A woman who embraced her natural looks by accepting her body hair for what it is has sparked a divisive debate on the internet.
20-year-old Spencer Barbosa from Ontario, Canada, is a TikTok influencer who is calling on fellow women to change the beauty standards by “embracing the fur” and flaunting their hairy legs and arms.
As the young lady explained, she was just seven years old when she started growing dark hair on her legs. Now, Spencer has come to terms with her body hair and is not afraid to show off her hairy legs, stomach, and arms despite negative comments from strangers.
The 20-year-old says hair is not something that women should be ashamed of as she insisted it doesn’t make them more masculine or unhygienic.
“Body hair – let’s talk about it. So recently on my For You Page I have seen a lot of men adding their unwanted opinions – as they always do – on women’s bodies,” Spencer said in her viral video.
“Now I’m Portuguese, I’m hairy, I will always be hairy because I will always be Portuguese.”
She added: “I have had hairy legs since the age of seven, I have been stealing tweezers from my mom since the age of seven to pluck my moustache.
“Now it wasn’t until this year that I caught myself ‘apologizing’ for my hairy legs like why the hell was I apologizing. If you want to have hairy legs this summer, have hairy legs this summer and if you despise hair and you don’t want hair on your body, remove the hair on your body.”
Spencer went on to urge women to accept their body hair and not be afraid to show it if that is something they wish.
Plenty of women have since spoken out and applauded the influencer for speaking out about the sensitive topic and working to change “unreasonable” beauty standards.
“Hair is fine, the only thing I can say is that if you’re annoyed by your hair, you decide what you do with it. It’s no one else’s business,” someone wrote.
“Hair is literally natural, it’s going to grow,” another said.
A third suggested: “You go girl, let’s change those beauty standards.”