These women will make you want to grow out your armpit hair

“I was inspired by my friend Ilana to stop shaving fully. I had always been lazy about shaving and just tried to cover up my stubble with sleeved shirts. It seemed the logical way to stop completely but it wasn’t until I met her and saw how confident and carefree she was about it. Then I realised who gives a f**k! The people who judge you for it are the ones not worth your time. I’m not against shaving but personally I felt a huge sense of freedom. It was a paradigm shift into letting go and seeing myself in a natural state, realising how beautiful it is to embrace this part of you!”
[Photo: Ben Hopper]

“I stopped shaving firstly because I was inspired by the Natural Beauty campaign. I am a firm believer in natural beauty. Learning to love and accept yourself for who you are. I know this isn’t always easy but I would still never get any cosmetic work done. Working in the modelling, dancing, and acting industries can make you question the way you look, and you constantly compare yourself to other women. It can be tiring. It was also a personal challenge and social experiment. I was curious how I would feel and how others around me would react. I had shaved everyday since the moment I started to grow hair. My mum is a beauty therapist so I had tried every method of hair removal by the time I was 14. I got mixed reactions; my best friend already had long underarm hair so she knew how liberating and sexy it made you feel. My boyfriend at the time didn’t like it very much, which made me want to rebel even more. I would totally recommend trying it at least once.”
[Photo: Ben Hopper]

“I first stopped out of my ‘laziness’, later realising I was just actively allowing myself to be more comfortable. So I let it grow, curious to what it would feel like au natural in an area so taboo and visible to the rest of the world. It made me feel good! Like myself, like I couldn’t care what others felt, sort of empowered and comfortable in what my body naturally decided to look like. People’s reactions were surprisingly very positive. There was of course some confusion, but I didn’t really feel any response was negative. The people complaining have a lot more to deal with than their own body hair growth. They feel they have to conform to a societal pressure I really don’t adhere to. Having body hair is kind of in contrast to my job sometimes, and I don’t always have a full set of underarm lady hair or a generous lady garden! In fact ,sometimes I have the exact opposite. For me, what it’s about is pro choice. If I choose to grow it, it’s because I feel like it, equally if I choose to take it all off. Through this whole practice of liberated body image, I just wish to promote my own choice and to be conscious about what makes me happy in my skin.”
[Photo: Ben Hopper]

“I am mixed race and have quite fair sensitive skin and thick dark hair. This made shaving a very difficult and often painful process. Stubble would always grow back within 24 hours, and trying to shave the stubble would end in bleeding and rashes. My underarms were never ‘pretty’ or ‘feminine’. I hated it and was made miserable by it. I desperately wanted to have skin and hair like my friends and be accepted – not only by them, but also by myself. When I was about 17 and in my first serious relationship with a boy who loved my body a lot more than I did, I decided to try something radical. I decided to stop putting myself through pain, to stop being angry with my body for not being the way I wanted it; I stopped shaving. I’d like to say I never looked back but I definitely have. I’ve shaved a few times since. I’m ashamed to say I’ve apologised to a few people about it, feeling embarrassed and nervous and wanting to make a point of excusing it before anyone else can comment. However, I was contacted by Ben Hopper, and eventually and slightly cautiously agreed to let him photograph me for his Natural Beauty series. The experience completely changed my feelings towards my armpits and my overall confidence increased massively. I felt proud to be an example of how beautiful women’s bodies are, no matter what they choose to do with them. I think everyone should try going without any non-essential grooming at some point in their life. You may even find that you like the way it looks as I did, and if you don’t you can always just go back to shaving, no harm done.”
[Photo: Ben Hopper]

“I never stopped shaving because I never started. I do remember my mother shaving when I was younger and I thought that was pretty unnecessary since she was a strict muslim. I later realised it’s a thing women do to look more desirable to men. It really irritated me that the people who reacted negatively to my natural armpit hair were men. This is just one more reason that I don’t shave it off. But you’ve got to get over it and don’t let these idiots get under it. I would recommend growing it to any women. A trim here and there doesn’t hurt, but it is so beautiful – even my boyfriend has changed his opinion about it now.
[Photo: Ben Hopper]

“I let my hair grow for the Natural Beauty project. It really intrigued me to see my whole body in its natural state. I wanted to know what it would feel like and how I would feel. I wanted to witness people’s judgment on my body first-hand. I wanted to see how that impact would affect myself. It made me feel natural and vulnerable at first, and eventually empowered. I’ve grown accustomed to my armpit hair, and it makes me feel beautiful. People’s reactions are mixed, as it’s not mainstream. The stronger I get from being in a vulnerable place, the less people’s reactions hurt me. Some even humour me now. As my hair grew, I grew stronger with it.”
[Photo: Ben Hopper]

“Armpit hair grows naturally, so one would think people would ask, ‘why do you shave?’ not the opposite. The fact that in this society something natural like growing your armpit hair is almost a statement, or a political act, is weird – and that’s a reason to grow. People react differently, depending on what environment I am in. When I am very dressed up, people are more disturbed by it. When I’m in jeans and a t-shirt or wearing more punk or hippie style, people are more relaxed with it. It’s more socially accepted or anticipated. With the hair, sometimes I feel free and natural and sometimes like a freak (which can be fun or disturbing, depending on my mood).
[Photo: Ben Hopper]

“I stopped shaving mostly because Ben asked but I was kind of excited to see what I looked like with body hair as I started removing it quite young. Most people know me to be pretty open to new ideas and style choices so they pretty much didn’t care or ask, but I did notice that sometimes in a pub, I would get more questions about it, or was assumed to be a staunch feminist. On the whole though most people either didn’t notice or politely ignored it. I learnt that most people are grown up enough to not care, and if they do, they’re mostly polite enough to just pretend they don’t see it. And that ultimately if I do or don’t have body hair, it’s no one’s business but my own.”
[Photo: Ben Hopper]