I Wanted to Stop Sweating, So I Stopped Shaving
Hear me out before you judge me
I’ve been shaving under my arms since I was around eleven years old. Soon after I began shaving my legs; I thought that was what I was supposed to do. That means that for approximately fourteen years I’ve been spending money and wasting time just about every day to remove hair that grows on my body by default.
I don’t need to tell you that hair growth is natural and cannot possibly be unsanitary unless you aren’t bathing regularly. Having hair is not inherently dirty. So when did shaving become something we started doing, specifically as women?
Like most things that women feel societal pressure to do, it started with men. It wasn’t until 1908 that it was “decided” that underarm hair was unappealing because up to that point, women didn’t really wear short sleeves. Since Gillette had already cornered the market in facial hair removal, they needed to figure out a way to get women to buy their safety razors too.
Enter women’s magazines. It was rapidly decided that women’s armpits were “objectionable” and needed to be removed. The summer of 1914 is now often referred to as “The Great Underarm Campaign” Advertisers did their very best to make women feel unclean but fixable. They use words like “smoothing” and “gentle” while also reminding women that they were “unclean” and “unsightly” if they dared to be seen in public with armpit hair. God forbid, right?
It wasn’t long after the Roaring 20s began that leg hair removal also became appealing.
While the topic of leg hair removal is equally as fascinating as armpit hair removal, my current problem remains in my pits rather than my shins.
I’ve always been kind of a sweaty lady. My whole life I’ve been…damp? I get hot very easily and will sweat profusely even when it’s cold outside. When I started taking antidepressants and stimulants to treat my ADHD, the sweating got worse. Go figure, the one thing that’s supposed to help me is making me more physically uncomfortable.
Excessive sweating is a side effect of a lot of psychiatric medications, including the ones I’m currently taking. I work from home as a teacher. I lead a pretty sedentary lifestyle. I try and get up and move around a little bit each day, whether it’s walking the dog or dancing to fun music for a little bit. But the point still remains, I’m not nearly active enough to warrant the amount of sweat that happens every day on my body.
I don’t think you understand just how sweaty I am. I usually have to change my clothes halfway through the day because I sweat straight through my t-shirts. I feel like I end up doing twice as much laundry as my husband because I’m basically wearing two outfits every day, sometimes more.
I’ve tried everything I can think of. I stopped using “women’s” deodorant (you know the stuff, pink cap and smells like sunshine) and switched to “men’s” antiperspirants to try and combat the sweat. None of it worked. I tried natural deodorants, I tried charcoal, I tried prescription-strength antiperspirants but all that did was give me a harsh rash. I should also mention I have crazy sensitive skin, which doesn’t help.
I’ve shaved my armpits every day for fourteen years at least. I get ingrown hairs, I get irritation, I can rashes, I get itching; you name it and I’ve had it happen.
There was one common denominator in all of this: I was still shaving my armpits.
So, two weeks ago I stopped. I cut it cold turkey, if you will. I am obviously still showering like normal and washing my hair and body. I’m using the same deodorant/antiperspirant that I have been using consistently for a few months and have not changed my soap.
Today when I was finished teaching I realized I was still wearing the same clothes I had started the day in. My romper was barely damp, whereas after a seven hour work day when it was more than 90 degrees outside I usually would have needed to change.
I feel like it’s important to note here that there is not any scientific evidence that there is a correlation between armpit hair and sweating. According to Dr. Anthony Rossi, sweating is caused by the glands under your skin. So therefore the hair on the surface of your skin would have very little to do with how much or little you sweat. He says “Sweat comes from glands inside, so it’s regulated by your internal temperature.”
I’ve Googled my heart out about what to do with the only potential solution being more antiperspirant or Botox in my armpits (NO THANK YOU). I decided to experiment a little bit and found something that might actually work for me in the long term.
I’ve asked my doctor about what to do and the only thing I get in return is that it’s caused by my medication and I just have to suck it up, basically.
I struggled with the decision to stop shaving my armpits. I was taught to shave my armpits. I was taught that it is gross to have hair there and I shouldn’t wear a tank top if I have even the slightest of stubble. Even though stopping shaving could potentially be the answer to my problem, I was concerned with how others might perceive me.
First of all, who cares. If I’m comfortable then that’s what matters. I feel more embarrassed when I’m sweating through my shirt than I am by having a little bit of hair. So who cares, I’ll leave the hair there.
Second, there’s a lot of unlearning we need to do as a society about shaving and appearance in general. This is a start for me. I personally need to unlearn a lot of my internalized misogyny about my own appearance. I don’t need to be perfectly clean shaven in order to be attractive, appealing, or sanitary. And to be honest it’s no one else’s business whether I shave or not, nor my reasoning for it.
