IN RECENT WEEKS, Julia Roberts discussed a red carpet moment which made headlines all over the world 19 years ago.
As absurd as it sounds given current celebrity exploits, it came down to the fact that the Oscar-winner hadn’t shaved her armpits in preparation for the Notting Hill premiere, and deigned to wave at a clamouring press, thereby revealing an armpit not often seen on red carpets.
A child when Julia’s red-carpet wave made headlines, I was fascinated by both the aesthetic and the furore.
Almost 20 years on, the topic remains a divisive one.
Sure, you need to look no further than the fact Julia is still questioned on it almost two decades later to know that.
As an adult, my personal preference has been to remove body hair, and I have found that when entering into discussion on it, debate tends to get heated.
It seems my personal preference implies a thinly-veiled judgement of other preferences – a suggestion I’m at pains to quash.
So yes, there have been occasions when I’ve been on a night out or in the middle of a gym session, and realised that I haven’t shaved my underarms, and felt immediately uncomfortable, but I don’t expect other people to feel the same way about their own body.
Indeed, I wouldn’t give a second thought – or even notice – if another woman was sporting the same spiky underarms; it’s simply my personal preference.
What about you? Where do you stand on it?
