Emma Roberts participated in the Get Hairy February campaign last year and has continued to grow out her body hair. Credit:Jamie MacFayden Last year 450 women took part and raised over $40,000 for the Full Stop Foundation, which supports the work of Rape & Domestic Violence Services Australia. This year funds will also go to Empower Together, an organisation that teaches high school students about consent. "Body hair is a really simple double standard in a way that men and women's bodies are treated in our society, which reflects a deeper inequality, which we experience in all aspects of our lives as women," Andrews said. "I think it's really important to bring inequality into people's minds as often as possible because it's not always something that's visible, but hair is visible. "Now this inequality is something that we know underpins or is a factor that leads to violence against women," she said.

Alex Andrews, Founder of Get Hairy February. According to Andrews, the stigma associated with women's body hair began in 1915, when a large hair removal company started an advertising campaign linking it with words like 'embarrassing and 'dirty'. Removing body hair has now become something that girls in Australia start doing from as young as nine and ten years old. "When we don't have any examples of what natural women's bodies look like, which includes hair, in the media in our communities, we send very direct and subtle messages to girls that as their bodies change into women, their bodies are not acceptable the way they are," she said. Paula Abul, an ambassador for Get Hairy February, stopped shaving when she was 14 years old.

As a biracial woman, she told Daily Life that Eurocentric beauty standards mean she would have to do much more to her body hair than white women to gain societal acceptance. Ms Abul said she grew up with her Russian mother criticising her dark, thick Bangladeshi body hair, remembering one time she was pinned down as her mother used an electric epilator on the back of her neck. "The fact that this pressure, shaming, violence, came from someone who was supposed to love me for me definitely cemented my decision [to stop shaving]," she said. In Australia over 95 per cent of women shave their legs and underarms. They will spend between $10,000 and $20,000 and roughly two months of their lifetime ridding their bodies of hair. Not having to remove her body hair was an element of the challenge Emma Roberts, 24, said was a "happy coincidence" when she came across Get Hairy February last year.

"I was like, 'Oh this is perfect, i'll give it a try I'll grow out my hair for a month and see how it feels', and I realised, I'd never seen my body with all my hair grown out and that realisation really shocked me so that's why I wanted to get involved," she said. At the end of the month, Roberts decided against shaving her body hair and one year on, has only waxed once. "It was life changing for me and in such as positive way," she said. "It has inspired so much more respect and love for my body for me, and its something you carry with you throughout the day and it makes you feel so much better about everything." For Roberts, having supportive friends and family meant she did not receive any nasty comments, but recognises that the campaign is not for everyone.

"Depending on where women work or what her family or cultural situation is, the campaign may not be right, but I think if women can give it a go, I really cannot recommend it enough." If you are on the fence about whether or not to participate, Ms Andrews has a few words of advice. "Give it a go - it's four weeks," she said. "You're not alone when you do this. You stand up with other women who are also standing up to let it grow too." https://www.gethairyfebruary.org