Let's face it: For those of us who choose to get rid of our body hair, it can be a lot. Getting hair professionally removed is expensive (especially when it comes to waxing and laser removal), and doing it ourselves at home is time-consuming. And although celebrities tend to have more cash and professional assistance at their disposal to take care of their grooming needs, many of them have straight up decided to embrace their body hair — even if it goes against gender norms set by society.
After all, it's just hair; it's totally natural, and everyone has it. And while many people choose to get rid of it if that's how they feel most comfortable, it's also cool for those celebs who opt to keep it around to celebrate it, too. It's just a part of life!
From Julia Roberts to Jessica Simpson and everyone in between, here are the stars who have chosen to embrace their body hair, whether they've set out to make a statement or they are simply too worried about other things to make shaving a priority.
Emma Corrin
Emma Corrin, whose major claim to fame is playing Princess Diana in season four of The Crown, displayed her armpit hair on the cover of British Glamour in November 2020, right before her episodes debuted on Netflix. Is this not proof that even body hair can be glam?
Gigi Hadid
Taking it back to 2017, Gigi Hadid wasn't shy about showing off a little underarm hair of her own during this shoot for Love magazine. If you watch the video, you'll see it — and while some of the commenters had rude things to say, many others seemed to find it empowering.
Julia Michaels
In May 2020, singer Julia Michaels took to Twitter to share that she's over getting rid of her underarm hair. "Honestly, I'm not shaving my armpits ever again. I don't know why I ever did before. Social norms can eat an eggplant," she wrote.
Almost a year later, she proved that she was sticking to her word when she showed up to the 2021 Grammys red carpet with visible body hair.
Emily Ratajkowski
Model Emily Ratajkowski showed off her body hair in a shoot for Harper's Bazaar alongside an essay explaining her feelings on the subject.
"If I decide to shave my armpits or grow them out, that's up to me," she wrote in the essay, which was published in 2019. "For me, body hair is another opportunity for women to exercise their ability to choose — a choice based on how they want to feel and their associations with having or not having body hair."
Bella Thorne
Bella Thorne has been anti-shaving for years, which is why she was so surprised when media outlets called her out for having visible underarm hair in 2017. Since then, it doesn't seem like much has changed — and Bella doesn't try to hide it, either.
Amandla Stenberg
In 2018, Amandla Stenberg hit the red carpet without shaving, proudly flaunting her underarm hair. In fact, she even took the opportunity to point it out when she posted this pic on her Instagram, adding the hashtag "#armpit." That's one way to make a statement!
Jessica Simpson
Though, as far as we can tell, Jessica Simpson doesn't make a habit of skipping out on shaving, once in a while, she does miss a spot — and she's not afraid to admit it. In 2017, she shared a section of her leg where the hair was still freely growing. No shame!
Paris Jackson
Paris Jackson, the daughter of Debbie Rowe and the late Michael Jackson, showed off her own leg hair on Instagram in this pic. "If you're not competing with your brother over who can grow longer leg hair wyed," she wrote, adding the acronym for "what are you even doing?"
Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts displayed some major armpit hair at the 1999 premiere of Notting Hill — even though, years later, she admitted that she wasn't trying to make a statement.
"I think I just hadn't really calculated my sleeve length and the waving and how those two things would go together and reveal personal things about me. So it wasn't so much a statement as it's just part of the statement I make as a human on the planet for myself," she said during an interview with Busy Philipps in 2018, via Allure.
Madonna
Considering the fact that Madonna captioned this photo "#artforfreedom," when she shared it in 2014, it seems that she's totally on board with being as free as possible with her body hair too.
"Long hair … Don't care!!!!!!" she wrote.
Bekah Martinez
Former Bachelor contestant Bekah Martinez opened up on Instagram about why growing her body hair was an act of self-love that she wanted to do for herself.
"It's not about not believing in shaving, it's about believing I AM BEAUTIFUL, ATTRACTIVE, AND FEMININE, NO MATTER WHERE I HAVE HAIR ON MY BODY," she wrote. "It's about showing girls you don't have to listen when society tells you your natural features are ugly or gross. It has taken months to get used to it. The horrible online comments don't help, but I'm getting there."
Ashley Graham
Leave it to Ashley Graham to find a way to remove body hair while also embracing it. Though she's gotten flak in the past for flaunting her unshaven parts, when she launched her own razor with Flamingo, Ashley was happy to show off the process of shaving and waxing — including the wax strips with her hair left on them.
Britney Spears
When Britney Spears attended the 2003 American Music Awards, she looked stunning on the red carpet — and she didn't try to hide the fact that she hadn't shaved her armpits before making her arrival. No word on whether she was ditching hair removal completely at that time or not, but seeing her flaunt it so publicly was refreshing (especially back in 2003).
Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore is another celebrity who hasn't been afraid to reveal that underarm hair over the years. Here, she's wearing a sleeveless dress while attending the Marc Jacobs show at New York Fashion Week in 2005, totally unapologetic about what's natural.
Halsey
Halsey has always been all about defying gender stereotypes, so of course the body hair issue is no different. When they appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone in 2019, Halsey flashed some underarm hair. Some people weren't fans of it, but as always, this singer didn't care.
