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I was born with a lot of hair.
Like, a lot.
Boys were supposed to have lots of hair.
I still remember how mortified I was.
I became the first child to shave in my class.
At some point, my perspective on hair shifted.
…
Rather than seeing body hair as disgusting, I started to think it looked cute.
(Im pretty sure it was because I saw Miley Cyrus sporting hairy armpits.)
Clearly something was changing in popular culture.
I grew out my pit hairs and never looked back.
I grew up around many Persians and Persian women.
Persian women in general have a lot of hair and still identify as highly femme…
I never coded body hair as being masculine or feminine and thats a reflection of my specific culture.
I pretended to like the way my leg hair looked, but deep down, I didnt.
But trends around body hair are also changeable.
But we dont have to hate parts of ourselves if theyre not in vogue.
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I tossed my razor and watched the leg hairs turn long and dark and soft.
I pretended to like the way my leg hair looked, but deep down, I didnt.
Sure, I liked not spending time shaving.
Yes, I liked saving money on razor blades.
I definitely liked that it was a big middle finger to traditional gender roles.
But it just didnt feel likeme.
So I decided to shave, though not without some guilt.
Was I abandoning my progressive values?
Was I succumbing to gender norms?
Was I (gasp) basic?
Why did I feel guilty even when I was making the decision that was right for me?
Im tired of hating my body.
But I dont want to be forced to love it all the time, eitherthats exhausting.
What if I could just…exist in it?
How would it feel to let go of the weight of that burden and allow your body to justbe?
To approach things like body hair andmakeup without judgment, towards yourself and others?
Heres the cool thing about my leg-hair journey: Im much less attached to it than I was before.
In fact, Im less bothered by hair generally.
As trivial as it may seem, its an incredibly freeing feeling.
Adapted excerpted fromI Am More Than My Bodyby Bethany C. Meyers, out June 27.
Putnams Sons, an imprint of the Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.
Copyright 2023 by Bear One Holdings, LLC.
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