As soon as we start growing pubic hair in our teenage years, we are told to cover it up or get rid of it. We're expected to be as smooth and hairless as possible. It's just one of those arbitrary but restrictive rules about the way a woman should look and what she should do with her body. We're taught to think of body hair as unsightly and unhygienic; something to be ashamed of and frightened to show. As you will have noticed, men get no such instructions - they're free to be as hairy as they like.
That's why so many of us wax, shave and laser to get a smooth bikini line, especially in time for beach season. Every fashion shoot we've ever seen has featured smooth, hairless models.
Until now.
Billie Razors has just launched a new campaign, starring women who've grown out their pubic hair. We know, we know, it sounds counterintuitive for a razor brand to be endorsing... not using them. But here we are. The women behind Billie Razors just want to change the way we demand certain things of a woman's appearance. They want to promote our right to do what we want with our body hair, whether it requires a razor or not.
"Everywhere we look, we see ads telling us that the only way to look good in a swimsuit is to be thin, fit, and hairless. In this film, we wanted to normalise body hair and show that we have options," director and photographer Ashley Armitage told Refinery29.
To recruit models for the campaign, Ashley and her team scoured Instagram for women who were already proudly showing their body hair. That searched lead them to Lindsay Zae and Yaminah Mayo.
They star in a short film called "Red, White, and You Do You."
This video is out now to celebrate the first anniversary of Billie's Project Body Hair, which made them the first female razor company to show actual, real, natural body hair on the armpits of models. That campaign had more than 24 million video views across 23 countries.
Hopefully, seeing happy, beautiful women with natural hair on their bodies will help us feel more comfortable with our own.
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