Yes, its true. Not only did I go 4 years without shaving my legs, but I actually broke down and in a moment of weakness I already regret, shaved them a few days ago.

In 1995 I was 19 and going through quite a pivotal time in my life. We will not get into all of that now, but for our purposes here, lets just say that a part of my journey at that time involved not only accepting and loving the woman I was becoming, but also adopting an attitude along the lines of 'fuck everyone else, I'm on my own trip that only I need to understand.' I was also travelling with a bunch of hippies at the time, and in doing so came into contact with a whole new world of people, partaking in activities and a value system I had only dreamed existed and fell in love with immediately. Partly out of these factors and partly out of my flat out dislike for the need to repeatedly shave, eventually grew my unobstucted leg hair. Even after my life as a hippie vendor came to an end and I continued on a much different path in the city, I reveled in my leg hair. I have relatively dark skin for a white girl, and pretty fine hair so I felt the soft hair on my legs looked quite appropriate, pleasant, even sexy. The barage of men who were interested in me during the course of these 4 years aparently didn't disagree. At times I dyed it blonde and liked it even more. I would proudly explain to anyone who questioned it that I liked it, I hadn't shaved in 3 years and I planned never to shave them again in my life, because why should I? It wasn't so much a feminist thing as an 'I don't have to do something so trivial and pointless if I don't want to' type of thing.

Now what could have possibly happened in the recent weeks to change my mind about all this? Well.
I graduated college and went on my very first 'real' job interview. It was at a huge advertising agency where I hoped to obtain a relatively well-paid 'junior graphic designer/web image technician' position. Whatever. I went in there beaming with confidence but as I sat there with my portfolio I could feel them looking at my legs with some scorn. The second I got home I jumped in the shower, took one brief pausing breath, and mindlessly shaved them. Talk about selling out for the job world. They were really nice and smooth and new and fun, for about two days. After that they were already starting to get spikey, something I cannot stand and I knew then I had to start routinely shaving them or go through the arduously long process of growing them back out to the desired length. How could I have been so easily intimidated and manipulated on my very first interview? I suppose we all have moments of weakness that result in consequences we must deal with later. Thats how you learn, right?

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