Well... I shaved!
For the last 3 weeks or so I've been doing a little experiment. I haven't been shaving my legs... at all. Why was I doing this? I started to think "Why do I shave?" I shave every time I shower... since I started growing hair on my body at puberty. Why was I freaking out so much when I was stuck in Wyoming last year with my family and couldn't shave (no razor)? I actually bought a crappy little razor from the hotel just to shave... of course it tore up my legs, lol. But why did I even go through that? What was so wrong about not shaving my legs for a few days?
I didn't really think about it again for a long time. About a month ago I really started thinking about it again. Why do I shave my legs?
(a) Because I like it better... I like having my body being practically hairless
(b) It's sexier
But why do I think these things? I mean, in other countries, it's totally normal for women to not shave. Men aren't repulsed by them. The women in other countries are just as sexy as the women here. And they aren't dirty or anything. Why do I shave and my husband doesn't? (well... he shaves his face, but only because of his job... because he has to... he'd rather not shave his face)
I like the look of my legs being shaved and I think it's sexier because that's what I was always taught. By the women in my life and by every shaving razor commercial. It's not "feminine" to have hairy legs... according to our society. Men want their girlfriends/wives to have smooth legs because it's sexier... according to our society.
What really inspired me to do something about it is my beautiful friend, Rem. She's gorgeous, and quite frankly, I have a bit of a crush on her, hehe... (oh, unclench). Anyways, Rem had this lovely picture of her raising her arms in her signature on a forum site I go to, and armpits were NOT shaven. She got all sorts of crap about this from people online. Telling her how "gross" it was that her armpits were hairy and to "either shave or take that picture down because I don't wanna look at it". It was just stupid! Gah! I think she's sooo incredibly brave! I'm not brave enough to not shave my pits (but a LOT of it has to do with a bad phobia of mine... I literally freak out if anything other than clothes... or a razor... touches my armpits. I seriously start screaming and kicking if Gwydd even comes close to my pits. I don't know what it is. But right now the thought of hair being on my pits freaks me the fuck out!), but hopefully I can eventually get over my fears and see if I can go without shaving my pits. ;-)
But Rem's bravery with her pits got me to think about not shaving my legs. Just to see how I feel about it.
That first week of not shaving was SOO hard! Every time I took a shower I had to literally FORCE myself not to grab the razor and shave my legs. My hair on my legs grows pretty quickly, and that's why I shaved every time I showered before. So watching my hair rapidly grow, and NOT shaving it was sooo weird. I also felt really unattractive. Gwydd kept reassuring me that, hairy legs or not, I was beautiful. In fact, he was cheering me on! He thought it was great that I was stepping outside of society's expectations of me. He's mentioned a couple times throughout our marriage that he doesn't see why I have to shave... afterall, he doesn't shave his legs or pits... why should I? But it never actually registered until now.
The second week was a lot better. I started to feel really good about myself. I've always had some self-esteem issues and feeling self-conscious and "not sexy"... especially after going through two pregnancies and my body changing. For the last few months though, I've really started to feel better about my body, despite its "flaws". Not shaving helped a lot with this too. Realizing how little my husband cares about my body hair, and stepping out of Society's idea of "beauty", really made me have a lot more respect for my body... the way it is. I don't need to fit into this narrow concept of "sexy" or "beautiful" to be those things. I *am* sexy and I *am* beautiful... hairy body or not. :-)
After this third week, I shaved (yesterday). Not out of any kind of expectation from Society. Not because my husband wanted me to (in fact, when I showed him my legs, he had a shocked look and said "Why'd you shave?!" lol). Not because ANYONE wanted me to. I just felt like shaving it off. Part of my reasoning was that it's been an average of 115 degrees f here (90 degrees in our house) and I thought maybe shaving off the hair would make me cooler, LOL... it didn't btw (and Gwydd was like "yeah, the hair isn't going to bother you in the heat. Shaving it off won't make you cooler." :-P ). Oh well. But now I feel a lot more comfortable going a long time without shaving. I don't feel like I *NEED* to shave.
Gwydd was surprised that I shaved... but he said, "Just do what YOU want to do. Don't shave because of society... and don't NOT shave *just* to be all 'anti-society'. Just do what YOU want to do. It's YOUR body." Have I mentioned how much I love my husband? *smiles* He's totally right though. I wasn't shaving my legs to be "anti-society"... I just wanted to step out of the box I was in to see how I really felt. Having hair on my legs really wasn't that bad. I won't be shaving for a few more weeks again... but now it's because I just don't feel the need to! If I shave it off again, then a shave it off... no big deal. :-)
I don't think there's anything wrong with shaving or not shaving... and I don't think there's anything wrong with doing something because of society. I do, however, think that we need to OWN our reasons. Admit to why we do what we do, and either change, or accept it. :-)
Here's some pictures of my legs. The first one is after one week. The others are after 2-2.5 weeks. I didn't take any pictures the last few days, though the hair did grow out a little more. Since yesterday, it's completely shaven off, though. But like I said, I probably won't shave again for a few more weeks. :-)
My beautiful friend, Rem:
