Confidently
all natural.

Why I Stopped Shaving & My Body Hair Journey

From the time I was about 11 or 12 until I was 22, I wasn’t just ashamed of my body hair—I felt cursed by how much I had and by how quickly, thickly, and densely it grew. My Italian and Greek roots definitely came through strong in that department! I meticulously shaved every day, only to have visible leg and armpit stubble again within two or three hours. To call it a hassle would be an understatement. Throughout high school and college, I shaved virtually every hair on my body that wasn’t on my head.

Then, in September 2016, when I was 22, I came across an article about women—including some female celebrities—who had stopped shaving as a way of challenging societal expectations surrounding women’s body hair. It intrigued me. Why were women expected to remove practically every hair below their necks, spending so much time and money doing it, while men could leave their body hair completely untouched? Not to mention, I actually thought natural body hair looked cute on women.

So I thought: Why not try it?

I stopped shaving around the middle of October 2016, partly because fall and winter gave me the perfect opportunity to experiment when hardly anyone would see my body hair anyway. It was really just curiosity at first—I wanted to see what it would look and feel like if I simply let everything grow.

By mid-January 2017, my body hair had completely grown in, and I was genuinely shocked by just how dense and voluminous it was. I had more armpit hair than I could remember ever seeing on a man, and my pubic hair was even denser. My boyfriend at the time was incredibly supportive of the experiment and eventually came to find my natural body hair sexy, which only made me feel more feminine and beautiful.

I especially loved my extremely hairy armpits and felt naturally sexy with them. But I knew the real test would come with summer and tank-top weather.

As warmer days arrived in late March and early April, I started worrying about how people would react—strangers, friends, and family alike. On days when I normally would have thrown on a tank top without a second thought, I found myself wearing T-shirts and long sleeves just to hide my armpits. I knew I didn’t want to live that way. If I was going to embrace my natural body hair, I didn’t want to feel as though it was something I needed to conceal because of other people’s opinions.

So I decided to confront that fear head-on.

I started easing into it by wearing tank tops to the gym. And yes, I got plenty of darting stares! That was definitely a mountain to climb. After a week or two, though, I became much more accustomed to the attention—even if the staring itself didn’t exactly stop lol.

Then, in late April, I took a spring trip to Miami with my then-boyfriend, who had become completely supportive of—and genuinely attracted to—my natural look. I was determined to conquer whatever anxiety I still had about openly displaying my body hair, so I deliberately packed only tank tops, tube tops, and sleeveless or strapless dresses.

Literally the only piece of clothing with sleeves I brought was the sweatshirt I wore to the airport, because I was still living with my parents and wasn’t quite ready for them to know I had stopped shaving. Once I reached the airport, I actually threw the sweatshirt away before boarding the plane. I had intentionally made sleeves a non-option: for the entire trip, my armpit hair was going to be out in the open.

During the flight and throughout Miami, I got plenty of stares, which initially made me even more anxious. But with encouragement from my boyfriend—and my determination to get past the fear and enjoy my vacation—I gradually started owning it. I even began finding excuses to raise my arms as a way of desensitizing myself to people looking. The more people stared, the more confidently I raised my arms.

And eventually, it worked like a charm.

I also discovered that my body hair didn’t stop me from dressing up, going out, or getting into some very posh restaurants and clubs. That trip REALLY emboldened me. I returned home more confident in my natural appearance than ever.

The next mountain was exposing my armpit hair around people I actually knew.

When I returned from Miami and went back to my parents’ house, I walked in wearing a halter top—partly because, after throwing away that sweatshirt, I literally had no tops with sleeves with me anyway 😂. My pits were completely out, and my dense armpit hair was visible whether my arms were raised or not.

I will never forget their shocked expressions—or the way their eyes immediately darted toward my armpits.

At first, they were genuinely concerned about what was going on with me. Then came the blunt reactions: “That’s disgusting,” “Shave that,” or at least, “Don’t wear tank tops unless you shave.” Some of my friends reacted similarly.

But after a few summer months of seeing me confidently wearing tank tops and tube tops almost every day, the nagging gradually disappeared. Eventually, most of the people in my life—including friends, parents, and extended family—agreed that it actually suited me and even looked “strangely normal” on me.

About a year later, I was a bridesmaid in a friend’s wedding, and the bridesmaid dresses were strapless. By then, instead of asking me to shave, my friend actually begged me NOT to. So there I was at a formal wedding in front of roughly 300 people, wearing a strapless dress and proudly sporting more armpit hair than most men 🙏👌💪.

From that point forward, it became my own bold, unique fashion accessory. I genuinely can’t remember the last time I regularly wore sleeves over the past eight or nine years.

For several years, though, I still drew a line between different parts of my body. I kept my armpit and pubic hair completely natural but continued shaving my legs, forearms, and abdomen because I liked how smooth they felt. I also shaved my perianal hair for hygiene reasons.

Over the past three years, that gradually changed. I stopped removing my perianal hair after getting a bidet, which made hygiene much easier regardless of how much hair I had there. My current boyfriend also encouraged me to let it grow because he thought it would look cute.

Then, earlier this year, in 2026, I came to a realization: if my natural body hair had become such an important part of how I see my beauty, femininity, and sexuality, why was I still removing some of it?

So I decided it was finally time to embrace my completely natural self.

Since around April 2026, I’ve been entirely razor-free. I no longer remove hair from anywhere on my body. I’ve fully grown out my leg, thigh, forearm, and abdominal hair along with everything else—and, surprise surprise, it’s all hairy AF.

And I couldn’t be prouder to wear it.