Body hair is a pain, and there’s a pressure to get rid of it coming from all sides. God forbid you skip a bikini wax, miss an appointment to get your eyebrows done, forgo shaving your legs because it’s cold outside, and let the hair on your cheeks (or above your lip) grow out a little longer than last time–all of a sudden you’re treated like Wolverine. Thanks, mom.
But one body part I’ve always thought was interesting to be preoccupied with, hair wise, was your arms. However, arm hair is more noticeable than we often think. And when the length of arm hair is pointed out, it can make one very self-conscious.
As shared by the good folks at Glamour:
“One friend confessed to us that during a manicure at an upscale Manhattan nail spa, after massaging lotion on her arms, the technician smoothed the girl’s arm hair perfectly into place, practically creating a comb-over. The girl, who had never been self-conscious about her naturally blonde arm hair before, spent the rest of the day paranoid that the nail technician was hinting that she should wax it.”
And as it turns out, long arm hair has been making people self-conscious since puberty.
Back in junior high, while I was just trying to keep some simple leg hair at a minimum, I went to school with a girl who had quite a bit of hair all over her body. She was small in stature, of a lighter complexion, with long, dark, wavy hair on her head. She was a very cute girl whom the boys liked, but that still didn’t keep them from cracking jokes about how hairy she was. Quips were made about how you could braid the hair on her arms and all sorts of other childish banter (again, we were actual children at the time). Still, it was something she eventually tried to cover up, keeping jackets on indoors, only wearing short-sleeved shirts when it was especially hot, preparing herself for the comments.
By the time we made it to high school, she was no longer the only person trying to cover up arm hair.
On the way to prom with some of my best friends, my BFF shared with me, in a whisper, that she’d gone all out to look her best in her strapless ball gown.
“I shaved my arms. Hopefully, the hair doesn’t grow back thicker. I’m a little worried about that.”
She had commented in the past about how she felt like the hair on her arms was too dark and thick and it was something she was a little insecure about, but I was surprised to learn that she’d actually gone as far as to sit in her bathroom and take a razor to them.
But not only are people shaving and waxing arm hair, but they’re also looking for more permanent solutions for their androgenic strands. Like laser arm hair removal. And when all else fails, sometimes people take more random, sure-to-backfire steps to hide it, like actress Cate Blanchett. She recently revealed to Allure that her worst hair mistake ever was not made with the hair on her head, but rather, with the lengths she went to make her bright arm hair less visible.
“Bleaching my arm hair in high school – it was copper orange in patches and purple in others. Never again.”
It’s too complicated being a woman. It’s bad enough we have periods, are the only ones who can carry babies to term and get paid less–but arm hair too?! C’mon! (*sarcasm*)
If you have longer arm hair, what do you do about it? Do you care to do anything about it at all or is it something you’ve learned to accept?
