Yes, I’m an IBCLC. I’m usually writing about breastfeeding, attachment parenting, sleep deprivation and relationships. I help women and their families with breastfeeding issues and challenges, among other things. But you know what, I also have pubic hair. And since it is no longer 1970, I shave. Or wax. Or trim…and you know what else I want to say? I’m sick of it!! Aren’t the legs and armpits enough? On top of this I also wax my eyebrows, highlight my hair and occasionally sleep. I’d really love one less thing to do (without it being assumed I’m a “hippy” because I’ve stopped waxing)…NOT THAT THERE IS ANYTHING WRONG WITH BEING CALLED A HIPPY!
You may be someone who has always worn their pubic hair proudly and loudly but honestly, let’s all agree here that regardless of whether or not you have hair on your labia the reality is that we have all thought about our pubic hair…especially when we are about to give birth knowing that the entire medical team or onlooking family members will be looking at our vaginas. This is why I’m writing about it! We all think about it whether we primp our pubic hair or not…it’s there. In all it’s bushy glory. Or not.
Marilyn Monroe had pubic hair! And she wasn’t called a hippy!
The history of pubic hair…
If you look at magazines of naked women, you will notice that up until the early nineties there is pubic hair EVERYWHERE! The hairy bush is on proud display! A sign of womanhood! Of sexuality! During the nineties though you start to see less and less until VOILA! Enter the early 2000’s and it’s like pubic hair never existed. Couple that with airbrushing of the labia…yes, you read that correctly! As if waxing every hair off of our vaginas is not enough, they actually air brush it!! Trim it, smooth it out, you name it they do it. Make sure you let your boys know this as they enter their adolescent years or the first time they see an actual vagina (instead of in a magazine) they will not be sure if it’s the real thing! “What?! Hair?! What is this thing?”…
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not holding a sign that is painted, “Down with the brazillian!” For those of you who have been lucky enough to have missed this fad, it is when they wax every.single.hair.off…unless the woman decides to leave a little landing strip or dorrito shape. I have been known to have a few brazillian waxes in my time (you know that time pre children or in-between children when you have a blip in time to do extra things like wax and sleep). I remember one time quite clearly in my mind. I was lying there after having been in a hairy world of young child rearing and breastfeeding. They had to get the clippers out first before they could even wax!! I was being bushwhacked! The bushwhacking of the bush!
My friend has a great little story she told me about her Brazilian experience…
“I remember when my baby was about 4 months old and I was breastfeeding her while I was being waxed. Motherhood was so busy that my husband and I didn’t even have the chance to have sex before the hair grew back! I remember thinking, ‘that was a waste’. It was then that I realised that I wasn’t doing it for myself and I made the decision not to do it again. If I have a spare hour I would rather have sex than get ready to have sex and end up running out of time to have sex in the process.” Yup! Could not agree more! We need every spare hour we have!
Rainbow vagina wig
Another one of my friends has had her bikini line lazered off!!! Not Brazilian style…just the bikini line. She will never grow hair on her bikini line again. I was horrified! I asked her, “but what about when the hairy bush comes back into fashion?! What will you do then? They will start selling vulva wigs and you will be buying one! The next fad will be the amazing new line of vulva wigs you can buy at Target.” Because you know what…the hairy bush will come back into fashion, I know it will! I have faith.
The reason I’m asking to bring the fashionable natural bush back for us mothers is because for many of us, it is last on our list. We have tiny little windows of opportunities to do things. We stand while shoving a sandwich into our mouths with a baby on our boob, we run to the toilet only to have our toddler standing their talking to us, we shave our legs in less than two minutes while missing a few hairs near our ankles due to the quick nature of our shaving, we brush our teeth without flossing most of the time because we are so tired we can’t bare the thought of stretching out our teeth routine any longer then it has to be. So why oh why must be fit this hairless vagina fad into our lives?! Why oh why must we worry about our bikini lines when we can barely get an extra thirty seconds to drink a cup of coffee?!
We want extra time to eat sitting down and time to take a shower without having to get out to our screaming baby. We want extra time to talk on the phone for longer than 30 seconds, or maybe enough time to get all of the hairs on our legs instead of just 90%. We need the hairy bush to be fashionable again. We need to be able to embrace the bush without the pressure of mainstream media and those air brushed labia that are all over the porn magazines. **and just to let the porn magazine people know, if women stopped waxing their vagina hair off then you would not have to waste time air brushing their labia!
Us mothers of young children need the natural hairy bush to be back in!! At least for the first two years after having a baby…or maybe forever. And we really don’t want to have to go out and buy a vulva wig in twenty years time. Who is with me?!!
