Hege Eriksdatter Østefjells for 'Natural Beauty' by Ben Hopper (2017)
“Growing my armpit hair made me feel confident and beautiful because I made the choice solely for myself, not for anyone else. And that's what I find drawn to in other people too. People who make choices and follow their own voice in what feels more true to them. It's inspiring and hella attractive!
And because, if anything, I will strive to live like the women Janne Robinson writes so beautiful and strong about in her poem "This Is For The Women Who Don't Give A Fuck", in every aspect of my life.
The fact that it made me feel like I was making a small difference in the position women have in society strengthened the empowerment I felt. People are beautiful when left to be their true selves be it with or without armpit hair. I don't mind if other people's personal preferences are to rid of their armpit hairs, in fact, I think variety and differences are healthy, beautiful and strengthening. I still epilate my legs, I don't quite feel as comfortable letting them grow yet. Or one day I might chose to shave my armpits again, who knows (though I doubt I will), but if I do so I hope and believe it will be because I chose so for myself. Beauty is relative and changes like everything else in life. What should be withstanding is people's right to chose for themselves without being judged. Unfortunately our society is not quite there yet, but the more variety we see around us hopefully the more open and accepting we will slowly become.
I work as an aerial circus artist and mostly perform sleeveless. Since I let my armpit hairs grow I have only had one child commenting on my hairy pits. He pointed at them and told his mother "look, she has hair". Amazing, I thought, perhaps it is his first time seeing a woman with her natural pit hair.
I also teach circus a couple of days a week in Sweden where my students are aged 12-17. Some of the older teenagers always stare a lot at my pits; so much it is hard to keep eye contact at times. And it makes me happy. Scandinavia is generally very body-hair free, and so I'm happy they get to see an alternative, particularly at that time in their life when they are extra self conscious, in the midst of their own body changes and dealing with an ever growing body image and pressure from all corners around them. They might not choose to grow their hair, but at least they are exposed to an alternative. Body hair is generally not normalized yet, just like a whole lot of other things, and so being part of forming a richer image of body image, beauty and choices makes me feel pretty darn proud when I reflect on it."
— Hege Eriksdatter Østefjells. Circus artist (2017)