Many (most?) Indian, Pakistani and Arabic women here appear to shave their arms. A former colleague of mine, a young, citified, quite “westernised” Indian woman remarked with some shock and surprise that I didn’t shave my arms.
The hair or my arms is white blonde. I’m not setting up for a lifetype of stubbly forearms just to appease some stupid women-must-have-no-body-hair notion.
That said, I do shave my lower legs. But this wasn’t enough for a male Bangladeshi colleague of mine, who was amazed to see I didn’t shave my (white blonde) thighs.
Horses for courses. If I had darker, more noticeable hair, maybe I’d shave. But frankly leg and arm hair doesn’t bother me. Shaving underarm hair does seem to reduce sweat smell and make applying deodorant/anti-perspirant easier. Trimming/shaving pubic hair can be kinky, or neater.
But if we’re born with it, it’s natural, and those of us who shave are frankly the freaks of nature, not those that don’t.
As far as the issue of drawing lines up the back of one’s legs to mimic stockings, I just remember it happening in the film Hope and Glory which, obviously, is not necessarily a primary source of information. Silk was certainly in short supply due to parachute manufacturing. I’m trying to look up some other sources; perhaps I’ll have something more later.
My natural arm hair is fine, silky, soft ‘n’ feminine (and a delightful silver/gold colour). My thigh hair is likewise (with the exception of about seven Rogue Hairs Of Doom, all mid brown, at least an inch and a half long and situated on the back of the thigh).
My lower leg hair on the other hand is very coarse and rather dark. Were I to not shave my legs below the knee, I would appear to be wearing little goat hair legwarmers. This is not a look I wish to adopt.
I hope this goes some way to explaining why some ladies may choose to a) shave the leg hair and b)only shave below the knee.
Oh, and ladies in Britain (which was hit very heavily by rationing during WWII) most certainly did use dye or even gravy browing to colour their legs in, and drew a line up the back with an eyebrow pencil.
Isn’t being upset with men preferring shaved legs or underarms the same as being upset with women who prefer men without beards? It’s “natural” for all men to look like William Lee Golden but to me that would be a scary world.
“I, no doubt like a large percentage of men in the US, would absolutely cringe at a hairy woman.”
In all fairness, not many women I know are fans of overly hairy men, either. We wouldn’t mind a bit more waxing and trimming in many departments. It does seem a bit ludicrous for me to remove so much body hair (except my thighs- few ladies I know do that) when many guys can’t at least get rid of their monobrows.
I can second the “faking stockings with colouring during WWII” stories. A friend of mine tells me that her aunt used gravy browning on her legs and drew a “seam” up the back. “She put a quick stop to that when every dog in the village followed her around and tried to put their noses up her skirt,” she recalls.
