Taylor+S’s+2016+OpEd+Article

**T**o shave or not to shave...
Why should girls feel the need or feel pressured to shave their legs, armpits, (and other specific areas) when guys are free and un-judged when they let their hair grow as wild and as unruly as they wish?

This isn't just a rant about how my swim coach doesn't let me shave my legs during training season for reasons that non-swimmers will have trouble comprehending… it's the fact that women are shamed for their leg hair. Why is leg hair so gross to society? Especially on women? We definitely don't think that hair on our head is gross - in fact many people use products to try and grow it out longer, thicker, and healthier.

Men don't (usually) shave their legs and we don't make fun of their hair. Yet for a woman it is known as the "proper" and "lady-like" thing to do when going to an event, to school, or even when leaving the house to go to the grocery store. Maybe I just don't have time to shave or maybe I am simply too lazy. But WHY should I feel uncomfortable about my hair that is obviously growing for a reason. Even though today people are beginning to think of women who choose not to shave as "free-thinkers" or hippies, or someone who has an amazing amount of self-acceptance and confidence, those women shouldn't have to be given a label for their choices. In my own case, yes, I suppose I am a free thinker, but why do people feel the need to label me as one simply because I decided not to take a sharp razor blade to my fragile skin and scrape off all remnants of hair until I was shiny and bare like a newborn baby.

Many people associate body hair (with the exception of head hair) with smelliness and uncleanliness. However a perfectly hairless person can also be smelly and dirty as well. Shaving has become one most popular unspoken rules throughout America and much of the world. It seems almost like a coming-of-age ritual… just as one may be expected to get his driver's license at age 16, women are expected to begin shaving once they hit puberty. If everybody grew up seeing women with unshaved body parts (just like men), then seeing an unshaved pair of legs today wouldn't be such a foreign sight.

Even though it may seem so at this point, I am not completely against shaving. I personally enjoy the feeling of smooth skin that glides across my sheets instead of bristly hair that gets caught in the blankets. But that doesn't mean I don't also enjoy not shaving and cutting myself in the same spots (right kneecap and both ankles) because I am a naturally impatient person who has better things to do than sit in the tub for an extra 15 minutes a couple times a week. Oh well. This is always going to be one of those things that is a "you do you" affair. I just don't think that women should be shamed for body hair…everyone has it, we might as well embrace it.

//Taylor Snell//