I get trolled for my hairy chest but I love showing it off – I feel sexier than ever
A WOMAN has revealed that she proudly embraces her hairy chest and thinks it's ‘feminine and beautiful'.
Body hair activist has opened up about the cruel judgement she's faced as a hairy woman - and how she learned to love and embrace her body after years of trying to hide it away.
Esther Calixte-Bea told that she started to feel ashamed of her body hair as a child.
She revealed that she was in elementary school and her friends saw the hair on my stomach and were totally shocked.
In that moment, she explained that she felt that having body hair was not normal and that she had to remove it.
Growing up in a predominantly white neighbourhood and school a few minutes from Montreal, Esther described her hairiness as a “burden.”
She explained: “I wouldn't go swimming because I didn't want to spend so much time removing my body hair to then seeing it grow back after two days, getting ingrown hair and scars.
"I remember constantly lifting up my shirt making sure it was properly covering my chest hair because I was so afraid someone would see it and that I would get bullied.”
But now, aged 26, Esther Calixte-Bea has learned to love her body hair, and she's on a mission to inspire countless other women to do the same through her work as a visual artist and body hair activist.
Esther, who is also known as Queen Esie, first described herself as an activist in 2019 when she saw a comment left on her Instagram describing her efforts as such.
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In the same year, she created the Lavender Project, which she describes as "a self-photography self-liberating" exercise.
For the project, Esther lovingly made then modelled a lavender-coloured dress with a deep V-neck, showing off her chest hair for the first time.
She said: "I wanted to share my story and start a discussion about femininity, female body hair and beauty. I wanted to show people that you, as a woman, can be beautiful with your body hair.”
Now, Esther is determined to normalise female body hair.
She noted: "Growing up, I was depressed and hated my appearance. I knew how important representation was and how not seeing myself and having a positive role model affected my self-esteem. I just wanted to help and heal people."
Not only this, but she opened up and explained that she was shy and insecure and remembers feeling like she wanted to be normal, to fit in and to be like every other girl.
She also stressed the importance of wanting to feel beautiful, as she added: “Because I didn't see myself as someone beautiful."
But while Esther has received a positive reaction online, she has also been subjected to trolling on social media, as well as racism.
She continued: "The negative responses are quite repetitive, sometimes racist comments, sometimes rude. I ignore them, delete their comments or block them. I rather focus on the people that need my help, support and advice."
Esther stressed the importance of normalising body hair, as she concluded: "Women are now ashamed of their body hair and most women remove it today including my Ivorian aunties.
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"The more we see women with body hair, including in the media, the less women will feel ashamed and less people will react when they see it because it's just hair. Everyone has body hair, and some less or more than others."
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