A 21-year-old woman says she refuses to shave her back and arm hair – despite criticism from trolls who call it “disgusting”.
Spencer Barbosa says she spent “years” hiding and grooming her body hair, but by the age of 17, she’d had enough of feeling embarrassed.
Choosing to embrace her body in its natural state, she started sharing pictures and videos of herself on social media – which has proved controversial.
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While she says the backlash has been “crazy” – including trolls saying “no man will ever love her if she’s hairy” – Spencer is on a mission to get other young women to accept their bodies as they are, sharing clips to her following of nearly 10 million.
“I get a lot of negativity telling me that I should shave or that no man will ever love me if I’m hairy,” the content creator, from Toronto, Canada, told What’s The Jam.
“I get some pretty crazy reactions online when I post my back hair or when I embrace my arm hair.
“A lot of people comment about how disgusting it is, or say how they’re throwing up and that it’s not that hard to shave.
“I decided to embrace my body hair when I was 17, after years of hiding my arm hair [and] feeling embarrassed of what my body naturally grows.
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“I was shaving, waxing and lasering all the time – not because I wanted to, but because I felt pressure to.
“I think it’s really interesting how disgusting and scary people consider something that naturally grows in your body.
“You should never be scared of your own body.
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“But honestly as the years go on of being a content creator, I’ve gotten kind of used to the heat, and it really doesn’t bother me.”
Spencer regularly goes viral with her confidence-boosting posts on TikTok, garnering millions of views and sparking debate in the comments section.
In one clip, she pokes fun at the people saying, “Girls shouldn’t have back hair”, dancing around with her back exposed to show her dark hair.
In another post, she shares an insight into the sort of trolling she gets – including “her poor boyfriend”, “body hair is disgusting”, “women don’t have moustaches”, “please shave”, and a series of comments about her weight.
Spencer also advocates for body positivity across the board, sharing clips of her wrinkles, crow’s feet and developing smile lines, as well as close-up shots of her skin.
In one TikTok, which garnered 134,000 likes, she shows the difference between her body in its posed state versus more candid shots.
Spencer added: “It is very important for me to post about body hair because I remember being 10 years old and begging my mum to let me shave my legs because the boys in my class started pointing it out.
“I fell into an awful trap of shaving my entire body because I was scared of being bullied, or I was scared that people would perceive me as ‘hairy’.
“I want to make it very clear I am never telling other people what they need to do with their body, or how to groom their body hair, I am just trying to educate people that it is not unhygienic or ugly to grow natural body hair.
“It actually grows for a reason.
“Also, even though I post about body hair all the time, I still choose to shave my armpits in my legs because I want to.
“You should only shave if you want to – it is your choice, it’s your body.
“It’s really important to love your body, understand your body and not be scared of it.
“Body hair naturally grows on your body.
“It is normal – it’s not embarrassing.
“You’re allowed to raise your arm if you forgot to shave your armpit. You should never let body hair hold you back from anything.
“And if you do choose to wax shave or laser, please make the choice for yourself, and not because you’re scared of what other people think.”
