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Razor brand's shaving ad praised for showing women’s body hair for first time
‘It’s empowering for women to be represented in their natural form’
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Your support makes all the difference.A shaving advert depicting women’s body hair for the very first time has been lauded on social media for its “empowering” message.
The lack of body hair in shaving and waxing adverts has been a subject of much protestation for quite some time, with many expressing their dismay over the insinuation that women are naturally hairless beings.
However, one shaving brand has decided to put an end to this folly by finally showing the world once and for all that women do, funnily enough, grow body hair just like men.
Billie is a shaving brand geared at women that provides razor subscriptions for the same price as men’s.
The company has created a campaign called “Project Body Hair” with the aim of celebrating both women who choose to let their body hair grow naturally and those who prefer to remove it.
The new advert, which includes an assortment of female models with hair on areas such as their legs, armpits and toes, has been heavily praised, with many professing that they can’t believe it’s taken this long for an advert to feature natural body hair.
“I just now, at 30 years old, for the first time in my life, saw an ad for razors in which the women using them had hair on their bodies before they started shaving,” one person wrote on Twitter.
“Billie’s new campaign/ad about having (natural) body hair and how shaving is a choice for any woman - not a requirement, is really amazing,” another Twitter user commented.
One person clarified that the objective of the advert is to encourage women to feel proud of their natural bodies and to abolish the misconception that body hair is something to ashamed of.
“I don’t think the point is that it’s empowering to be hairy, the point is it’s empowering for women to be represented in their natural form and to not be shamed for how their bodies were made,” they wrote.
“Ads showing women shaving already shaved legs sends the message that body hair is gross.”
While the advert has been commended for its powerful meaning, some have stated that it could have been more inclusive for women with different types of body hair.
“Love the message, but wish the video included images of women with body hair that wasn’t only soft, light, and ‘cute’,” someone wrote on Instagram.
“Show me some real hair that reflects the diversity of what women’s body hair looks like (thicker, darker, curlier etc).”
“If we’re gonna normalise body hair, we have to normalise all kinds, not just the wispy thin fuzz that looks cute in a dreamy ad campaign.”
On the Billie website, an orange tick on a product indicates that it’s ideal for those who shave, while a blue tick on a product infers that it’s preferable for those who don’t.
A starter kit, which costs $9 (£6.84), contains a Billie razor handle, a magnetic holder and two five-blade razor cartridges.
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