Talking to a beautician friend about hair removal and summer beautification regimes led to a discussion about fashions in bikini waxing and hair removal. Interestingly she said she had noticed generational differences in the requirements of her clients with younger women often requesting more extreme waxing regimes with either total hair removal or only a small patch left. When asking about the reasons for this, she said young women told her that this was what the bodies of the women in the images widely available online looked like and this expectation led these women to seek French waxes, Brazilian waxes, or the Hollywood. Young women also recounted that these were the images that the men in their lives saw and there was an expectation about levels of personal grooming and hair removal amongst both younger men and women. While this is anecdotal it raises questions about beautification regimes and how and why women feel the need, or expectation, that they should remove ever increasing swathes of body hair in the quest for beauty, or even simply acceptance…..For the full blog post please see the Cost of Living Blogsite.
