- When Bella was 10 years old, bullies shamed her for the pubic hair that spilled out the side of her swimming costume
- She raced home to shave all her body hair and that continued through her teen years, often leaving her with irritated skin
- Later in life, she discovered illustrations and photos of women with body hair, and how they accepted themselves
- Bella Davis, from Sydney, NSW, explains how she’s since become a body acceptance and self-care advocate, encouraging women to feel confident about their fuzz…
I glanced around at my fellow beach goers before nervously yanking down my shorts to reveal my swimmers underneath.
It was a hot summer’s day in 2022 and the beach was crowded.
Everyone is looking at me, I fretted, feeling paranoid.
Tufts of hair spilt out the side of my bottoms after I’d recently decided to stop shaving, fed up with always having to do it.
Suddenly, I heard a couple of teenage girls giggling, and when I turned to face them, I realised they were laughing at me.
It triggered a flashback from when I was ten and had just hit puberty.
During a swimming carnival at school, a couple of older girls pointed out my pubic hair that was showing.
“That’s so disgusting,” one cried out.
“Haven’t you ever heard of a razor?” laughed the other.
Mortified, I raced home, grabbed a razor, and shaved off the hair without any foam.
I ended up with painful red bumps across my pubic area, but I kept doing it whenever more hairs appeared, led to believe that body hair was dirty, unhygienic, and something to be ashamed of.
Around the same time, I started struggling with my weight, too.
In 2016, when my Year 12 formal approached, wanting to look my best, I became obsessed with how much I weighed.
I developed an unhealthy relationship with food and exercise and although I didn’t realise it at the time, I was struggling with an eating disorder.
I was severely limiting my food intake, and exercising four hours a day, pushing myself even when I was exhausted.
But in 2019, when I was 23, I started to reframe my way of thinking.
I’d moved out of home and started cooking for myself, and I discovered mindful eating – and began nurturing my body and eating for joy.
I went from a size 8 to a size 14-16, but I loved my new curves.
I started discovering illustrations and photography of women with body hair, and how they accepted themselves.
In one photograph Julia Roberts was at a red-carpet event embracing her underarm body hair.
Wow! I thought, inspired.
I decided to follow suit, and although my first time on the beach without shaving was uncomfortable at first, I soon felt liberated and empowered, and it felt great.
After that, going out in public without shaving became easier.
One evening at a concert, I wore a sheer dress, which showed my underwear and pubic hair underneath.
So many women approached me to tell me how amazing I looked.
“I wish I could wear an outfit like that without shaving,” one told me.
“You can!” I replied.
I’m now a body acceptance and self-care advocate, with more than 260,000 followers on Instagram, where I’ve received some fantastic comments of support.
Bring back the 80’s bush, one woman said, making me chuckle.
But even though a lot of the feedback has been positive, we still have a long way to go.
Smooth and silky skin is still seen in society as more attractive, and women are still judged for letting their hair grow.
Yet nobody bats an eyelid if a man is hairy.
Ultimately, it should be our choice, and it should be accepted.
It’s up to us what we do with our own bodies.
If you’re curious about growing your body hair, let it grow for a month and see how it feels.
You might start to view your body hair differently and learn to accept that it’s natural and beautiful.
Follow Bella on Insta: @isabelladavis6
