“My Hairiness Is Part of Me”. The Story of an Artist, Who Gave Up the Razor and Found Harmony With Her Body
Every year, more and more women are ditching the razor and promoting the movement of accepting your body just the way it is, with all its natural features. One such body-positive activist is Esther Calixte-Bea, who has given up waxing and is spectacular in showing off her chest hair. The 25-year-old artist has set a wonderful example and convinced everyone that female body hair is not only normal but also elegant.
«I hated myself»
Esther Calixte-Béa is a body-hair activist from Montreal, with Haitian and Ivorian ancestry. She has inherited a striking appearance from her ancestors, which, since childhood, has made her believe that she is different. Extreme thinness and body hair were the main markers that made her stand out amongst her peers.
As Esther admits, at school her trigger was not so much her physique as her excessive body hair, which made her loathe herself. Daily affirmations of “I’m pretty, I’m smart and I’m beautiful”, which Esther’s mother taught her, didn’t seem to help. In order to help her stop feeling so embarrassed, and become more confident, every available remedy was used to combat unwanted hair.
«I was removing my body hair. It is a painful memory»
Esther’s fight against body hair began at the age of 11. At a young age, she noticed that her chest was covered in hair, which was not the case with her peers. Before her primary school graduation, the girl decided to get a razor so she could slip into a dress without any embarrassment.
As the body-hair activist herself recalls, regular waxing not only failed but was also rejected by her body: “I had horrible scars, the hair was growing back thicker and darker, it was painful”. Despite this, the girl’s relatives insisted, that beauty requires sacrifice and that regular shaving is necessary to feel beautiful.
«I realized that I was depressed»
The fact that her fight against body hair did not produce the desired results, made Esther feel depressed. Once at university, she gave up on the tedious shaving and decided to simply hide her problem under lots of clothing: “I stopped trying to remove my chest hair simply kept it hidden, lifting up my shirt if it was too low and using every precaution to make sure that no one would see it”.
“I was tired of being insecure. I didn’t want to feel that way about myself forever”
To prevent her depression from escalating, Esther realized, that she had two options. The first was to keep on beating herself up, and the second was to change her attitude towards the situation and accept herself with all the different features that nature had given her.
She soon realized, that her insecurity and hatred towards every hairy inch of her body didn’t really belong to her, but were actually caused by society. In her opinion, it’s the society that imposes on women the need to get rid of body hair, confining them to a tiny, stereotypical box: “As women, we’re taught it’s not normal to have body hair”.
«I wanted to talk about femininity and body hair»
It took Esther over 10 years to fall in love with her body hair. In addition, she felt empowered to talk about it openly, and promote the idea that female body hair is normal and beautiful.
The newly-made body-hair activist decided to declare her attitude to female beauty through art. As a professional artist, Esther saw no better solution than to speak to the public through her art.
Self-photography & self-liberating Lavender Project
This is how Esther Calixte-Bea’s own Lavender Project, was born. She decided to use it as a medium through which she can speak up and break all taboos about female body hair.
The artist sewed a reversible lavender-colored dress: one side of the dress hid her body hair, while the other effectively exposed it. In this hand-made gown, she organized an extravagant photo shoot, where she showed off her elegance and self-confidence through her poses.
Instagram was the perfect platform for Esther to use photos to make a statement about herself and her hairy body. She published a series of pictures from her photo shoot on the social network, thereby opening a dialogue with the audience. This gave everyone the opportunity to share their experiences as well.
«It’s bigger than me and I’m inspiring people»
In an interview, Esther admits that she has never had a selfish agenda behind her project, nor has she consciously tried to capture the audience’s attention and gain popularity, which has come to her after a series of successful posts. The huge response from her fans is merely proof, that she is not alone in this problem.
«I had never seen a woman with chest hair on the cover of a magazine before»
In 2021, Esther debuted on the cover of Glamour UK’s January issue, which was all about self-acceptance. For the activist, it was a real personal breakthrough. She realized, that she has been able to shift public opinion and break social stereotypes about female body hair: “I’m really proud of the cover”.
“I now feel a Freedom I had never felt before & Love myself even more”
Esther has been proudly showing off her body hair since 2019 and wholeheartedly declares, that she has been able to fully embrace it: “My hairiness is part of me”. However, she hadn’t ventured onto the beach in a bikini until this autumn. In September 2022, she finally broke through this inner barrier. According to Esther, the moment she uncovered herself at the beach, she felt the judgemental stares but responded to them with a sincere smile and a wave.
This step allowed her to become even more in tune with her body, and get that feeling of freedom she had never experienced until that day.
We’re sincerely happy for Esther, that she has been able to do away with her lack of self-confidence, and hope that she will continue to be an inspiration for those, who are still in search of harmony with their own bodies.