The Hairy Armpit Trend: Love it or Hate it

Trends come and go and some we like while others we can’t stand. What about wavy lips or dying your teeth black? These trends are probably less popular than thick brows and lip injections, but what about growing out your hairy pits? Would you follow this trend? Would you ever stop shaving as a woman?

Women with hairy armpits is not the "norm" but it's becoming more popular. Growing out your hairy underarms and showing off your hairy armpits is something that’s been gaining traction over the years. You can even see the trend has spread to famous women. Celebrity armpit hair can be found on women like Miley Cyrus and Julia Roberts.

I don't know about you, but I started shaving basically as soon as puberty started and the hair came out of my body because I was told it was gross and not feminine. Well, fast forward a few decades and now feminism is taking over saying the opposite! Pretty amazing how the stories of what's feminine has changed (for some) and embracing your body hair is becoming a norm.

History of natural body hair

It’s pretty interesting because nobody really bothered with their hairy armpits until the 1920’s when razor companies began campaigning through their marketing that it was “unclean” and “unsightly” for women with hairy armpits. It then became a trend to shave it off.

In 1955, Sofia Loren modeled while showing off her hairy pits. Even now, 67 years later, she's inspiring others to embrace your normal body hair and love yourself!

In 2016-17-ish there was the "no shave" movement where women just stop shaving, stop giving into societal norms. I read an article on hercampus.com about someone who joined the movement and found a boost in confidence and awareness about her body by joining.

In 2019-ish, the term #januhairy came into play and women all over social media began sharing pictures of their hairy armpits encouraging others to go natural and embrace their bodies for what they are and scoffing at “beauty standards” that they’ve been told their whole lives. Women body hair has become a new trend that is skyrocketing.

There is a whole page on instagram associated with Januhairy with over 43K followers, where women discuss body hair and show off their naturally beautiful hairy armpits and other body hair. The movement is going viral to love your body and understand it’s natural to have body hair, not an unnatural taboo thing. Women are encouraged to keep their body hair for the month of January in an effort to raise awareness about the pressure that society brings upon us to shave off our body hair just because society deems it "normal" to do so.

The movement to grow out your body hair has been spread widely, letting women bare all and love their bodies as they are. With women under 25, one in four have stopped shaving their underarms, according to a study done.

Hairy armpits are finally going back to being “normal”.  The razor companies created this idea around arm pit hair being unwanted or gross and people followed that trend like sheep. Women’s eyes are being opened and they are embracing their natural beauty by growing out their natural hair - on their armpits and other parts of their body.

Newer Trends with Body Hair

Nowadays people of all genders are going to different lengths to express themselves in honor of their armpit hair by dying it different colors including even “unicorn armpit hair” (rainbow armpits). It’s become “the thing” and I don’t see it stopping anytime soon.

Embracing who you are and having body positivity is all the rage these days. People of all genders can attest to this and it’s a worldwide trend that is here to stay and will grow as time continues on.

Some women choose to just trim it, instead of fully shaving or removing the hair, and that's ok too! The trend "my body, my choice" goes into play here too, you have a choice and NO ONE can tell YOU what to do with YOUR body.

Women are also embracing other body hair like bikini lines (or even growing a full bush), facial hair, belly hair, arm hair - all of which have been advertised as unwanted or taboo to have.

Does Armpit Hair Make You Smell Worse?

It might still be taboo to some people to grow your arm pit hair. Some even believe the myth that “armpit hair makes you smell worse”. This is absolutely false!

If this was the case, then men would stink all around us. Sure some men stink, I can agree with that, but I mean ALL MEN WOULD STINK ALL THE TIME if this was true.

Armpit hair doesn't stink on its own and sweat doesn't stink on its own. BO (body odor) comes from bacteria that comes into contact with your sweat - and that's what really smells. So if you’re clean, you won’t have bacteria in those spots. Keep it clean people! And use a good deodorant like Fussy which claims to be “The Natural Deodorant for Hair Armpits”. That's all you need - good hygeine - and you're bound to not be stinky wether you grow your body hair or you remove your body hair.

Why do we have armpit hair?

You may be wondering the purpose of hair beneath humans arms. Why do we have armpit hair? There are a couple of reasons for armpit hair and you can decide if you need it or not.

1) One is for reducing friction when doing activities like walking or running - it gets in the way of skin-to-skin contact and reduces any friction between skin. When you have friction between your skin it can cause rashes, redness and/or irritation and having hair here might help with reducing your risk of this.

2) The next reason is kind of fascinating - it's for trapping and spreading pheromones more widely. We naturally release pheromones through our armpits, and with hair the pheromones scent becomes stronger since the smell attaches to the hair. Studies have shown the calming effects these pheromones have on others, which can be a beneficial stress reliever and it might attract potential mates.

Conclusion

After reading this article you might decide to go natural and grow it all out or you might stay right where you are and stick to shaving or waxing it off. In the end, it's your choice, do what you want, it's your body and it's your body hair. Do with it what you want! If you want hairy armpits then more power to you! You can even go crazy and dye it your favorite shade of turquoise if you want!

Sources:

1) https://www.vogue.co.uk/beauty/article/armpit-hair-trend

2) https://www.getfussy.com/blogs/news/power-to-the-pits-a-natural-deodorant-for-hairy-armpits

3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underarm_hair

4) https://sacinthesheets.com/f/januhairybody-hair

5) https://www.hercampus.com/school/ok-state/what-i-learned-when-i-stopped-shaving/