Cutting through the hair hysteria

WOMEN’S body hair, and what we choose to do with it, seems to provoke a lot of debate. It’s curious really, because no matter where you are from, what your skin type or hair colour, all of us have it. Yet, instead of providing common ground, our attitudes to body hair (keep it, keep it in line or be gone with it) seem to be a great divider.

The Sun knows where it stands. The paper recently ran a story about the insanely beautiful and talented Beyoncé at the premiere of her Life is but a Dream documentary with the headline: “If I were a boy — Beyoncé shuns shaving her armpits on the red carpet”. Even in a society that fawns over the famous, it seems that the world’s most famous pop star can’t get away with a “grooming gaffe”. In case you haven’t seen the picture, there was only the slightest hint of underarm stubble, helpfully zoomed in on so everyone could gasp in horror.

Beyoncé is not alone, poor Pixie Lott was taken to task by The Daily Mail for another “armpit faux pas” while attending a film premiere in London. Of course it all started with Julia Roberts’ Notting Hill premiere moment in 1999, when she lifted her arms and sparked a media frenzy. Roberts’ armpit hair was described as both “revolting” and “cringeworthy”, not the words you would associate with a beaming Oscar-winning actress, happily waving to fans. More recently Twilight actress Kristen Stewart told US Weekly she was bullied in school for not shaving her legs, and with reports that salons in America and the UK offer bikini waxes to girls as young as 11, what are we all losing our hair about?