Poolside Pubes

We have seen the last of our summer holiday season; with the last few days of the summer holidays dwindling before the back to school September sadness. But for women this season has been the hardest few months to maintain your beauty regime hair wise. Every female has no doubt suffered at the hands of a wax strip, pair of tweezers or thread, primping and prepping themselves prior to their holiday to ensure not a stray hair is in sight.

Miley Cyrus flaunted a hirsute underarm fighting for her feminist belief, she even dyed it red to attract even more attention and in an attempt to rid the taboo and stigma around body hair. Other a- listers such as Julia Roberts did the same but Miley has swiftly removed the hair.

But, my point is why are women so hair conscious, especially on holiday, and men are not? Men can lay sprawled out on a sun lounger in their budgie smugglers with pubes awry, their “snail trail” obviously protruding and even an immensely hairy back (admittedly not all men), whilst there is pressure from society and the media for women to have to endure hair removal at a cost prior to their holidays and maintain a trim body hair. But why?

Pubes by the poolside are not the done nor seen thing for women. Society and the media have pushed us to believe that god help you if you did let your bush loose and visible to all when sunbathing. So, every year and every holiday season females venture to their trusty beauticians to opt for a hair removal of their underarms, eyebrows, legs and nether regions all in preparation for their hols, to save the hassle of shaving, but also, to spare the embarrassment of others seeing you bare all with all your hairs and graces awry. This does not necessarily mean that everything goes but every female will tame their hair for their holidays in some shape or form: whether it’s your DIY hair removal wax strips, shaving, threading, laser treatment, waxing and all the playful shapes you can possibly imagine from bald eagle, to Brazilian to a simple neat tidy shape up, a landing strip – you name it there’s a term for the design you want – but there is no denying that hair removal is top of the to do list for every female prior to their holiday.

Why is there such a stigma around pubic hair? I for one am not hair’s biggest fan – hair in general – I am terrible with with the head on my hair in terms of styling it (my limits stretch to a normal classic plait and even that isn’t the nearest), my eyebrows have remained the same shape for years and require little plucking, however I am an advocate of smooth hair free legs and equally neat and tidy bikini area, but the expense, the pressure and the demand to maintain such neatness is something men will not know. I have never gone on holiday without a bikini wax, nor will I, but why I won’t dare to is something engrained in me. But why? And by who? Booking my beauty appointment is something I don’t think twice about doing before a holiday, because they (beauticians) say it lasts longer than waxing, which it does and it is better for you (arguably), but I do enjoy the carefree hair free holiday outcome. But it doesn’t actually last the entire summer, and prior to your wax works session you fear wearing shorts because of how bad “down there” could be and you don’t want to run the risk of others getting a glimpse. Yet men do not ever have this fear.

Some may deem the hair free female as abiding to misogyny and the unrealistic perspective of women projected on men of glamour models with the perfectly proportioned body, who have neat or hair-free nether regions. But the fur-free feline can also be a nod to feminism (arguably- well I’d like tho think so), women are in charge of our bodies, and despite the media’s views on how a woman should be and look like, ultimately us women make the decision, and I take pride in primping myself and I honestly do feel empowered, and more confident when hair free.

I have put it down to society and the pressures on women to have the perfect “porn star designer vagina” that has pressured women into going to the expense and pain of hair removal that now a tamed and trimmed downstairs is in fact expected.

Will this stigma ever go? If women stop maintaining their hair, pubic hair in particular, what will happen? And why can men get away with more grotesque hairy bodies?

M x