If you’re a woman from Indonesia or elsewhere, you’ve surely come across more than a few ads offering body hair removal options – a way to become “beautiful” in the eyes of others. A recent ad showing an actress showing off her immaculately smooth armpit promotes technology designed to permanently remove body hair. Waxing and shaving services are more ubiquitous than ever, and many other hair removal brands with slogans promoting “beautiful skin” without hair are getting the message across. Women have to be as smooth as silk to be considered beautiful.
But some Indonesian women don’t have it. You have chosen to let your hair grow the way nature intended.
Dhianita Kusuma Pertiwi, a Jakarta writer, says her worth as a woman has nothing to do with whether or not she is hairless.
“I don’t choose to shave or wax, not because I want to break the standard of beauty, but simply because I personally don’t believe there is such a standard,” she said on Sunday.
As a child, Dhianita felt at odds with the hairlessness of the models she saw in her mother’s women’s magazines. In high school, the discussion about body hair became even clearer when friends started making fun of the hair on Dhianita’s legs. But she never paid any attention. Since high school, she has let the hair on her legs, arms, and armpits grow naturally.
At university, Dhianita saw more friends try to get rid of body hair. One of her classmates even brewed her own hair removal formula using shallots and chilies.
“It was obviously hot and her skin looked burned. I thought, ‘Why does it have to be like this?’ ”Recalls Dhianita.
In late 2018, Dhianita came across posts from celebrities and internet personalities showing unshaven body hair – mostly in the armpits. It was a global campaign that was unnamed until January 2019 when YouTubers Laura Jackson and Ruby Jones started calling them Januhairy.
Jackson, who now has more than 40,000 followers on her Instagram account @Januariy, was a student at Exeter University in the UK. In May 2018, she started growing her armpit hair for a theatrical performance. At first she felt uncomfortable, but she always liked her natural hair more, even as those around her, including her mother, questioned her choice.
“It really opened my eyes to the taboo on a woman’s body hair,” Jackson wrote on Instagram.
Agnes Deno, a young mother from Malang, East Java, has also refused to adhere to hairless beauty standards. Agnes began to see the standards when she was in high school. One of her friends pointed out her hairy legs, said they were “dirty” and suggested that Agnes shave them.
“At first I didn’t see body hair as a problem. Then I thought something was wrong, ”she said on Friday.
From then on, Agnes regularly shaved her legs and armpits, although she hated the stinging sensation after shaving.
In her senior year at university, Agnes began to realize that every part of the body had its own function, including body hair.
“So why should I remove it?” She said.
Her decision to stop shaving surprised her friends, especially the males who nicknamed her DKI for Deno Ketek Item (Black Armpit Deno).
Deno took it calmly and said she was sorry the boys passed out. “Maybe you had never seen a girl with armpit hair before.”
The popular indie singer Danilla Riyadi also lets her armpit hair grow. In an interview with YouTuber and musician Onadio Leonardo on his YouTube channel on July 24, 2020, Danilla said she had never seen her mother remove her body hair.
“My mother thinks so [our hair] is there to hold our armpits [clean]so just let it grow, ”she said during the interview. After spending a few years shaving her armpit hair regularly, Danilla began to follow her mother’s lead. Her fellow musicians in the folk-pop trio Daramuda, Rara Sekar and Sandrayati Fay, also let their body hair grow naturally.
“In each period, certain sociocultural contexts had different standards of beauty,” Dewi Candraningrum, former editor-in-chief of Jurnal Perempuan, told the Jakarta Post on Monday.
Screen legend Eva Arnaz (right) appears in a still image of Tahu Diri Dong, a 1984 comedy with comedian Casino (left) from the comedian trio Dono Casino Indro. Eva was known for her beauty and her groundbreaking natural body hair. (Parkit Film / Courtesy Parkit Film)
“It used to be quite normal to see women with body hair, for example actress Eva Arnaz, who was the most iconic actress with armpit hair in the 1980s. However, the trend has changed. I think it’s also influenced by the popularity of Korean culture, which has hairless, clean skin. “
Dewi added that in addition to the cultural factor, technological development was also involved in defining beauty. It had become easier for people to achieve their ideal looks, including removing body hair.
Despite the different ways to pursue an idealized body, the beauty diversity campaign is still on the rise, with the advent of models of different body types. Dewi said awareness of the different types of beauty has continued to grow and spread.
“I think maybe there will be a turning point later when it’s normal to be unshaven again,” she said.
