‘I don’t care if men find me attractive’: The complex politics of leg hair

When Joanie O’Mara, 28, stopped shaving her legs, it made her feel “really self-conscious.” She had learned to embrace body hair in other areas because it felt more deliberate – “more punk and feminist” – but leg hair remained contentious in her mind. Unlike armpit hair and pubic hair, it felt neither defiant nor erotic. “Legs are just legs,” she says, “so it’s perceived as unkempt.”

Earlier this month, Phoebe Bridgers walked the carpet at Venice Film Festival with visible leg hair beneath her tailored Gucci skirt suit. Many praised her decision not to shave, saying it was the first time they had seen a celebrity with hairy legs on the red carpet. Others questioned why this was newsworthy, but in a world that still shames women for not shaving, Bridgers’ choice felt deliberate. 

“I felt so seen and so much better after seeing a cool artist that I like showing how natural and normal leg hair is,” says Silvia Almeida, 26, “but I do find it sad and weird that we need to praise someone for that.” She also doubts if it will change how she feels about her own leg hair, which she sometimes finds “gross”, even though she feels guilty for feeling that way. 

While social media trends like “full bush in a bikini” or dyed and bedazzled armpit hair have swept across the internet, leg hair has seemingly been left behind. It is only seen as a deliberate statement if you are a celebrity at a public-facing event. Otherwise, it is usually perceived as accidental – and with that comes embarrassment. Maybe you forgot to shave your legs before the party or you didn’t realise how much your hair had grown out before the first hot summer day. Leg hair is rarely a statement or trend in its own right.

Red carpet stylist Madeleine Bowden believes this could change, but only if stylists and designers start styling it more deliberately. “I feel like leg hair got left behind because it’s harder to style,” she says. “Pubic hair and armpit hair can be shaped, dyed and turned into a statement. Legs are on show all the time, so there’s no reveal moment like there is with pits or a bikini line. That’s where the charge comes from with those trends, and leg hair never had it. Bridgers worked because it read as unbothered confidence, not as a look in itself.”

Of course, celebrity red carpet moments and lighthearted trends like “full bush in a bikini” are not the beginning and end of the conversation, but they can help undo some of the shame and trauma that many women experience in relation to their body hair. Musician and body hair activist Carolena V was only 10-years-old when she started shaving her legs after a boy at school screeched, “Ew! Your legs are so hairy!” She continued to reluctantly remove her leg hair until her late-20s when she started interrogating why exactly body hair made her feel so insecure. Now, she shares videos of ‘leg hair art’ on TikTok, using eyebrow gel and colourful make-up to create swirling heart patterns with the hair on her legs. “I think showing leg hair art on social media makes a real change in women’s day-to-day comfort with their own leg hair,” she says. “It’s so attention-grabbing and whimsical and focuses on celebrating and adorning a part of womanhood that has been rejected and removed.” 

Although women have reached out to her saying they wish they hadn’t shaved their legs so they could make leg hair art too, the trend hasn’t caught on in the same viral way that “full bush in a bikini” did – likely because leg hair is much more visible and therefore more immediately confrontational. It’s easier to take a flattering video with a text overlay saying, “No one knows I’m full bush in a thong right now” than it is to step out into the world with body hair in a larger, more visible area. “If you say, ‘I don’t shave my bush’, it’s not going to have the same impact as not shaving your legs,” says body hair activist Esther Calixte-Béa, AKA Queen Esie. “We’re not really going to see that. We’re not going to have to reflect on that subject in the same way.”

Calixte-Béa notes that while Phoebe Bridgers’ red carpet moment feels important, her leg hair isn’t that visible unless you look very closely. Some body hair is more visible than others, and thick, dark hair is often met with the most backlash. “I’m very, very hairy,” adds Calixte-Béa. “My hair is very apparent. It’s very dark. When I see women online talking about body hair, oftentimes it’s blonde hair on their arms or it’s not very visible. That’s not to say that what they’re talking about is not valid, but it doesn’t feel as threatening. It’s not as disturbing to the status quo.”

Another reason why leg hair feels so confrontational is because it signals a disregard for the male gaze, whether it‘s intended that way or not. “For the public it seems like [women with visible leg hair] have given up trying to be pretty,” says Calixte-Béa. “It’s not very sexual. It’s seen as more masculine.” Sadly, the statistics also back this up. A 2021 YouGov study found that 66 per cent of men and 62 per cent of women in the UK still think it’s “unattractive” for women to have hairy legs. 

That’s why, for Joanie, having leg hair is still political, even if it’s not always coded as explicitly feminist in the same way that armpit hair might be. “It’s not a subtle, incognito comfort or fashion choice,” she says. “It’s a big deal. If you are feeling less powerful, more subtle, more like hiding, leg hair is not the one.”

Celebrities who don’t shave their legs make headlines, but most women don’t stop shaving to make a political statement. Many simply stop because it is boring and time-consuming and there are better things to do. Body hair is not a trend. It is a natural state. It’s time for leg hair’s “full bush in a bikini” moment, but that alone is not enough. We need to question why these norms exist in the first place. “Hairy legs say that a woman’s body will not conform to be desirable for the male gaze,” says Carolena. “She will not offer herself up as a tasty visual treat. Hairy legs say: ‘I don’t care if a man finds me attractive’ and that’s a big statement in our society.”