Many things that people do are because they feel obligated to by society. As a lifelong skeptic and someone who delights in going against social norms, I have always challenged things that I deemed to be “normal.” At the beginning of the summer I decided to grow out my body hair, most notably my legs and armpits, since women are expected to shave their armpits and legs. Women are also shamed for not shaving their arms and facial hair.

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According to Mental Floss, women didn’t start shaving their underarms until around 1915. Before then even saying the word “underarm” was considered scandalous. The introduction of the sleeveless dress is attributed with sparking the trend, which became an expectation, of women shaving their underarms. As dresses became shorter and it became acceptable to show a little ankle, the shaving of legs also became a societal expectation.

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One of the reasons I decided to do this was because I was teased in elementary school for not shaving my legs. This experience made me extremely self-conscious, and once I realized that I was shamed into shaving I decided it was time to try a little social experiment and see how I felt about being hairy and how people would react.

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I’ve let my leg hair grow out numerous times, so that didn’t bother me at all. I found that the armpit hair was kind of itchy while it was growing out, but once it was grown it didn’t really feel any different. If anything, it feels better because this is how my body is naturally.

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People didn’t react like I had expected. One of my good guy friends asked me about it, but he didn’t care and thought my reasoning for doing it was interesting. I got a few weird looks, like the one day when I wore a dress and tights that were partially transparent. A lot of girls were proud of me for it and find it inspiring.

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During this whole thing, I learned more about myself than about how society reacts to women’s body hair. I realized that I don’t mind having body hair and that it keeps me warmer in the winter, which makes sense evolutionarily. Before the end of the last semester I had a jazz band concert and I decided to shave before it to see how I felt after growing out my hair for months. This made me realize that shaving when I wear a dress, particularly if it is sleeveless, makes me feel more confident and attractive. That is definitely attributed to societal expectations, but to me it wasn’t worth being uncomfortable and self-conscious to make a social statement.

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The most important thing I took away from this experience is that I should do things because I want to, not because I feel pressured to. I felt like I couldn’t accurately judge whether or not I was for or against letting my body hair grow out until I did it for the first time since I began puberty. I’m in favor of letting my hair grow out, but if I’m going to a special event and am wearing a dress, I will most likely shave because I want to. So, to my feminine friends, I encourage you to try growing out your hair to see if it’s something to keep. And to everyone, stop judging others for things that don’t matter, like whether or not someone has armpit hair.