Out damn hair: Depilatory creams target the small town girl

by Sharon Fernandes The first time is difficult. You wait in anticipation, a brave teenage girl ready to take on the world. And then it comes, a slick slather of hot wax on your fuzzy legs, followed by a strip of cloth, it feels comfortable like a warm soak, though this small joy lasts for exactly a second before the ‘rrrrripp’. A piece of you changes forever and your rebellious swagger is now accompanied by a pair of shiny smooth legs. A journey through decades of self-inflicted agony has begun. Balpreet Kaur, a Sikh student in Ohio chose to avoid this world of pain – not because of a phobia for beauty parlours—but to stay faithful to her religion. However she earned ridicule on the social media site Reddit (where Kaur’s picture was put up, without her consent) for her “beard and side burns”. Kaur replied, “I realize that my gender is often confused and I look different than most women. My attitude and thoughts and actions have more value in them than my body." JK Rowling’s latest, The Casual Vacancy, has also come under fire from Sikh leaders over the novel’s portrayal of a hirsute Sikh girl.  Kaur wrote about the book in The Guardian, “I have no problem with Rowling’s description of a female Sikh being labelled as ‘mustachioed, yet large-mammaried’ on page 120. Why? Because that’s how most people perceive me. How I react to these perceptions defines my character, not the opinions themselves. I am a contradiction, at least physically, but I’m no different than any other college student – working hard to get into medical school to achieve our dreams.” [caption id=“attachment_495154” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  How can a monthly routine, spending loads of cash (and did we mention the pain) every fortnight, be termed as freedom? AFP[/caption] But we all know it is not easy being the “hairy” girl in school, college or even in a boardroom. We, the new “liberated” lot, live our lives in exasperating paradoxes of doing exactly what we want and also trying to conform to a ‘feminine’ mould. Not many young girls or even confident middle-aged working women have the “courage” to be seen with a moustache. Fewer still would dare expose a fuzzy armpit while clutching the overhead safety rail in a bus or train, or wear that comfortable summer skirt with new “growth” on their legs, for the fear of being stared at from all angles, mostly by other ladies. Now it seems the village belle and the small town girl are the next frontier for the hair removal industry, which is already the corner stone of the big-bucks beauty industry. “The entire hair removal products market in India is worth approximately Rs 400 crore with hair removal creams accounting for nearly 70 percent of this market. The hair lightening market is estimated to be around Rs 200 crore,” says Sanjay Singal, Marketing head for skin care at Dabur India which handles the Fem brand of fairness bleaches, hair removing creams. Semi-urban and rural India is the next big market with more ‘awareness,’ or self-described “aggressive marketing” by FMCG companies. Waxing and threading in parlours was up in the female population in small towns from 21 percent in 2007 to 35 percent in 2011 according to market research company IMRB International. Their report also found that across India hair removal creams were the preferred choice followed by shaving and waxing. “In towns and villages, they prefer hair removing creams and not waxing,” says Vimal Pande, CEO, Vi-John, which started advertising their hair removing cream, Feather Touch  which has been around since 1990s, aggressively only over the last two years (actress Bipasha Basu was signed on to endorse the cream).  “We have had the product for a long time, but we felt the need to get attention now. We have seen a growth by 26 percent, since last year. The increase has been in towns like Varanasi, Gorakhpur and Azamgarh. Our target audience is 15-55 year old women in these small towns. Our highest sales have been in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar,” says Pande. “This small town consumer is shy, she prefers to buy from a particular shop, and will buy one brand that she is familiar with. This is unlike metro consumers in super markets who try out different brands every time.” But with the hair removal creams being slathered across the nation there could be side effects which are not external. Studies say women are rated as less sexually attractive, intelligent, sociable, happy, and positive compared to hairless women. So to make you feel happy, beauty products tell you to “set yourself free” from unwanted hair. How can a monthly routine, spending loads of cash (and did we mention the pain) every fortnight, be termed as freedom? But women typically construct body hair removal as a rite of passage adopted in their teens and perpetuated throughout their lives, to produce an image of “acceptable femininity”. “Hair removal has been around since ages, waxing, tweezing and even singeing of body hair at the roots, but what has changed is the homogenising of body types and looking at your own body in a critical way. Removal of body hair today is part of a larger trend, removing body fat, having a nose job etc.” says Radhika Chopra, associate professor, department of sociology, University of Delhi, who feels this effect has rubbed off on small town India, which explains the rise in use of hair removing products. “Today a group of youngsters from small towns look quite similar to their counterparts in the metros. Traditional attire no longer exists today in villages. And for girls, sleeveless clothes mean no underarm hair.  Everyone wants to look the same, like the people they see on television or the movies.” “Earlier parents sought ‘homely brides’ for their sons, now the emphasis is on beauty,” says Susan Visvanathan, Chairperson and Professor of Sociology Centre for the Study of Social Systems at Jawaharlal Nehru University. “With advertisements and movies today, there is a new focus on physical attractiveness. “ Clearly, even the most confident woman has to first fight the bathroom mirror, and she is not alone. “Body hair removal today is not about just being ‘feminine’, but  being ‘human’, because though men have it easier, an exceedingly hairy man or one with a stubble will find himself being stared at in a boardroom, “ says Chopra.  Perhaps the only solace for the teenage girl is a ridiculous thought - that half the world is going through as much pain in order to look hair free.