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More women are growing out their body hair, making razor companies go back to drawing board

  • Summer’s beauty trend for women was all natural – with more millennials choosing to grow out their body hair
  • Razor company Gillette had a 3 per cent drop in organic sales in the last quarter

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More millennial women are deciding to grow out their body hair. Photo: Shutterstock

Here’s a question many young women have asked lately: “Do I really need to remove my body hair?” This summer, a growing number of millennials have found their answer: “Nope.”

As beauty trends have gradually become more inclusive – with make-up offered in more natural shades than ever before and bras made available in an expanding number of custom sizes – women are also giving themselves more leeway when it comes to personal grooming.

Body hair has been embraced by celebrities who speak proudly of their unshaven underarms and influencers who post unapologetically about their visible leg hair. The movement has especially taken off on Instagram and even affected the marketing of a product that once had ads labelling leg hair “objectionable”: razors.

Photographer Ashley Armitage has made body hair one of the focuses of her Instagram account, which includes portraits of feminine women combing their wispy underarm locks. Her interest began more than five years ago when she noticed her friends were letting the hair on their armpits and legs grow. It made her question her own hair-removal habits.

 

“I was grappling with it: ‘Why do I have to shave?” she says. “Why do I have to deal with these terrible razor burns under my armpit and also get a five o’clock shadow?’”

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