The dyed armpit hair movement is really real

It’s been a big year for body hair. This was the year that “The Hairy Legs Club” burst onto the Tumblr scene, joining “Very Hairy Legs” and “Women Against Non-Essential Grooming” in their epic quest to remind women the world over that shaving is a CHOICE not a REQUIREMENT.

Thanks to these groups we’ve been talking about leg hair A LOT, which brings us to an inevitable and spirited conversation about underarm hair. However when we talk about underarm hair these days, it’s not merely the to have or have not debate; now we’re talking about whether or not we should be dying it.

You may have just read that sentence twice to make sure that I was actually talking about dying your underarm hair (I am), or you may have read that sentence and thought: “*scoff*, I’ve been dying my underarm hair forever.” Whichever camp you’re in, let’s keep going with this.

Dying one’s armpit hair has actually been a thing for years, but the unconventional beauty move blew up this year when Seattle stylist Roxie Hunt dyed her co-worker Rain’s pit hair aquamarine to match her mermaid-blue locks:

Hunt had the following to say about the styling session on her blog:

“We laughed and marveled at the beauty of her blue pit hair. It was too good to be true. The color in her pits perfectly matched the color on her head. I felt a major win for body hair.”

The Internet laughed and marveled at the beauty, too. Hunt’s “How to dye your armpit hair” post has racked up 30,000 shares and has launched the hashtag #dyedpit, in which women all over Instagram have jumped on the pit-dying bandwagon.

Yes, dying one’s armpit hair the color of an Easter egg does seem a little bit like what Effie Trinket would do if she was wearing a sleeveless dress on a Hunger Games Victor’s Tour, but that said, the out-there beauty experiment is pretty beautiful in its out-there-ness. It takes a bold woman to dye her pits, and there’s nothing I like better than a bold woman.

Do I think “dyed armpit hair” is going to become the new “skinny jeans” or “bangs.” You guys, of course I don’t, just like I don’t think 2015 is going to be the year where hoop skirts and Elizabethan collars come back. Still, dyed armpit hair is a great way to subvert beauty norms while still having fun with your personal style, and if we get more subversive beauty fun in the new year, I’m totally down with that.

[Images via]