I remember the first serious conversation I had about body hair being in my senior year of high school. I just started dating my first partner and I was in the girls bathroom. We all talked about our shaving habits, and when I mentioned that I hadn’t really done much up until that point, a friend said, “You just started dating somebody, you should probably get on that!”
That statement immediately changed my perspective of body hair and how other people might perceive it. From that point forward, to feel “sexy” or “beautiful” was to have no body hair at all. This idea was only furthered when I started working as a waxing specialist, with many people coming in before first dates “just in case.”
With my friends and even my job telling me that no body hair was better, I was shocked to see the new SKIMS line, which showcases underwear with fake pubic hair. What shocked me even more was the fact that the entire line sold out almost immediately.
Within recent years, it seems that the most sought after look has been completely smooth skin, with not even facial peach fuzz being acceptable for many. This isn’t new, however, because body hair has actually come in and out of style for thousands of years.
Some of the earliest examples of women wanting to get rid of their body hair can be found in ancient Egypt and Rome, when women used many strange methods such as “bat blood, calf urine or donkey fat” to groom their body hair, according to Suzanne Cords for DW. Although a lot of people see it as being something pesky, it’s not there for no reason at all.
The hair that we have down there serves more of a purpose than many people think. It acts as a layer of protection against many things in our environment that could cause harm to our pubic area.
“It keeps dust, dirt and germs away from the vagina to prevent infection,” said Dr. Holly W. Cummings from Every Stage Health.
So even though society has been pushing the narrative that having no hair is better, keeping it might actually be healthier.
Even though many people are getting rid of their hair, there are a lot of reasons people throughout the decades would keep it. One time we saw women keeping their pubic hair was in the 16th to 18th centuries, when pubic hair was seen as a sign of good health. This even started the trend of pubic wigs (just like the SKIMS underwear) that women wore to appear healthy. This was because syphilis, which makes your hair fall out, was very common at the time.
The most recent time we saw women’s pubic hair in fashion would be the ‘70s.
Fiorella Valdesolo of CR Fashion Book said that “’70s pubic hair was more than a fashion statement: it was tied to a sense of bodily autonomy.”
This aligns with the political environment at the time, as Roe v. Wade had recently been instated and our culture was embracing naturalism. With our current political climate, there’s been more talk of letting our pubic hair grow, but this doesn’t seem to be the reason behind the new SKIMS underwear.
The SKIMS line is successfully selling our body hair back to us, even though most people can grow it themselves. This poses the question of why these were even sold in the first place.
Izzy Grinspan of Harper’s Bazaar said that this could be an elaborate feminist project to garner reactions based on bodies that have been modified vs. unmodified, but says that this is highly unlikely considering the video made to promote the new line.
It seems as though the new SKIMS underwear is just a gimmick to make more money, as the commercial not only sexualizes the women in it, but it doesn’t really allude to female empowerment at all. This product only contributes to the growing crisis of overconsumption, as well as the backhandedness of our society telling us that having hair is unacceptable just for a Kardashian to try and sell it to you.
It seems that our society has spent so long trying to promote the idea of hairlessness to us, that now having body hair is so shocking that it makes people want to buy it to seem outlandish and ahead of the curve. Society’s stance on our body hair is something that nobody should pay attention to, as it only makes companies more money and it could just make you feel worse about yourself. At the end of the day, the way you want your body hair is your choice. Whether you prefer “the ultimate bush” or nothing at all, there’s nothing wrong with either and society, your friends and even your partner shouldn’t dictate that decision for you.
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