipple hair as a female, you might think it’s a little weird to look at, feel ashamed, or remove it instantly. Something looks out of place. Well, believe it or not:  About 30% of women have nipple hair. The influx of hair is generally associated with higher levels of testosterone. Nipple hair growth fluctuates greatly. Women most commonly see a surge of nipple hair in their early to middle 20s. It’s okay to have nipple hair and pubic hair. (We even wrote a full article on that here!)

We once not only graciously accepted hair into our lives but did not feel manipulation was needed. The fact that we see more skin hair removal is telling of how we view our most basic of physical appearances. There’s an increase in staph boils and abscesses because of unnatural hair removal. The result is sad: unnatural scarring, more trips to the emergency room, antibiotics to ease inflammation, and removal of large boils.

When Oils are Necessary

Oils are being used now more than ever for everything from a moisturizer to soap. The use of oil dates back to ancient Egypt when oil was rubbed on the body for the purpose of adding a glow, clearing up the damaged skin and hydrating skin. Pubic hair oil is now famously making its debut for all the right reasons: bring back the hair. Fur Oil is oil for your pubic hair. It’s dermatologically tested and should be applied on clean and dry pubic hair for the purpose of hydrating and clearing pores for fewer ingrown hairs. That’s not to say that all women using this product are going hairless because they’re not! Hair oil is a nice little treat for your pubic hair. Just as you’d take care of the hair on your head, you can now take care of the hair on your mound. 

Let your hair serve its purpose.

Maybe give it a good oil rubbing once in awhile, but don’t feel the overwhelming need to pluck every hair you see or shave every patch that grows. For the giver in you (that we know you are), hydrate your hair, admire it, and let it be.

Sources:

Basow, Susan A., and Amie C. Braman. “Women and Body Hair.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 22.4 (1998): 637-45. Web.

Toerien, Merran, Sue Wilkinson, and Precilla Y. L. Choi. “Body Hair Removal: The ‘Mundane’ Production of Normative Femininity.” SpringerLink. Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers, 2005.