Why is it that when a girl chooses not to shave her underarms and legs, she is suddenly making a political statement? Why isn’t it just another personal choice like pants or short hair or painted nails? Why does a girl’s shower have to last 15 minutes so that she can shave all the hair off of her body? Who decided that body hair was “unbecoming” on a lady? Why don’t we have a choice in the matter?

These are the questions that lead to my decision to grow out my armpit hair a few months ago. I want to make a non-political statement to point out the absurdity of female hair standards. My non-statement is, why the hell not? Whose rules? Shave them if you want to and grow them if you want to! I used to hate shaving my armpits; I always had red bumps, and when it grew back it would scratch me. Awful. Not to mention, I had to shower in the mornings because if I shaved at night, the hair would grow back and be prickly by the morning.

So that brings me to where I am now. Hairy armpitted and smelly as ever. I had imagined I would look like Patti Smith on the cover of Easter, but instead I look more like this.

Regardless of the surprising amount of hair that grew under my arms (seriously, I am hairier than most men), I felt confident about it throughout the summer. I didn’t mind if people saw it; I even wanted them to. I wanted to see them react, whether it was with support or disgust (I got a pretty mixed bag). But now that school started, I have been feeling much more self conscious. I started pinning my arms down at my sides during class, I did not participate in the daily stretches in choir, I brought a sweater to school just in case. Suddenly I found myself in very close quarters with people that I didn’t really know after a 3.5 mile bike ride to school in 80 degree weather. Armpit hair traps your scent. That’s why we have it. I was smelly before the hair . . . But now it was beginning to feel like Middle School all over again. I started having second thoughts about my non-statement.

Not surprisingly my older brother thinks my hair is gross. He and I went home this weekend to visit, and my mom (who I love dearly) commented that it wasn’t very “feminine.” She told me that I don’t want to be known as “the girl with hairy armpits.” Why not show off my talents rather than distract from them?

The conversation really got to me. I started contemplating shaving and began listing the reasons why I didn’t like the hair: the awkwardness in class, the necessity I felt to keep a stick of Old Spice Pure Sport on my person at all times, the hair is thick and dark, I don’t look like Patti Smith, and so on.

But upon further reflection I decided that the conversation with my mother and brother only made me more set on my decision. So here are all the reasons why I should keep the hair: I will not have to shave every morning therefore minimizing my time in the shower which helps me be on time AND reduces my water consumption, I will not get scratchy at the end of the day or when I sweat, I will save money on razors (which are damn expensive), I will not get razor burn in my armpits when I’m too broke or cheap to buy new razors, I will be questioning a baseless expectation of American women, I will be redefining femininity.

I should probably trim it though . . .

-Maggie Boles