It all began with a simple Etsy review, spotted by the creator @sujindah and shared on TikTok. "There was a swimsuit review where the girl wasn’t shaved, and it radicalized me!" she said, adding, "That’s how it should be!" With the slogan "Full bush in a bikini" and more than 9.5 million views in two days, the video went viral, sparking countless comments. Some confessed, "I’ve been waxing since I was 13, and I can’t reprogram my brain," while others admit to shaving just enough to keep hair from peeking out of their underwear. Others cite hygiene as their reason, while some complain about the pain of waxing. Many users celebrated the liberation from razors and epilators. One shared a memory: "I grew up in Hawaii. I remember seeing my first full bush in a bikini and asking her why she didn’t shave. She said, ‘I don’t want to. So I don’t’." Another TikToker said seeing the natural look in a ’70s or ’80s film helped her normalize pubic hair. Some even declared it "hot," a "fabulous accessory," or "the most freeing feeling in the world," with one proclaiming, "Every time a girl falls in love with her bush and keeps it despite societal pressure, an angel gets its wings."
Body hair: Between hate and love
Cleopatra is believed to be one of the first women to remove body hair, using a sugar-based wax similar to the one still in use today. Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans all obsessively removed hair, viewing it as unclean and uncivilized. But it was Gillette that made hair removal a staple of femininity in 1915 with the first razor designed for women. From then on, being dolphin-smooth was practically mandatory, and even a glimpse of pubic hair could cause deep embarrassment.
The 1960s and ’70s brought a reversal, as sexual liberation and counterculture made thick hair a feminist statement — a sign that women no longer felt compelled to look a certain way to please men. Razors and wax were out. But only until the ’80s and ’90s, when personal grooming and the porn aesthetic popularized Brazilian waxing. Since then, hair removal has remained a fixture in beauty routines. However, a growing number of people are now rebelling, claiming the right to let their hair grow.
Can we truly break free from beauty standards?
Pubic hair has biological purposes. Like eyelashes or nose hairs, it protects the body from bacteria, trapping dirt, sweat, and harmful microorganisms. It also helps regulate temperature and reduces friction during sex. Yet it often makes us uncomfortable. Why? The reasons are many, rooted in the social norm that female hair removal is obligatory — an expectation so deeply embedded in history and culture that we often believe it’s our personal choice. But many of our decisions are shaped by beauty standards we’ve internalized. Pubic hair is, as many social media users point out, political. It’s an aesthetic rebellion that declares: our worth isn’t defined by how well we conform to traditional beauty standards.
Will 2025 be the year of the "pubeaissance"?
Beauty critic Jessica DeFino surveyed over 14,000 people for her Ask Ugly column. The topic? Intimate grooming. Among the most revealing findings, 82% of heterosexual women reported removing some pubic hair, but only 15% of respondents claimed to be completely hairless in that area, while 40% removed only the hair visible outside a bikini line. A striking 65% of women said they worried about the judgment of new male partners regarding their grooming style, even though 50% of men reported having no preference about pubic or buttock hair. Numbers, fashion, and viral posts all seem to agree: 2025 will be the year of the full bush. The trend appears to have started during the Covid era, when the closure of beauty salons led many to rediscover a natural look and reflect on how hair removal represents a form of beauty-driven slavery—a repetitive torture in pursuit of smooth, hairless skin that lasts just long enough to put the razor back in the bathroom drawer. Margiela’s merkins and the viral phrase "Full bush in a bikini" are part of a renewed interest in a more multifaceted, subversive, and feminist notion of beauty—one that can reject hyper-groomed, artificial, and unattainable standards dictated by the male gaze. Maybe it’s true. We hope so. But even more, perhaps somewhat utopically, we hope that soon every woman, every person, will be free to make their own choices about their body, to do what makes them feel comfortable—whether showing or concealing it, shaving or not—without fear of judgment.