Woman with excess body hair from PCOS ditches the razor and finds her body confidence
A woman with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) has decided to embrace one of the side effects of the condition by ditching her razor and allowing her excess body hair to grow freely.
According to the NHS, PCOS is a common condition that affects how a woman’s ovaries work.
Thanks to the high levels of male hormones in women with the condition, one of the most common side effects of PCOS is the growth of dark hair on the face and body.
Although it is perfectly natural in some women, many women often feel pressure to remove excess body hair. But Leah Jorgensen has no time for this beauty taboo. The 33-year-old behavioral health technician from Wisconsin has suffered from PCOS since the age of 14.
Having been on the receiving end of cruel comments from people branding her a “man,” Jorgensen spent years in full-sleeved, high-necked shirts and long trousers to hide the excess hair. By her late 20s, she was spending hours shaving to remove the thick hair on her chin, cheeks, upper lip, chest, stomach, arms, legs, and back.
Jorgensen’s insecurity about her body hair stopped her from getting close to people. She didn’t have her first kiss until age 27 and avoided the dentist for 12 years.
“I had never seen women who looked like me,” she says. “I was so ashamed that I didn’t want to talk about it. My way of coping with that shame and embarrassment was to hide. My daily goal for a long time was to just get through the day without anyone noticing how hairy I was. Because I have so much of it, it was very difficult to hide it. I developed a terrible case of anxiety, and it really took a toll on my mental health.”
Jorgensen recalls her doctor telling her bluntly that she had the most severe case of hirsutism (excess body hair) she’d ever seen, which left her feeling like a “freak.”
Classmates who teased her about her hair added to her discomfort.
“I felt ashamed, embarrassed and scared, like I was somehow less of a woman,” she says. “I covered up with clothes and shaved my face, and if I was going to be showing any part of my body, I would shave it.
“It gets hot and humid here in the summer, and I would wear hoodies year-round, so I would be drowning in sweat. People would ask me, ‘Why are you wearing that?’ and I was just like, ‘Leave me alone.’
“I was really convinced I would lose my friends, and my family would disown me, and I wouldn’t be able to get a job or a boyfriend, I would just live a miserable life alone.”
The turning point came in in 2015, when Jorgensen was hit by a car. She had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance, and her clothes were cut off by paramedics so she could undergo surgery. Then, to her great surprise, Jorgensen realized that the hospital staff had seen the extent of her hair growth and that they weren’t at all bothered.
“I realized no one cared what I looked like,” she explains. “They just saw me as a person. It really helped me to get over it.”
From that moment on, Jorgensen vowed to stop shaving and hiding away her hair. Instead, she now embraces her condition, wearing low-cut, sleeveless tops, and skirts with bare legs out in public without worrying about what people think.
She also bravely wore a bikini for the first time last summer.
Her newfound body confidence lead to Jorgensen setting up her Instagram, where she regularly shares photos of her body hair with her 2,800 followers, alongside empowering messages encouraging others to love their own bodies.
Next month, the body-positive advocate will be photographed for a book promoting diversity, called Underneath We Are Women.
Speaking about overcoming her body fears, she says: “I realized that I never really disliked how the hair looked. The problem was not with the hair, it was with people’s perception of it.
“I thought, ‘Enough is enough.’ I didn’t want to run from it anymore.”
This shift in her mindset also prompted her to quit her job in insurance and return to college, where she is studying social work and recently got a job working with autistic children.
“People definitely stare or try to take photos, but I expect that, because you don’t really see women who look like me,” she says. “I used to be scared of people noticing my hair, but now I embrace it and let it grow. I’m unique, and that is perfectly fine. I do still shave my face because I like how my face looks without hair, but I used to shave multiple times a day, and now I will go a couple of days.
“It has been incredibly empowering,” Jorgensen says of her body-confidence journey. “I hope that sharing my story will give others courage. And to women who have hirsutism; you are not alone.”
Jorgensen isn’t the only PCOS sufferer who decided to ditch the razor. Singer and sideshow performer Little Bear Schwarz used to have to shave every day to remove the traces of her hair. But at 31, she stopped shaving and found it to be not only empowering, but also lucrative for her career.
“I realized it was kind of now or never, so I grew it out, and within a few weeks, found a flyer for a beard competition, which I entered and won,” Schwarz told Yahoo Lifestyle.
Within a month, she had joined the Wreckless Freeks sideshow, as a performer. “I learned pretty early in that [having a beard] was not just possible but also lucrative.”
Read more on Yahoo Lifestyle:
Cardi B Is Being Shamed for Her Stomach Hair and It’s Not OK
Madonna’s daughter Lourdes Leon flaunts her armpit hair (again)
Three women get real about facial hair — and being ‘proud of it’
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