The Body Hair Project

At the end of last month I took part in Ailsa's project where she photographed a whole bunch of women and interviewed them on their choices surrounding the often problematic world of hair removal. It was a lovely experience and one of the first times I've openly spoke about my opinions on removing body hair. Although I was completely petrified at the time, as person with very little confidence in my appearance, after seeing the photos that were taken I felt a serge of confidence and a lot of that was based on accepting my body hair.

Molly Rose

I don’t remove any body hair.

Did you ever start shaving?
I don’t think it’s ever really been a massive deal for me. I think I used to do it a bit on and off but then decided it just wasn’t for me. But I never really did it habitually. 

Do you think you’re quite unusual?
I don’t think I do. But the reaction I get from other people: people close to me, people noticing it and commenting maybe. But I don’t feel unusual in myself because of it. 

Do you have any friends who don’t remove hair?
I don’t think I have one friend who doesn’t remove body hair.

I think the thing with them is that they just assume that that’s not the way that girls should be.  That it’s gross. I think my least favourite thing that people say is that it’s unhygienic to have body hair because that’s a bit of a cop out almost. It’s frustrating. 

I didn’t feel much pressure growing up and also I want to say that I do think it’s a bit of a ‘fuck you’ to society in some ways. I don’t want to be viewed as something I’m not. 

I grew up with my nan and she doesn’t shave. I’ve lived with her for most of my teenage life. She’s completely the coolest woman in the world and she’s always been shoving feminism down my throat in a good way. So to have a really good, positive role model was really great. She was the only authority in my life- no one else was and she wasn’t telling me to do it so I never really did.

You’re always going to have those moments when someone will say something that does get to you but yeah, I’m never going to be everyone’s favourite thing so I may as well be my favourite thing. And I like that. 

You can see a more extensive collection of Ailsa's work at The Body Hair Project over on her website.

By Molly Rose x

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Hey Guys! Your aggressive perceptions of female beauty are fucked up!

The topic of the depraved short hair woman pops up so often in the realm of internet media. Previously there was an internet feminist shit storm after the clickbait Returnofkings' website published a piece entitled “Short haired women are damaged”. More recently, one piece by some other straight, white guy with entitlement issues caught my eye. The piece which is entitled “Hey, Ladies! Short hair is rape” explains how yes, you may look like a woman from the back but when I'm doing you from behind and you look like a boy, well I'm not gay so this is rape! Despite being hilarious and intelligent, the author, Gavin is clearly not someone to have ever suffered from the act and long-standing emotional, mental and physical trauma that comes from enduring rape and was clearly so utterly clueless about the severity of his actions that two months later, he had to release an apology. Well no, he just defended his actions further by calling women stupid and laughing at their teeny tiny women IQs. But then again he's also the author of thought-provoking, intellectual pieces on how woman are inherently lazy and I quote “straight men are a great scapegoats because we rarely complain”. Oh and he also interviewed Terry Richardson, and decided he's a-okay guy.