Women Share Photos Of Their Natural Hairy Bodies For Januhairy

@janu_hairy/Instagram

You’ve heard of Dry January, Veganuary, and maybe even Sugar-banuary. No? Okay, I’ll admit I went slightly too far with that last one.

Anyway, as the year kicks off with a cold and bleak January, which is – let’s face it – the worst month of the year, people decide to set themselves challenges, all the while raising money for charity.

These usually consist of people giving thing up – such as alcohol and meat – which bodes well for the month after Christmas, when pretty much the entire population is skint.

But sometimes, as in this case, the challenge consists of people altering their appearance. To be more specific, one particular challenge – dubbed Januhairy – involves women growing out their body hair for the entire month.

Think Movember, but instead of men getting involved, it’s women. And instead of facial hair, it’s body hair in general. Genius, right.

The aim of Januhairy is for women to grow to love their natural body hair, all the while raising money for a good cause.

The woman behind Januhairy is 21-year-old Laura Jackson, who says she started the campaign after she had to grow out her body hair for a performance as part of her drama degree in May last year.

While she became comfortable with the change in her appearance, she said others – including friends and family – didn’t understand her decision not to shave.

She said:

Though I felt liberated and more confident in myself, some people around me didn’t understand why I didn’t shave/didn’t agree with it. I realised that there is still so much more for us to do to be able to accept one another fully and truly.

As reported by the BBC, Laura, from Kineton, Warwickshire, hopes to raise £1,000 for charity Body Gossip‘s education programme, which teaches young people about body image.

The 21-year-old said:

I just want women to feel more comfortable in their own beautifully unique bodies. This isn’t an angry campaign for people who don’t see how normal body hair is.

It is an empowering project for everyone to understand more about their views on themselves and others.

While Laura received plenty of positive comments from her followers on the janu_hairy Instagram page, with people referring to the challenge as ‘awesome’ and calling her a ‘boss lady’, the reaction has been mixed to say the least.

Although Laura has stressed that this is an empowering movement, rather than an angry campaign, many have responded to it as though it’s the latter.

One person tweeted:

I feel repulsedby [sic] the whole #januhairy thing. Obviously women can do as they please in todays [sic] world and rightly so. But hairy women is [sic] VERY unattractive and im [sic] sure 99% of men will agree.

While another wrote:

I will not be dieting, detoxing nay impersonating a f*cking werewolf post Chrimbo. Am infact [sic] leaning toward the view that the person/s who created the concept #januhairy should probs be on some kinda register.

And another said:

I couldn’t care less about leg or arm hair but underarm her and public hair needs to be shaved that’s disgusting regardless of the gender. Why do women think this is liberating ill never know!

What I’m struggling to understand is why women growing out their own body hair is causing so much concern for people who it has absolutely no impact on.

People’s reactions to this only proves why it needed to be done in the first place.

If you have a story you want to tell, send it to [email protected].

Lucy Connolly

A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).