Unlike many women, I’ve never been obsessed with my hair or looks. When others, including hair dressers, are unduly fussy about my hair, I put them in their place by saying don’t make so much nakhra over just dead cells. And so, during COVID, when I couldn’t go to the salon for a haircut, I simply picked up a scissors and went chop, chop, chop. Covid made me rethink many things. Since then, I also avoid using lipstick or hair colour, so my “make up” consists of just face powder, and sometimes, a kajal pencil, that’s it. I also wonder why women are obsessed with body hair, but men couldn’t be bothered by it.

I’m known to prowl around my neighbourhood bindaas, in a shirt, shorts and walking shoes. It’s taken me the better part of my life not caring what people think, including about the hair on my arms and legs. Others find it offensive to even have thick eyebrows, hair on the upper lip, and transgressions around a ‘bikini line’. When I was young, I would think, OMG, I have hair on my arms and legs, and regularly go for painful waxing sessions, where hot wax strips ripped out each body hair—a lifetime of wholly unnecessary, ghastly horror. How many men do you know, who are embarrassed about their body hair? Or torment themselves waxing their arms, legs, lips and brief line hair every month, lifelong? Why do only women allow themselves to be brainwashed into a hairless beauty ideal, while men, as usual, get away with no demands? 

Poll

Who will win the Punjab Elections?

BJP 32.76%

AAP 43.10%

INC 24.14%

Submit

View All In Poll

Do we also brainwash and condemn our daughters into a lifetime of painful, glabrous horror? I regularly see Indian men with not only beary hairy arms, legs and chests, but hairy gardens growing out of their nostrils and ears, and no one says a word.  Kaiku, kaiku? Let me know what you think.

Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist. 
Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com