No Shave November: Day 7 (aka one week anniversary)

It has officially been an entire week since I last shaved my armpit hair.

I don't remember the last time that this situation has happened in my life. To be frank, I don't believe it ever has happened. Back when I was shaving, it would either be daily, or every other day. And the longest period I had ever went without shaving was somewhere around the timeline of about four days max. MAX. Basically, my mindset on the topic was strict to a shaving schedule. Anything after 4 days in my mind seemed barbaric. However, I'm FAR from that mindset now.

I've noticed that most of the short sleeve t-shirts I wear, barely, if at all any, show my armpit hair. I mean this might be because my hair isn't too long yet, but in the past I don't know why I was so concerned on whether or not I had shaved.

My wardrobe consists of simple, scoop/crew neck short sleeves, and out of the majority of them that I own, my hair underneath my arms doesn't even peek through. I used to be that person that would wake up late, skip a shower, throw a t-shirt on, and simply wet my razor just to quickly swipe underneath my arms. Looking back at it, I can only IMAGINE how horrible that was for both my skin, and the hair follicles under my arm.

Once again, I apologize for my lack of posting last night (and I also apologize that today's post is so late, and is technically "Day 8"s post). Let's be real here though. I'm human, you're human, and we make mistakes, and aren't always on our A game. Last night I fell asleep on the couch, and then it was past midnight so I called it a night and went to bed. Which I find absolutely fine. Would you guys rather have me post daily with barely anything to say about my day, or skip a few days here and there, so I can a) live my life and b) provide you with better content?

That was a trick question, and the answer is clear; I'm human, and I will post when I feel it benefits you, the reader, the most. I believe this is a fair, and logical change to my No Shave November series, and as of now, these conditions comply to future posts.

Thank you guys so much for all your kind words, love, and support! Here are today's (tonight's?) photos:

No Shave November: Day 5

Hello!

As far as today went, I continued to receive extremely positive comments from peers in regard to this social experiment. Let me just say I appreciate all that is said, and I'm over joyed with how widely accepted this challenge I'm putting myself through is.

The sweating is still a problem. I do officially now believe the hair plays a large roll in it. 

Unfortunately I don't have any nifty stories to share, or current experiences I've faced today. Although, I can say that the hair is starting to get a little itchy, and I'm not going to lie to you about that one.

Thank you for reading today's small post, and here are the photos of the day:

No Shave November: Day 4

I AM SORRY FOR NOT POSTING YESTERDAY

I received many comments about this, in person, and over the phone. Even if I were to have post yesterday, I'm just warning you now it would've been boring. I didn't have much social interaction since we had the day off from school, and the hair growth wasn't tremendously different from Day 2.

However, today I noticed that the hair growth is in full swing. Is it weird that a certain part of me feels like that awkward preteen boy who had one armpit hair but now has like a solid 10? It is now 100% noticeable that I am growing hair under my armpit, and for some reason that just causes me great pleasure.

I did not receive any comments from peers or strangers today on my armpits, and I don't believe that scenario will happen for awhile due to the fact that there's not really THAT much hair under there.

One aspect of today that I did want to point out is that I felt like I was excessively sweating underneath my arms. Yes, I had visible pit stains, and no, I was not ashamed of them, nor will I ever be. It's not my fault that that is one of the natural ways my body gets rid of water; and it's not as if I am going to go out and tailor my clothing around my pit stains. That is absolutely absurd. My argument is, that if you use deodorant, you don't smell bad, and you have pit stains on your shirt, then why should you be embarrassed? As long as you don't smell bad, you're golden in my book.

I am curious though, if there is a correlation between me having more armpit hair, and my naturally excessive sweating getting worse. From my research, I have found that when you shave your armpit hairs, you give the bacteria that sweat gives off (the odor as well) less area to breed or multiply. Also, by shaving, you are increasing your effectiveness of your deodorant. Although, I don't know how much this pertains to me, because before when I was shaving about every other day, I still had pools of sweat underneath my arms. I guess it's sort of a loose-loose situation for me.

As far as today's photos go I decided to change it up. I have an individual photo of each armpit, and them the standard one I've been posting of the two armpits in one picture.

Hope you enjoyed today's post, and I better see you back tomorrow! :)

No Shave November: Day 2

Hello everyone!

There's not much I can say about today. For the most part, I received numerous positive comments about my post yesterday. Which is greatly appreciated.

I was also faced with one main question of the day which was, "Are you really doing it for the whole month?" And to answer their question, and any confusion, yes I am not shaving my body hair for the entire month of November.

With that being said, here is my picture for today. Hair is starting to stubble, but it is barely noticeable

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No Shave November: Day 1

For social experiment reasons, this year I decided to participate in No Shave November. My main focus is around armpit hair, mostly because leg hair isn't as much of a problem in November due to the weather. 

Before starting this, I looked into a little as to why shaving armpit hair for women started. I realized that yes, it was all due to marketing, but the fact that women stuck with it is what caught me off guard. Women shaving their armpit hair is basically one of the first forums of how society pushes women and their appearance around. 

Most of my findings came from this short little video clip:Why did women start shaving their armpits? 

Throughout the month of November, I will be reporting on my experience, and posting daily photos of how much hair actually does grow. I recently shaved this morning, because I wanted to start the month off on a fresh start. 

My main reason behind doing this is simple, I want to know why women having armpit hair is so repulsive, disgusting, and unaccepted. In my own opinion, I don't see it this way. However, I'm curious as to why people find hair under a women's arm pit hair so remarkably "unsanitary".

I hope you enjoy my blog, as I embark on this month long journey! 

Day 1 Clean Slate

Listen

DISCLAIMER- I wrote this piece for a New York Times contest. I did not win, but I am pleased with what I was able to produce. It isn't gold, but I believe it's worth a read.

It’s 2015, and humans are struggling with the basic linguistic skill of listening.

Listening is deeper than hearing. When you hear something, you don’t dissect it, pull it apart, or try to understand it. You hear it, and move on. Sort of like feeling gum underneath a school desk and pulling your hand away without an ounce of hesitation.

Hearing doesn't work well in a conversation setting. If I’m talking to one of my close friends and explaining to them that I've had a bad day, I expect them to try to understand why my day was bad. However, this isn't a perfect world and not everyone is going to listen to what you have to say.

Listening is hard work, you have to fully commit yourself to what another person is trying to explain to you.  Good listeners challenge themselves, and don’t walk away from a conversation with assumptions, because assumptions aren't good enough.

It’s rare to find people who actually listen. Most of the time, when conversing with my peers it’s like a big game of jeopardy. Contestants on jeopardy fight to be heard, in order to answer the question correctly. While jeopardy contestants use a buzzer, teenagers use their mouths.  

On average, we listen at a rate of 125-250 words a minute, but think at 1,000-3,000 words per minute. We don’t even listen to half the amount of words we think. This just goes to show that for every 125-250 words heard, it takes anywhere from 1,000-3,000 words to comprehend them.

We have two ears and one mouth for a reason. As effective communicators we must listen twice as much as we speak.

Great listening skills generate from people who care. And in this day and age, most people don’t. We silence our children with iPads, and remove ourselves from complex conversations with big words and scary realizations.

I consider myself a good listener. When people are venting to me, I look for specific aspects of the story to keep the conversation flowing. I’m not one to say, “I’ll always be there for you,” and then hear your story just so I can leave you abandoned and alone.

As Henning Mankell says,  “What differentiates us from animals is the fact that we can listen to other people’s dreams, fears, joys, sorrows, desires, and defeats - and they in turn can listen to ours.”

Humans have the privilege to be able to listen to one another. We can share ideas, compare likes and differences, and learn from one another. The ability to improve the world starts with the simple skill of listening.

If we don’t shut up and start listening, we’ll never know what deserves to be heard. So pay attention to what people say to you, formulate questions on things you don’t understand, and above all:

Listen.

Acceptance

Learning how to accept people, situations, and life is hard. I'm not going to lie; this is probably one of the hardest life lessons for me.

It's hard to look at someone who doesn't get something right away, when you clearly understand the lesson just fine, and not think to yourself, 'C'mon, this isn't that hard. Just pay attention. Work harder. This shouldn't take you this long."

I used to be extremely critical of those who couldn't take directions, or finish tasks. Yes, that does sound rude. And it is, but it took me awhile to realize how rude it was. It was hard for me to understand that no every-ones brains are wired the same way as mine. I understood that people were different, but it was almost as if this thought vanished once I witnessed something out of the ordinary.

Public is where most of these thoughts generate from. How could someone die their whole head bright pink? How could they cover almost every square inch of their bodies with piercings? How could you bare that many children? How is that girl wearing that, doesn't she know it makes her look slutty?

We've all had these thoughts. It's as if your mind is controlled by gate, only allowing specific things that you believe should be let in, in.

I've learned that this is no way to live your life. It isn't healthy, if anything it rots your brain. You have to accept all types of people, and their ideals that come with them.

Being accepting of others and their ideas doesn't mean that you like or agree with what they have to say or do. It means you can look past their "ridiculous" traditions, such as only wearing pink on Wednesdays or eating meat once a week. Accepting is coming to a realization that no every one in the world is programmed like yourself. That's why there is diversity in the world.

It's easier to look past the small things. For example, I can't stand when people don't match their clothing. But why should I spend my time stressing on such a minuscule problem? Maybe they don't even view it as a problem. They are wearing what they are because they wanted to. THEY wanted too. It's not what I wanted. I wear things that match, I always have, and I always will. What's most important here is that I'm happy in the clothing I dress myself in. And as long as others are happy in what they are wearing, it is not my job as an outsider to make them feel any less of themselves, or judge them because of how they choose to express themselves.

Aside from plaid on plaid, or denim on denim, there are bigger things to accept in life. One of them being crisis.

No one ever wants to accept that horrible events "just happen," but to me, that's the only way I can properly handle them. In my most recent post I wrote about how my camera was stolen from me in the middle of the night. Now that I look back at it, I accept that there are cruel and horrendous people in this world. I can't do anything about that ( I mean unless I join law enforcement, which is something I'd never do).

To whomever is reading this, there is one message I want to make clear: Worry about yourself, and understand that people are different from you. As long as your actions represent the best version of yourself, try not to worry about what others do around you. Accept that you're you, and they're them. Accept that some situations are going to happen, and how you react to them builds a better you. Good luck on your journey of acceptance, for I myself am not finished with mine.