Growing Out

My Comps project is an exploration of the social place of hair on women. A woman’s hair is at once a point of self-love and self-hate, of beauty and shame. Most hair products are marketed to women and tell them in no uncertain language how their hair should be, from their head to their armpits, legs, faces and groins. Advertisements overwhelmingly tell women that a smooth shaved body is much more attractive than a hairy one—a recent article in the New York Times found that many younger women believe that natural pubic hair is actually unsanitary. So women often go to salons to go through the painful process of waxing. There are certain bounds within which people will accept hair on women (long hair on top, no hair elsewhere), beyond which vicious criticism often emerges. Few cultural icons of beauty have prominent body hair and it is almost never celebrated. But below the level of pop-culture, there is a movement to normalize and celebrate female hairiness. It is my intention with this project to comment on the state of body hair in our culture by telling the stories of Carleton students as they relate to hair