No Going Back after the First Pluck?
Outside Hirsutism 1 and at times pubic hair 2 , societal perceptions of women’s bodies include an absence of hair 3 , as we know female beauty and normative femininity is still overall represented and perceived through a hairless appearance. Representations overarchingly continuing to construct and maintain an image of a ‘fuzz free’ look as natural for women (Jenkins, 2017; Smelik, 2015; Fahs and Delgardo, 2011), and hair outside what should softly cascade from our scalps, as the invader to be plucked, waxed, shaved, bleached and/or lasered off. Accordingly, even as representations of hairlessness are brought into question in the UK and elsewhere, with female celebrities like Miley Cyrus, Amber Rose and Madonna publicly embracing their body hair, hair removal products and methods continue to boom. For the BSA (British South Asian) women I interviewed in Birmingham 4 , the mundane and routine act of hair removal that often starts in adolescence, is positioned as requiring con