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I never associated a pro-hair attitude with boomers (though a previous poster made a good case for that, and now I see it). But I have always thought that a lot of people my mom's age (boomers) believed in old-wive's tales about hair.
Growing up, we girls all started shaving our legs around 5th or 6th grade. My leg hair has always been blond, but I've always shaved from my feet all the way up to my hip and bikini line. Basically any skin that shows below a bathing suit bottom would be hair-free. I had some friends, however, who were only allowed to shave up to their knees. I thought it looked weird, to have smoothe hair-free legs from the knees down, but hairy legs from the knees up. When I would ask these girls why they didn't shave the top half of their legs they would say "it's not good." I would ask what's "not good," and they would only say that their moms said "it wasn't good" to shave the tops of your legs. Some of those moms would say that if you shave, it will make the hair grow back darker and heavier.
In my mind, I was thinking, I'd rather shave every day, so even if it did grow back heavier, it wouldn't matter. Better than having shaggy thighs, at least to me. Oddly, it was always the girls and moms who were Italian who had this "it's not good to shave" notion, and they were the ones with darker leg hair. I had blond fine hair, as did my mom, but my mom was fine with me shaving all the way up to my bikini because that's what she did.
Even though it's a myth that shaving hair makes it grow in more heavily, some people still cling to this old wive's tale. In my experience, it was the same girls who weren't allowed to use tampons when we were teens (in the 80s) and their moms made them use pads (yuck!) because allegedly "it wasn't good" for a virgin to use a tampon. Some of them would swear that their mothers told them that using a tampon would mean they were not a virgin anymore. I was like "huh?" --I was mostly certainly a virgin and used tampons the minute I first got my period. Even at age 14 in 1984 I felt much more enlightened than these girls' mothers, who had this antiquated belief that seemed better suited to 1950 or 1890.
Then when it came to female facial hair, I've also heard from some women that "it's bad" to shave facial areas or use hair remover on the face. But these also tended to be darker-complected girls/women. I first met hispanic/latina girls in high school and college, and they seemed to share the opinions the Italian moms held.
So I never associated the hair thing with an age group, but maybe with some cultural backgrounds. I grew up as a WASP in an area (outside of Philly) where almost everyone else had Italian heritage. So I associated the hair issue and the related old-wive's tales with being Italian more than with baby boomers.
Interestingly, I was one of the few who hated to "lay out" in the sun to get a tan as a teen, when all my Italian friends loved to do this, as did their moms. I was one of the ones who thought sunbathing was "not good" (mainly because I'm pasty). Now those baby-boomer Italian moms are wrinkled and leathery, and the women my age have already had skin cancers removed. Seems like some of those overly-cautious old-wives tales should have warned of sun damage and not the dangers of shaving or tampons!
I am a baby boomer, and I would never shave my body hair. On a man I think it's not only natural but sexy. I do not want to look like a pre-pubescent boy. On a man, a shaved pubic area looks not only weird but disturbing. I can understand why professional swimmers or body builders would shave or wax their body hair, but I do not recommend it for the rest of us.
This was a generation that let it 'all hang out.' I kind of like the natural aesthetic of the 60s btw. I do think it's taken a bit too far these days, not that I find a smooth body unaesthetic.
I'm sitting right now like that Trimac...maybe even a bit more. Guess what? I don't care.
I'm Gen X, but I'm a bit of a throwback when it comes to body hair. I think some body hair removal is ok (the armpits and legs for women), but other than that ... nah. Body hair is natural and looks good.
We like women...not little girls.
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