A woman who decided to ditch the razor and embrace her chest hair says she has never felt sexier, urging others to do the same.
Esther Calixte-Bea, 26, said her hairy body felt like such a ‘heavy burden’ that it even made her suicidal.
However, after years of depression, the artist has decided to make a change, now sporting a happily hairy chest, legs and armpits.
Calixte-Bea, from Montreal in Canada, said: “There is no medical explanation behind my hair - I am just a hairy person.
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"I have recently learnt that the women on my father's side are quite hairy and it is perfectly normal.
"I come from the Wè tribe in Ivory Coast, Africa, and the women in my great grandmother's time were very hairy and it was seen as beautiful.
“It has taken me most of my life for me to accept my body and embrace who I am.
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“I became fed up with feeling insecure and shy."
She continued: “It was tiring carrying around a heavy burden and hiding my hair from people.
“I was so depressed and even suicidal during my teens.
“However, I eventually decided enough was enough.
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“I stopped shaving and decided to be me.
“It is the best thing I have ever done as I feel sexier and comfortable in my own skin.”
Calixte-Bea ditched the razor in May 2020 and has been proudly flaunting her body ever since.
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She continued: “I obsessively shaved in school to make sure nobody would see my hairy chest.
“I would freak out if just two hairs appeared.
“Shaving and waxing caused me tremendous amounts of pain.
“It was more hassle than it was worth.”
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Calixte-Bea admitted that it felt ‘challenging’ at first as she was ‘going against the norm’, but pushed through the discomfort.
“I had to push myself at the start by walking out with short shorts with leg hair,” she said.
“After a few weeks, I began to feel comfortable.
“People stare but I don’t have to worry anymore.
“Fear tried to paralyse me.
“But I don’t have to worry anymore as I have accepted who I am.”
After making the brave decision to let it all grow out, Calixte-Bea has been left questioning society’s beauty standards.
“If women weren’t supposed to have hair, we wouldn’t grow it,” she pointed out.
“It is the society that tells us to shave.
“I have redefined beauty for myself and I no longer allow society to dictate it for me.
“I have decided what beautiful is for me.”
She says the response has been mixed – saying some people ‘stare a lot’ or even film her when she’s out, which feels ‘weird’.
But the reaction online has been ‘90 percent positive’.
“I have received thousands of messages from women all over the globe who thought they were alone,” Calixte-Bea said.
“I have shown them that facial and body hair is nothing to be ashamed of.”
Now she also paints other women in a bid to normalise it, saying she doesn’t want hair to be ‘an obstacle’ anymore.
“I refuse to victimise myself because of it,” Calixte-Bea added.
Jess Hardiman