Razor Ad Is Making Waves with a Weird First: Actually Showing Body Hair
You know those commercials for razor brands that showcase these beautiful, hairless women? These women never have even an ounce of stubble on their perfectly smooth legs, underarms, bikini line, etc. Ever stop and think about whether that’s realistic or not?
Obviously, ads are to sell a product. And the point of showing these women sans hair is to showcase just how effective the brand’s razor is. But it also paints some pretty impractical pictures about women and body hair.
Billie, a growing razor brand that prides itself on offering women quality shaving supplies and premium body care products at an affordable cost, just put out a new campaign.
And it’s going viral because it’s totally mind-blowing.
The campaign is called “Project Body Hair” and features women proudly displaying the real—their body hair. Whether it’s leg hair, armpit hair, or a unibrow, women flaunt their body hair like they’re proud of it.
This is the very first razor ad to actually show body hair, and we kind of love it.
“We couldn’t help but notice the overwhelming amount of hairless skin in razor advertising,” says cofounder of Billie, Georgina Gooley. “It was strange to us that these brands only show women ‘shaving’ perfectly smooth and hairless legs.”
Plus, ever think about how since we never see body hair in razor ads, this doesn’t even show or prove anything about how well the razor works—since there wasn’t even hair to begin with?
It also can be a little offensive or off-putting for women who do have body hair. When we never show body hair in ads, it paints an unrealistic picture how unattractive body hair is on women, and how women should never have it.
“When brands pretend that all women have hairless bodies, it’s a version of body shaming,” says Gooley. “It’s saying you should feel ashamed of having body hair.”
But the Billie brand is all about feeling good in your own skin, hair or not. They want to normalize body hair – since, hey, it’s a pretty normal thing to have – and emphasize that if you don’t want to shave, that’s cool.
And if you do want to shave, that’s cool too— they’ll help you out with their products, if you choose to use them. But you totally don’t have to, because no ad should tell you what you should or shouldn’t do. And we think that’s pretty amazing.
“Shaving is a personal choice, and no one should be telling women what to do with their hair,” says Gooley. “The fact is, we all have body hair. Some of us choose to remove it, and some of us choose to wear it proudly—and either way, we shouldn’t have to apologize for our choice.”
To put their pro body hair brand even further, Billie is also donating photos of women flaunting their body hair to Unsplash, a stock photo site that anyone can use for free.
To see Billie’s pro-hair ad, see the video below.
What do you think of the ad and normalizing women’s body hair? If you ever want to post a photo of yourself happily showing your body hair, be sure to use the hashtag #projectbodyhair!