© Instagram

Deze vrouwen durven het aan en poseren trots met hun okselhaar

Fotograaf Ben Hopper vindt dat er te veel aandacht wordt besteed aan pietluttige details en dat te veel mensen zich druk maken om zaken die eigenlijk helemaal niet belangrijk zijn. Zo is okselhaar bij vrouwen daar volgens hem een perfect voorbeeld van en dus zocht en vond hij enkele vrouwen die voor zijn lens wilden poseren met een plukje haar onder de armen.

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Meer dan zes jaar lang fotografeerde Ben Hopper vrouwen voor zijn reeks 'Natural Beauty'. Hij ging daarbij telkens op zoek naar kandidaten die wat weg hadden van modellen of actrices en vroeg hen hun okselhaar te laten groeien. Uiteindelijk werd de reeks in 2014 voor het eerst uitgegeven, maar die overspoelt nu weer het internet en de foto's worden opnieuw volop gedeeld. Hij deelde daarom op zijn Instagram nog eens alle foto's, dit keer met een motivatie van de modellen erbij.

Zelf geeft Ben toe dat hij een fan is van vrouwen met okselhaar. "Ik vind het aantrekkelijk en vind het een leuke look", vertelt hij in een interview met Metro.co.uk. Maar er schuilt ook meer achter. "Het hele idee dat erachter schuilt, is dat ik het systeem gebruik om het naar de knoppen te helpen. Het feit dat de vrouwen er uitzien zoals modellen, maakt namelijk dat de mensen niet verwachten dat ze plots ook okselhaar blijken te hebben. Daardoor staan ze er meer voor open om na te denken over hun eigen mening inzake lichaamsbeharing bij vrouwen."

 

“I decided to stop shaving a while back, I realised it was unnecessary and uncomfortable. I didn't care what I looked like so why should shaving matter? If I wasn't supposed to have the hair it wouldn't grow. Personally I am happy with my decision, why wouldn't I be? It's a natural occurrence of the body; of course it's beautiful. It makes me feel strong and empowered, taking on my full form as a human being. I made a choice to do something and stuck with it. I received a lot of compliments and an equal amount of negativity. People would tell me this beautiful NATURAL thing was disgusting (not that that changed anything). The oddest response I received was probably from the people telling me I was 'brave' for doing so. Why does leaving my hair make me brave? In this day and age something so normal is so obscure because we are taught to think it's wrong. It's not how people in magazines or on TV look so it's bad... They are wrong. Everyone is beautiful, with hair or without, but we need to stop teaching that difference is wrong and start teaching that it is a fantastic thing. It's 2017, wake up and look however makes you happy. You won't regret it.” - Charlie Roberts, February 2017 ? Photographed in London as part of Ben Hopper's "Natural Beauty" project. February 23, 2017. Photographed on a Phase One camera from @teamworkdigital?.

Een bericht gedeeld door Ben Hopper (@benhopper) op

 

"Armpit hair grows naturally, so one would think people would ask, 'why do you shave?' not the opposite. The fact that in this society something natural like growing your armpit hair is almost a statement, or a political act, is weird – and that’s a reason to grow. People react differently; depending on what environment I am in. When I am very dressed up, people are more chocked and sometimes disturbed by it. Seems like jewels and armpit hair don’t match in high fashion. When I’m in jeans and t-shirt or wearing more punk or hippie style, people are more relaxed with it. It’s more socially accepted or anticipated. With the hair, sometimes I feel free and natural and sometimes like a freak (which can be fun or disturbing, depending on my mood). I like to colour my armpit hair in blue, pink or white. I think it’s beautiful." - Emilia Bostedt?, December 2016. ? Photographed in London as part of Ben Hopper's "Natural Beauty" project. February 24, 2014.

Een bericht gedeeld door Ben Hopper (@benhopper) op

 

"I stopped shaving mostly because Ben asked but I was kind of excited to see what I looked like with body hair as I started removing it quite young. ? It felt like my armpits were very conspicuous to start with as I have quite dark growth but once it got past an inch or so it felt more controllable and less like I was smuggling wigs. ? Most people know me to be pretty open to new ideas and style choices so they pretty much didn't care or ask, but I did notice that sometimes in a pub or any large gathering of slightly drunk people that I would get more questions about it, or was assumed to be a staunch feminist. On the whole though most people either didn't notice or politely ignored it. ? I think overall the most obvious things I learnt doing this was that most people are grown up enough to not care, and if they do they're mostly polite enough to just pretend they don't see it. That once your hair grows past a certain point it gets kinda itchy again so I recommend a little trimming if you are going to have it permanently. And that ultimately if I do or don't have body hair it's no ones business but my own.” Olivia Murphy, February 2017. ? Photographed in London as part of Ben Hopper's "Natural Beauty" project. April 2, 2014.

Een bericht gedeeld door Ben Hopper (@benhopper) op

 

“I never stopped shaving because I never started. I do remember my mother shaving when I was younger and I thought that was pretty unnecessary since she was a strict muslim. I later realised it's a thing women do to look more desirable to men. It really irritated me that the people who reacted negatively to my natural armpit hair were men. Like it was the most disgusting thing in the world. It really gets on my tits. This is just one more reason that I don't shave it off. It belongs to me and I don't make noise about the "ugly"; hair on men which are sometimes pretty painful in the eye... But you've got to get over it and don't let these idiots get under it. I did do a special "birthday-shave" recently and it reminded me why I don't go through the tedious chore of shaving hair off my beautiful body. I would recommend growing it to any women. A trim here and there doesn't hurt, but it is so beautiful - even my boyfriend has changed his opinion about it now. #lovethecavewomenlook” Ayan Mohamed, December 2016 ? Photographed in London as part of Ben Hopper's "Natural Beauty" project. April 7, 2014.

Een bericht gedeeld door Ben Hopper (@benhopper) op

 

Over the following days I will re-visit my project "Natural Beauty", only this time, with words about the hair written by the models I've photographed. The first image is of Maya Felix: (1/3) “I am mixed race and have quite fair sensitive skin and thick dark hair. This made shaving a very difficult and often painful process. Stubble would always grow back within 24 hours, and trying to shave the stubble would end in bleeding and rashes. My underarms were never ‘pretty’ or ‘feminine’. I hated it and was made miserable by it. I remember wearing t-shirts with sleeves when swimming and jumpers on hot days just to cover up my prickly, irritated pits. I certainly couldn’t afford regular waxing at the age when societal pressure kicked in. I desperately wanted to have skin and hair like my friends and be accepted – not only by them, but also by myself. When I was 15 I even asked my mum for laser hair removal for my birthday (luckily my mum is a badass feminist who has never really conformed to ‘beauty’ standards or bothered with non-essential grooming and firmly said ‘No. your body is beautiful, you don’t need to burn it with lasers’). When I was about 17 and in my first serious relationship with a boy who loved my body a lot more than I did, I decided to try something radical. I decided to stop putting myself through pain, to stop being angry with my body for not being the way I wanted it; I stopped shaving."

Een bericht gedeeld door Ben Hopper (@benhopper) op

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