By Rebecca Drew
THIS stunning young woman has embraced her natural body hair with the support of her understanding husband after ditching razors over a year ago and has been fighting against the strict beauty standards of smoothness ever since.
Like most females, secretary Sonia Cytrowska (28) from Gdynia, Poland first started to remove her body hair when she was 12 but thanks to airbrushing in magazines and on television, she constantly found herself comparing her hair to other girls who had more or less hair than her.
Just over a year ago, Sonia decided to stop shaving after she realised that she was removing her hair due to social pressures and finding out that many hair removal methods are bad for the environment and also time consuming. She would spend at least three hours every week to stay smooth which left her feeling down and insecure about her natural look. She started sharing pictures on Instagram under the hashtag, #bodyhairmovement.
Sonia admits that her husband, Tobiasz, of three years struggled with her natural appearance at first but said that their love conquered any of his confusion on the matter.
“I was looking at other body hair positive accounts and it was much easier for me to start my new, hairy life with support of others, both men and women,” said Sonia.
“I’ve been shaving since I was twelve and all my life I was feeling worse and less worthy than other girls who didn’t have so much hair on their bodies.
“I started my Instagram when I was still insecure about my natural look and I wanted to find other women who knew what I felt like and men who won’t be disgusted by my natural appearance.
“At first my husband was shocked because he’s known me for eight years and I was always shaving all my body. And actually, he prefers a shaved appearance but we talked a lot, I explained to him that it is so important for me, to live with my natural body hair and he decided to accept me and support me.
“There were tough times but conscious love and commitment won.
“The hardest thing was to accept myself and to feel confident with my hairy body in front of others, even if they whisper and stare at me. It was hard to accept that sometimes people can reject me if they will know how I really look like. Body hair in my society is a taboo”.
Sonia admits that she does still have days where she feels under pressure to look a certain way but she hopes that through social media she can show other women that having body hair is both normal and beautiful. She shared her advice to others.
“At home, with my husband or friends I feel safe and accepted. I can easily show my body hair and it is natural for me,” she added.
“But it is still hard when I meet new people, for example when I was searching for a new job or going to lectures at university.
“Sometimes there are days where I don’t care what anyone in this world is thinking about my body hair, because I fell in love with my natural body and I believe that every woman should have a choice.
“I choose not to shave because I find myself beautiful and it’s very comfortable to live that way but of course days where I question why I choose to fight with all these beauty standards and ask why I am so stubborn.
“I receive a lot of messages from women who are at the very point where I was one year ago. I talk with them, sometimes we send pics and we support each other.
“My biggest dream is to see women shaved and women with unshaved body hair in the streets of big cities. Both accept each other, because what they do with their body is their choice.
“I hope that my account shows to other women that body hair is beautiful and normal. You can be an independent woman, working in a large corporation, studying in your dream direction, be loved by husband and still have a hairy and natural body.
“My kind of advice is if you are afraid of losing your friends or partner, think about whether you want to live with people for whom you have to pretend to be someone you are not.
“This thought helped me break through at the beginning of my #bodyhairmovement journey.”
For more information see www.instagram.com/bodyhairmovement
