Why are people so SHOCKED...

[mountain]

...you gotta open this thread to find out.








[rant]

....by women with hair in their armpits?

A woman in my bellydancing class about lost her jaw when I raised my arms last night.

I keep hearing disrespectful things made as "funnies" (in general, not about me) like "she has a gerbil under her arm" or "she's got buckwheat in a headlock".

WTF? WHY MUST WOMEN BE HAIRLESS LIKE CHILDREN? DO PEOPLE NOT KNOW THAT HAIR SERVES A BIOLOGICAL FUNCTION OF PROTECTING/KEEPING WARM VITAL LYMPH NODES???

I remember when there was a picture of Madonna with arm pit hair, and everyone freaked the f out.

Why do MEN have socially acceptable armpit hair?

If anyone replies that you actually ENJOY scraping your sensitive skin, causing ingrown hair & rashes, with a sharp implement, I'll tend to not believe. Really, it is about some social norm that should not be kept.

/rant

[farmer mama]

I have no idea. It's just hair, and every adult grows some there, so what's the big deal? It is nice to know that there are other hairy mamas out there.

[GoodWillHunter]

Ummmm... I don't freak out. I would prefer not to shave my armpits. However, I can't seem to get past the irritating stage of growing it out.... sigh. I think it's just because no one sees women with armpit hair that often. Since I tend to hang with mamas that don't shave, well... it's no biggie. mama. I hear ya, though. I think women's armpit hair is far more attractive looking than mens... Just my 2 cents, tho.

[mountain]

[mountain mom]

Yeah, I am a hairy one too. I don't and won't shave my pits for nothing. I did for my wedding about 7 years ago and never ever will I do that again. I am a armpit rebel. Waving in the wind for all to see.

Hair is a normal human thing. It baffles me as to why it whigs people out.

So does topless bathing tho...must be a North American thing.

[menudo]

I have no problem with someone not shaving. Have defended it. BUT...armpits are the one thing on me I LIKE to shave. I stink fast and whenever I let it grow I just get ickier. So I do shave the pits often, I'll let everything else go for months thugh. I also don' ttend to get razor bumps or issues when shaving uncer arms, if I did I probably would stop. I get them other places so I rarely shave those even if I do like the feel!

[thismama]

Ya I don't shave either. And it's true some people get downright weirded out about it. I don't get it.

[georgia]

Was it Julia Roberts who the press had a freak-out over a few years back?

Why is what's biologically normal not culturally typical??? Drives me nuts.

[Persephone]

*sigh* I don't know. If it were me, I would have probably looked twice, because it's unusual, and then forgotten about it. I don't shave my legs. (I shave my pits, cause I have a hard enough time controlling BO.) Ugh, I know how hard it is to deal with. You are NOT alone. *hug*

[mountain]

Hey thanks for participating in my rant.

But, what about MEN's B.O....why don't they shave their armpits to "control" it?

The truth is, we're afraid of human smell. I love that Tom Robbins book, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, it addresses this...try & read it if you haven't...

and mountain mom...you are cracking me up sister :LOL Lettin it wave in the wind...

Lettin your freak flag fly

[mamaroni]

Originally Posted by mountain

The truth is, we're afraid of human smell. I love that Tom Robbins book, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, it addresses this...try & read it if you haven't...

great book!

I could have written bebesho2's post. I went for a long time w/o shaving my pits in college, but I do now on a pretty regular basis. Nothing else gets shaved much though. In fact, I need a little trim for our upcoming trip to florida. I never put a swim suit on last year so it's been a long long long time since that's been, uh, tended to.

[Ambrose]

I didn't know the hair was grown for a reason.... (protecting lymph nodes...) I dont shave my pits often... but I do shame them once or twice (max) a month. DUnno why... I just do. I guess it's usually when I need to wear a sleeveless dress and I know a bunch of rude people will be around....... ? :LOL

[sadie_sabot]

hairy armpits, hairy legs, hairy chin.

Honestly, I just don't have time for that crap. The 15minutes spent shaving my legs goes to much better things, like, um, reading a stopry to my dd or, um, cruisng mdc :

[USAmma]

There's a Hairy Mamas tribe if anyone is interested.
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=244711

As far as society goes, I was not allowed to shave my legs until I was like 14. It was so cruel what the other girls did to make me feel ashamed. We would have gym swim days and I remember once I was sitting on the edge of the pool dipping my feet in and out of the water, and every time I lifted my legs out the girls next to me gasped and giggled. I finally figured it out it was my leg hair. I kept my arms down so they wouldn't see my pits.

I guess that really scarred me and I ended up begging for permission to shave, and my grandparents bought me an electric shaver for Christmas. I stopped shaving in the winters in Oklahoma, but summers I had to b/c I was on the track team and well, peer pressure I guess, I didn't want to be the "freak."

Now that I'm settled back in AZ I shave because it's cooler that way. Trim in other places for the same reason, keep a short cut (I would love to shave my head again but I kept getting sympathetic looks from people when I did that, like I had cancer or something, esp. when I wore a scarf to protect from sunburn).

I think society can be such a powerful dictator of how people dress and groom themselves. Maybe we mamas should have some kind of Hair Awareness Month and not shave for a month. :LOL

BTW my dh trims for the BO reasons. He would die if he knew I was sharing that.

[bravofrenchie]

But, what about MEN's B.O....why don't they shave their armpits to "control" it?

My grandpa shaved his pits for this very reason.

[mamaroni]

Originally Posted by USAmma

There's a Hairy Mamas tribe if anyone is interested.
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=244711

: I've seen that tribe and it *never* occurred to me that it's mamas who don't shave until just now. I thought it was just mamas with an abundance of body hair in general.

[thismama]

Originally Posted by mamaroni

: I've seen that tribe and it *never* occurred to me that it's mamas who don't shave until just now. I thought it was just mamas with an abundance of body hair in general.

:LOL

[Persephone]

Originally Posted by mountain

Hey thanks for participating in my rant.

But, what about MEN's B.O....why don't they shave their armpits to "control" it?

The truth is, we're afraid of human smell.

Well, I smell with or without hair. My dh doesn't smell pretty much ever. (I should know, I sleep with my nose pretty much in his armpit! ) I am not preoccupied with smelling "fresh" though. I do like to smell clean, however. I don't wear deoderant, and I usually don't use soap in the shower. It's been well documented that I shower every 3-4 days here (though that's increasing in frequency the closer to summer it gets). Anything that helps me control BO is a good thing in my book.

(BTW, my odor isn't caused by the frequency that I bathe, or whether I use soap or not. This was an issue before that. Honestly, I think it's an internal thing.)

[USAmma]

Concerning BO. I don't mind a mild BO. Being a former athlete I'm used to it from myself and others. What I can't stand is very strong BO that fills a room and you can taste it when you breathe it in. My FIL is like that. I think he has some kind of problem with bodily chemicals or something. I don't like Febreeze but on his last visit here I was spraying it on his mattress because I could not get the smell out. Abi used to take naps with him and her head was usually wedged in his armpit. I could smell it on her hair even after I washed it, and I have this habit of smelling my kids' hair, it's like my personal incense, so this was really disturbing to me.

Anyway . . . I didn't mean to get us off topic but I had to get this off my chest. :LOL

[LadyWulf]

The ONLY reason i shave the pits is because when i let it grow out it itches like crazy and i walk around scratching my pits all the time.