Link: https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2026/sep/08/phoebe-bridgers-venice-festival-leg-armpit-hair-women-beauty-shaving

“Hell yeah!” is 27-year-old PhD student Anna Busuttil’s response. “I think it’s awesome; cool and rebellious,” she says – a view that chimes with that of most of the women I speak to outside University College London’s Bloomsbury campus. Busuttil says she sees a lot more women nowadays choosing not to remove their body hair. “I know people who dye their armpit hair a certain colour as well, so it stands out even more. I feel like leg hair is more taboo for women; it feels like such a ‘masculine’ thing, and legs are supposed to be a really sexy part of a woman.”

Francesca Hall, 25, agrees: she removes her leg hair, but doesn’t worry about her underarms. Yet she feels that, if anything, it’s becoming less common to go unshaven. “There’s been a general shift, culturally, towards more conservative ideas,” says the student union-worker. “It’s the same with veganism; it’s gone backwards a bit. My friendship group is quite queer, leftwing, and not everyone would remove their leg hair.” But, she says, not removing leg hair is more common “in those circles … I definitely think there’s a correlation there.”

“I’ve got really hairy legs!” says student Phoebe Green, 21, hitching up her long shorts so I can get a better look. “I don’t really pay attention to the trends that are going around; having leg hair doesn’t affect my life in any way,” she says. “I’ve definitely had a few comments, a few condescending dudes being like, ‘why aren’t they shaved?’ But I get a lot of compliments from girls, there’s a lot of solidarity.”

I’m hoping this is visible. I haven’t been able to see any updates in this community since there was a bot attack on my home instance a few days ago.

Edit: I can see comments! Just no posts and no upvotes/downvotes. Mystery continues....

Can see you from aussie.zone!

They're not "hairy young women". They're "young women". Hair is a natural part of human beings, men or women. Frame this properly: the fall of unnaturally smooth women.

No problems seeing you here.

the fall of unnaturally smooth women.

Much more accurate!

I love the positivity around it! Hair is a beautiful and natural part of our bodies.

I see you

I think I shaved my legs once this summer 😂. Lucky that my husband doesn't care I guess.

Fucking love this!

Even I can admit the feeling of sliding into bed with clean sheets and freshly shaven legs is a special kind of amazing!

Keep on shaving and I’ll keep all the hair and it’s so cool because we’re just doin what we want as women :)

This. This right here. I've decided to go natural. Others decide to shave. Just like some men shave daily and others grow epic beards and everything in between.

It's a choice and nobody should be judged for their choice ... unless they then try to force or shame that choice on others.

Maybe either your instance is blocked by someone else, or your instance is blocking this group?

I am pretty much okay with having myself a body hair. While i dont particularly like it, i dont really hate it or care much about it to shave. The only hair that i do hate is facial hair, the bear and mousetache, but at least its quick and easy to shave.

I came here to say this exactly. It's awesome seeing women rocking their body hair as they see fit but I'm getting my shit waxed, lasered and electrolysed until the day I die.