How do you feel about body hair? This woman refuses to shave!
The removal of body hair for aesthetic enhancement has a long history, but it is even longer for women. The human body has over 5,000,000 hair follicles. And while we might think of body hair as a useless, annoying thing. It actually serves a fundamental purpose. Hair helps regulate body temperature, keeping us warm in closer climates; it also protects against outside elements. Body hair is beautiful, natural, and helpful. The manufacturer of safety razors sought to expand the market in the early twentieth century by promoting the idea that body hair on women was inherently masculine and indelicate, as well as unhygienic, and so began the clean-shaven movement.
Hair removal today was popularized by Charles Darwin’s 1871 book, Descent of Man. He explained that homo sapiens had less body hair because it was more attractive to our predecessors, i.e., natural selection. Still, it wasn’t until the early 1900s that white American women began to associate smooth skin with femininity.[1]
Well, this woman refuses to shave, and for all the right reasons!
Danish woman refuses to shave facial hair just to get a man
Eldina Jaganjac says she is done with shaving just to conform to a societal ideal of beauty.
The 31-year-old tutor from Copenhagen has a message for anyone who decides to pursue her romantically: “Take this tweezer and shove it.”
As she got older, she became more and more frustrated with the expectations put on women regarding body hair, not to mention the financial drain, so she is refusing to shave.
The young Dane says she is fed up with the ridiculously unrealistic beauty standards imposed on women, especially regarding body hair.
In March 2020, Eldina said goodbye to her tweezers and razors forever because, as she says, she is just as feminine with a unibrow and a little upper lip hair.
Not a look for everyone
Unfortunately, her moment of empowerment was met with, to put it lightly, uncomplimentary comments from small-minded men. She takes their comments as a sign that they are not the kind of man she wants to be with. She has had to endure hateful slurs thrown at her as well as things like, “Pluck your face” and open staring in the streets.
This woman refuses to shave, and she says her natural look allows her to weed out any bad apples quickly.
“Before I let my unibrow grow out, I did feel like there were extremely limited options for how a woman should look.”
Eldina added that if a man doesn’t shave or doesn’t pluck his eyebrow no one notices or comments and it’s nothing out of the ordinary.
She later added that just like many other women, she had to police herself. For example, she would not feel comfortable going outside unless her eyebrows were the acceptable size and shape and wouldn’t set foot at the gym unless her legs were recently waxed. She is now freed from the shackles of societal standards of beauty. Eldina says, being a woman who refuses to shave! She can now focus on her goals and not on how she looks while achieving them.[2]
It’s so easy for men
On a personal note, I’d say that I wholeheartedly agree with this young woman and support her fully. I’ve long felt that the beauty industry is a lot more complicated for women than for men.
On a night out, men will grab whatever is closest five minutes before leaving. And, if you’re lucky, it will be clean! On the other hand, women have to do hair (that is, hairstyle and hair removal), make-up, and clothing changes. Finally, to top it off, wear shoes that were not made for human feet in a skin-tight dress with no pockets just so that a man will say she looks pretty. And, if a woman refuses to shave, it’s seen as something disgusting.
In my book, a real man will fall in love with the natural, no makeup, bed head, sweat pants look. But, still appreciate that if she wants to she could pull out a look that will make everyone turn their heads.
Keep Reading: Parents of daughters are more likely to divorce than those with sons
Sources:
- “The history of female hair.” Women’s Museum.
- “Woman Refuses To Shave Moustache Or Unibrow To ‘Weed Out’ Bad Dates.” Unilad. Cameron Frew. February 20, 2021