Embracing one’s body has been a part of this Generation Z for a long time. Girls are breaking the stereotypes of beauty that emphasized shaving your hair to look tempting. Gen Z girls are rebranding the term “tempting” and “empoweing”. These girls are growing out their body hair fearlessly claiming this is what makes them “attractive” and “empowering”.
Such an example setter is none other than the popular Model Sydney Jordan who claims that she has lost the track of the latest fashion gigs probably by a hair.
“I’m not willing to shave. This is part of my brand,” the 25-year-old told The Post of her fuzzy armpits and legs. Jordan, who lives in Ohio, has been warned by her agent that body hair is “not industry standard,” but she doesn’t care. I’m trying to normalize this,” she said.
Women have been raising the issue by ditching their razors. Ladies are rushing to TikTok to show off their all-natural approach to grooming, where the hashtag #bodyhairisnatural has over 91 million views, two years after the COVID-19 outbreak forced them to give up everything from hair dye to heels. Offline, too, the pro-body hair movement is gaining traction.
According to the YouGov Body Image Study from 2021, 35% of Americans have no preference whether women shave or not, while 7% believe they should not. Female fur was even less of an issue for respondents between the ages of 18 and 35, with the majority admitting that they either find armpit hair beautiful or don’t mind if a woman had it.
“People never cared if I shaved,” 25-year-old model Elyanna Sanchez, who boasts more than 93,000 followers on Instagram, told The Post. “It just felt normal [to have body hair].”
The model, who shares her time between Los Angeles and Manhattan, starred in a Calvin Klein underwear campaign for 2019 that featured her fluffy underarms prominently. Sanchez claimed she didn’t shave since she “didn’t really think about it” on that particular day.
While the client had no problem with her au naturel look, Sanchez said commenters online weren’t so kind, which she sees as hypocritical. “People say, ‘Can you use real models?’” she said of the pressure fashion companies get to hire more typical-looking people. “And then everyone bashes them and calls them ugly.”
UK-based razor brand Sunny writes in their tagline, “To shave or not to shave, it’s no biggie is it? Prickly or smooth, it won’t change the world.” Billie, an American shaving company, is the first of its type to feature photographs of women with unruly hair on their legs, underarms, and inner thighs.
Ashley Graham got a deal with Harry’s Razors after flaunting her hairy underarms. After getting the job, she responded by making a video on TikTok in which she laughed at the stories about it, mocking those who imagined beauty businesses would only exhibit clean-shaven ladies..
Brooklyn native and artist Chanté Glover, 29, said that when they first started growing out her body hair in 2016, they felt “pretty alone in my friend group.”
Now, however, Glover finds the change “empowering.”
“I actually got to a place of really loving it,” said Glover, who added that they’ve received an outpouring of support from friends and followers online. “There’s no shame in what we are and embracing what we are. I find [having body hair] to be a sign of confidence and adulthood.”
Virali Patel, a 28-year-old Londoner, also posts odes to her body hair online. Patel, who advocates for empowerment and confidence online, said women have been “conditioned” to believe smooth skin is “attractive.”
“I feel a lot of women are tired of changing themselves in order to fit in society’s definition of beautiful,” said Patel, who recently gave up on hair removal after 20 years of shaving and waxing. “We’ve been conditioned to believe smooth skin is intriguing, and having hair makes us look ‘manly’ and unworthy of love — which just isn’t true.”
“I’ve had some people tell me that they decided to start growing out their body hair after they saw me with it,” Roux, 32, said. “Because it’s just my job to be naked online and be hot, it sort of gives other people permission to do that … It’s easier for people to be like, ‘Oh, you can still be very attractive to people.’
Well, all we can say is that a shaved body is no longer considered to be a symbol of beauty, temptation, and attractiveness. Gen Z girls are no doubt breaking the norms of beauty.
Source: nypost.com
