Why is it okay for men to move around freely without shaving but it is shameful for women? Why does society constantly shame women for having too much hair on their bodies? Why should a woman regularly subject herself to the stress of having to shave simply because she is hairy? Why do adverts show only hair-free women? Why do we need to keep shaving when we end up having painful bumps? 

How is my body your problem if there is nothing wrong with you? 

The majority of women who have hair in especially visible areas are constantly being shamed by men and even sometimes women, you'll hear someone giving their unsolicited advice on how women should be hair-free and how society considers them beautiful without it.

Shaving has always given me bumps, call it societal influence but I have never been comfortable leaving my underarm hair unshaved especially if I don't know when next I'm going to be wearing an armless top but I blame myself for succumbing to social pressure now I'm choosing to shave whenever I feel like, not because the society considers it dirty and unfeminine but because I choose to. 

I was out with my cousin to buy some clothes one day when a man saw her and asked why she has so much hair on her legs when she is not a man, my cousin shrugged it off and I wasn't comfortable with it, if it was left for me to answer I would have asked if the hair was restricting his airflow so much that it was now his problem.

 Sometimes men just don't know when to shut up about a woman's body. 

When we got home from the market, I was so bothered by what the man said to my cousin so I asked her about it and she said "I get that a lot but I have never thought of shaving my legs, I just wear long clothes or trousers to cover them but I love it because it protects me. There was this time at work when a man walked up to me and asked if my pubic hair was as much as those on my legs, I was disgusted. I still love my hair and I am not removing them"

 "I have seen some men say very mean things about women who have hairs on their chest, meanwhile these women have PCOS or hormonal imbalance yet men make fun of them. It is their body and they don't have control over it" Eunice, a social media manager, told me as she was narrating her ordeal. 

"I am very hairy, hairier than my brothers, I have hairs on my legs, stomach, arms, and on my chest. It was not much of a problem for me until 2015 when I had this neighbor that kept complaining about my hairy legs. She didn't really say it to spite me, to be honest, but she went on and on about how a woman should not have so much body hair. One day she asked me to buy a blade and she helped me shave my legs.  That was the first time I shaved and since then I started shaving. I was not consistent with it and even now I no longer remember to shave. I never had a problem with the hair on my body and I get suspicious if someone says anything about my hair because why will you talk about my body hair, it is just hair" she said to me. 

An engineering student at the University of Benin told me "I don't like shaving because people say the more you shave, the more the hair is going to grow. But then, I don't want to be viewed as a male so I shave it off, the mustache is every two weeks while my underarms and pubic hair every week unless I'm sure I won't be wearing an armless top. I see it as a burden every time and I wish I wasn't so hairy". 

She also said the shaving cream she uses makes her underarms darker so sometimes she would rather use a shaving stick even though she ends up having terrible bumps.

 Mary said "I've only shaved once in 2018 and it itched me a lot so I never considered shaving again. I was proud of it because I noticed some girls around me don't shave but recently I've been seeing a lot of movies where the ladies shave and also in adverts so I felt maybe by society's standard ladies are not supposed to have so much hair. I became conscious of my hair, I noticed the hair on my legs is as much as my brother's and it got me asking if I was a man. I'm going to shave when I think I'm ready because I really want to experience the smoothness". 

A 200L Medical Lab Scientist said the first time she noticed the strand on her chin, she felt uneasy because some people say women with beards are witches, so she kept plucking them as soon as they came out. She said she learned to remove her mom's gray hair with charcoal so she would rub charcoal on the tip of her fingers and pull out her hair strands." I can't leave the hair strands alone because it makes me uncomfortable.  My ex-boyfriend once shamed me for it", she said. 

Angel, a Journalist, Editor, and Researcher said "I'm hairy and I've pretty much been told to shave the hair on my arms and legs to look more ''feminine'' . The only area I've ever compromised on shaving off is my pubic hair before I had sex because he asked nicely and he appreciated it. I remember that in secondary school I started shaving the hair on my legs and arms because I was bullied. It was my mum that made me stop it then. Not like she forced me to stop but I told her about it and she said that the hair is for a reason and it actually is, I remember feeling cold and weird when there was no hair on my arms and legs, it was just generally uncomfortable. But asides from that, I've been shamed especially as an Igbo babe for being hairy all my life. I was once shamed in South Africa by an immigration officer who asked in a disgusted tone why I was hairy. A stupid man if ever there was one. I try not to care about it and when all else fails I remember that it is my trademark as an Igbo babe. Still, I have to admit that because of how people say hairy women are ugly and nasty when people say that popular thing about Igbo women being beautiful, a part of me doubts it so when people say I'm fine I think oh but I'm hairy.

I'm unlearning this part but generally, on a normal day I don't give a fuck because I can wear shirts that show cleavage and inevitably my chest hair and not worry at all".

I hope women start to unlearn the shame attached to their body hair and that whatever decision they make is solely because they choose to and not because of the societal standard that considers women with body hair unfeminine. At the end of the day, everybody will adjust to whatever stand you take.