I haven’t shaved my legs since September. It’s not because I don’t enjoy the freshly-shaved feel; I was tired of wearing jeans in the summer to hide my razor burn scars and ingrown hair-ridden calves. I tried everything to reduce the amount of pockmarks on my skin — everything except not shaving. Now my skin is healthier than ever, but I find myself hiding my legs for an entirely different reason: shame.
In the early 1900s, American women shaving their legs was largely unheard of. Ankle-length dresses saw to it that a woman’s body hair was hidden from the public. But when hemlines began to rise in the 1920s, corporations replaced concealing attire with hair removal methods as a new way to shame a woman’s appearance.
According to Vox, 56% of hair removal ads focussed solely on legs by the 1940s. Despite capitalist America’s decades old plea for women to shave their legs, the first shaving advertisement to feature body hair on women wasn’t produced until 2018 by the subscription-based razor brand Billie. Prior to this, women in advertisements paraded on screen with pre-shaven legs and ran razors over barren skin.
Interestingly, many of the women I spoke to listed their mothers, rather than advertisements, as the primary reason they began to shave. The corporate-led concept that women must have smooth legs evolved into one enforced by mothers unto daughters: a generational burden of womanhood. From receiving a razor for Christmas, to facing arguments over leg hair, all five UO interviewees have been taught that it’s necessary to shave from a young age.
First-year political science major Jacque Velasco rarely shaves her legs, only doing so when she wears a dress — which she also does rarely. Despite her infrequent shaving, she recalls being pressured to remove her body hair since her youth.
“I was in fifth grade, and I remember my mom telling me I was at the age where I needed to start shaving,” Velasco said. “She was kind and helpful about it, but I think making me feel like I needed to shave my legs wasn’t the best way to approach it — parents should educate and show their children how to shave, but they should never put the pressure on to do it.”
It’s hard not to feel the pressure outside of the household when many ads for women’s razors feature someone shaving an already smooth calf. It seems standard that any leg shown in the media must be clean shaven, inspiring young women to provide a hairless view for society.
Moreover, many women grow out their leg hair over the winter since they aren’t wearing shorts, which proves that the removal of leg hair is more for visuals than personal comfort. For instance, Damita Henderson, a first-year journalism major, doesn’t shave unless the weather is too warm for jeans.
“Even though I know my leg hair is lighter than most, I still will take the extra time to shave when putting on shorts or a swimsuit,” Henderson said. “I guess it just helps with confidence.”
This confidence stems from 1940s ad campaigns for leg hair removal, as they often condemned natural hair growth. These advertisements claimed everyone was looking at a woman’s legs and that removing hair would ease self-consciousness. This feeling of being watched remains prevalent, and on occasion, it’s voiced.
Margo Cumming, a first-year psychology major, only shaves her legs when she feels like it, no longer caring about whether her legs are smooth or hairy when paired with a skirt. This has led to some offensive commentary from some peers in her life though.
“I had a guy friend point my leg hair out and tell me he didn’t understand how my boyfriend wanted to touch me,” Cumming said. “I haven’t had any upfront experiences with women, but I’m sure some have probably said something behind my back.”
Women have been taught that their peers are judging their body hair in the locker room or the halls, even when no one has said anything negative directly to them. The assumption is that thoughts that aren’t said to the face are whispered behind the back. Whether we claim to be confident in our appearance or not, societal beauty standards have bred an underlying fear of not meeting expectations.
However, for some, the abandonment of hair removal has led to self-discovery. First-year student River Rutledge stopped shaving altogether three years ago because they felt the level of effort put into hair removal wasn’t worth a single afternoon of smooth legs. Now they feel more comfortable with who they are.
“Though I do identify as a woman, I definitely have days where I feel more masculine than feminine, and I like to present more androgynously sometimes,” Rutledge said. “I don’t feel like leg hair takes away from my femininity, and it makes me feel more comfortable with my masculinity.”
If you want to shave your legs, then shave them. I know how good it feels to go to bed with smooth calves. But if you don’t want to, then you can’t let the pressure win. Leg hair won’t ruin a dress on a special occasion, nor will it turn a worthy partner away from you. It’s completely natural, and it only stopped being considered so once corporations decided they could profit on yet another aspect of women’s bodies.
The body and all its hair belongs to the woman, and she can do with it what she wants.
