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For the entire month of August I will be growing out my armpit hair to raise money for, and awareness of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. It is also a way to challenge the cultural pressure women feel to have to shave, or that having body hair is somehow not beautiful. Please consider supporting the work of Verity PCOS charity :)

"PCOS affects 5-10% of women and as one of the symptoms is increased hair growth it means that women with PCOS have to deal with more of the sexist, body-shaming attitudes to women's body hair that we all live with. So by taking pride in our body hair we're not only raising money but showing solidarity with our sisters with PCOS and all women who choose to have natural body hair! It's all about freedom of choice.

This also means there's a secondary reason for taking part in this challenge. We can all be as susceptible as the next person to the dogma from the beauty industry that women's bodies should be silky smooth. Many of us believe it enough to feel our hair isn't attractive and to spend some portion of our time shaving, waxing or plucking. It can often feel like we're buying into it against our own better judgement!

Why not take this month to push ourselves a little, try to subvert the beauty myths in our own minds and hopefully change some other people's attitudes along the way" * Belfast Feminist Network do Armpits 4 August 

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So please dig deep and donate now.