Abbie Chatfield has never been one to hold back—especially when it comes to her values. So when the media personality and podcaster suggested, back in 2019, that a razor brand show her actually shaving body hair in an ad, it didn’t go down well. In fact, they were horrified.
“This offer for a TV commercial went away because I dared to suggest that a razor brand would show hair being shaved in 2019,” Chatfield told PEDSTRIAN.TV. “It’s like having a lawn mower ad on the Nullabor.”
Razor brand Billie has hard-launched in Australia, and is teaming up with Chatfield to amplify their campaign of ‘bringing back koala ears’ (tufts of hair peaking out of your undies or bikini).
Billie went viral soon after its launch in 2017. The brand claimed it was the first to feature hairy women for over 100 years, and its goal has always been to highlight shaving as a choice, rather than a need.
And while Chatfield thinks Billie’s brand ethos is genuine, she thinks women need to think more deeply about why they’re shaving. Is it really choice feminism, or internalised pressure masked as an active choice?
“What you actually like is not being othered in our society,” Chatfield pointed out. “I don’t think it makes you an inherently bad feminist or bad person.”
For Chatfield, the conversation around body hair is stuck. We frame natural hair growth as a protest, or a political stance — when sometimes, it’s just forgetting to pack your razor.
“I haven’t shaved my legs or underarms or bush in like eight weeks because I was on holiday. But that isn’t a political statement. That’s actually me just deciding to not do something.”
Whether it’s an active choice, radical statement or women simply forgetting, research conducted by Billie found that 25 per cent of Australian women are choosing to keep their pubic hair.
It’s a shift in body hair removal habits, but it hardly scrapes the surface. Billie’s research found over one third of Aussie women still feel insecure about their body hair.
“We can talk about butt plugs and sex and vibrators… yet, I feel as though the taboo of body hair remains consistent,” Chatfield said.
The issue is deep rooted, stemming from our childhoods. We saw our mothers shave, models with bare legs, women praised for looking like slippery dolphins. The norm was established then, and grew from there.
“As I got older, there was a lot of shame around body hair. Like the thought of… having any pubes at all when you slept with someone was like, “Oh my god, it’s crazy”,” she said.
“If a man was okay with pubic hair, it was like, wow, what a green flag. It’s like, what the fuck?”
As she’s gotten older, Chatfield said her shame around body hair and the feeling that it’s necessary to shave has improved. Rather than entering a body positivity mindset, she said it’s been more of a body neutrality focus.
“I feel like I’m in a good space with it now,” she said. “I shave if I think of it and can be bothered and want something new, you know?”
Billie’s launch in Australia is attempting to rewrite the narrative and give power back to women to choose how, if and when they remove their body hair.
They’ve come into the Aussie market with five different products designed to make shaving a smooth and easy experience — if you want to do it.
Our Billie top picks:
Billie is available at retailers including Chemist Warehouse, Big W, Woolworths, and online at Amazon.
Image credit: Billie / @abbiechatfield / Instagram
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