Ingrid Nilsen, a 29-year-old YouTube star and beauty influencer, has posted photos of herself sporting a giant zit and written about learning to embrace getting her period. So it's no surprise that she's now tackling another taboo body issue—body hair, particularly the dark hair under her arms.
Nilsen recently shared an Instagram post of herself wrapped in a towel with one arm raised, exposing her naturally hairy armpit to her 1.4 million followers. “I decided to start exploring my relationship with body hair—not just my own hair but the way I react to seeing hair on people, specifically women,” she wrote in the caption.
“Women who have armpit hair or leg hair are often told they’re gross, dirty and lazy," she wrote. "I’ve caught myself thinking those things about women AND myself. It’s not only false, but profoundly heartbreaking that we wound ourselves with these thoughts.”
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Most of Nilsen’s followers were supportive of her anti-shave experiment, saying “I LOVE THIS!” and “HERE FOR THIS.” Some seemed to wish they could do it themselves. “It’s too crazy for me, but I admire the challenge," one commenter wrote.
Women like Nilsen are showing they can accept and love their body hair and still be feminine and beautiful. Celebs like Jemima Kirke, Amandla Stenberg, and Madonna have all shown off their underarm hair in the past—and we expect to see more women breaking down the no-body-hair beauty standard.
Nilsen hasn’t sworn off shaving forever though—she just wants to do it on her own terms. She leaves her followers with this inspiring message: “If the time comes when I do pick up a razor again, it won’t be out of fear, it’ll be because I know what I want… and a woman who knows what she *really* wants may just be the most powerful force there is.”
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