No Valentine’s day topic this weekend! You have probably unwilling been consuming enough of this content those past weeks. Instead let’s talk about your body hair!
Well, to tell you the truth this blog isn’t just about letting your hair grow or not. It is about allowing yourself to be YOU, the way YOU want it (yes I am emphasizing “you” just so it sticks to your mind 😘). And if it involves having hairy armpits, good! If not, good as well!
Hair, no hair; does it really matter?
A few years ago, Marion Seclin (a french influencer we really like), was talking about the fact she did a photoshoot with a brand who edited her hair out on Photoshop, without notifying her. She said she took the decision 4 years ago to let her hair grow naturally and she was very angry about the studio’s behaviour:
The decisions concerning YOUR body belongs to YOU and you ONLY.
By photoshoping her hair out, without her CONSENT, that brand violated her right to be the individual SHE DESIRES TO BE. They disrespected her life's choices. And for what? Because they felt like she didn’t match their standards. Standards usually imposed by the media and the fashion industry.
If you choose to wax every 3 weeks or not, it should be because it makes you feel great and not because you feel like you HAVE to do it.
Nobody should tell you what is the best for you. Your body and lifestyle decisions must be made based on your opinion. not others.
If people are telling you the opposite, don’t listen to them. This could also be a good sign to start clearing out some of your relationships to make room for better ones.
Story time: We had a wonderful photo shoot with Léa Castor in Paris. She stopped removing her hair a couple of years ago, because she realized that she wasn't really doing it for her, but for her lover at the time. She said that she wanted to start loving her hair the way it actually is, but it was hard. Not because she thinks it looks ugly but because of society: she felt like people will judge and criticize her.
When we first talked about her session, we really wanted to showcase and do close-ups of her hair to tell the world "hey see, it's not bad at all!" but it turns out that we just focused on her as a person like we always do.
not making her body hair the main focus was our way to normalizing her natural beauty.
Building your life despite expectations: damn that's hard.
But damn, it is worth it. Being able to live your life the way you want to is the best feeling in the world: you feel in harmony with your values, you become proud of yourself, it is pretty much the road to your long-term happiness!
However, from the minute you will start making decisions to be fully yourself, you are going to have to deal with… drum rolls… others. And people LOVE to share their opinion about your lifestyle even if you did not ask for it 🙄.
Friends, family, strangers! Doesn’t matter who they are, you will have to face complains, disappointments, frustrations, or even anger, coming from people who will not accept your life’s choices. And this can makes the whole process of building your own identity very challenging. But don’t give up!
any criticism about your journey is actually not about you. They will simply project their own insecurities and fears on you.
Through your achievements, they will see their own failures and will try to bring you down instead of supporting your decisions. Jealousy is ugly!
Sometimes it just starts with armpit hair!
See, you don’t need much to start living your life the way you want. You can start with something as simple as letting your body hair grow or starting a new hobby that people might find too scandalous. It will be scary at first but once you realize that what people think of you doesn’t not matter, you will take on bigger steps that will feel less and less scary ❤️
We would love to hear about one thing you changed in your life that was hard but worth it. Share in the comments!