For years, there had been a negative connotation surrounding body hair – especially when it came to women.
But female-first shave and body brand Billie is hoping to change that with the launch of its campaign, Project Body Hair, which aims to celebrate female body hair in all its forms.
As part of the campaign, Billie released a new video of women proudly showing off their body hair along with images, which will be donated to stock photo site, Unsplash.
Proud: Billie’s new Project Body Hair campaign aims to celebrate female body hair in all its forms
Giving back: Billie also released images, which will be donated to stock photo site, Unsplash
And to encourage an even more diverse selection of pictures, Billie is also crowdsourcing images that positively represent women with body hair through an upload feature on its own website: projectbodyhair.com and using the hashtag #projectbodyhair.
As the first women’s razor brand to show female body hair, Billie’s video addresses the issue head on while acknowledging and celebrating female body hair and sparing women the clichés seen in ‘traditional’ women’s razor ads.
Director and photographer of the video and images, Ashley Armitage, hopes that by showing women with body hair, it will become less of taboo and more normalized.
She said: ‘It’s amazing that Billie is the first shaving company to actually show women with body hair. In all razor commercials, for some reason I can’t wrap my head around the fact that models already have smooth hairless skin.’
She added: ‘How can you know that a razor is even doing its job if all it’s doing is swiping off some shaving cream? And more importantly, why is showing female body hair so taboo?’
Representation: Billie is also crowdsourcing images that positively represent women with body hair through an upload feature on its own website
Shedding light: As the first women’s razor brand to show female body hair, Billie’s video addresses the issue head on
Normalized: Director and photographer of the video and images, Ashley Armitage, hopes that by showing women with body hair, it will become less of taboo
Project Body Hair reflects Billie’s ethos that women are not ‘goddesses’ for shaving but rather the idea that women should only shave when they want to and that paying more for a razor because it’s ‘pink’ is absurd.
‘Only showing smooth, hairless legs seemed like an archaic way of representing women,’ Billie co-founder Georgina Gooley said. ‘We have always said shaving is a choice – it’s your hair and no one should tell you what to do with it.’
‘We’re excited to launch a campaign that will help normalize body hair and change the one-dimensional way in which women are portrayed in mass media.’
This isn’t the first campaign Billie has released for its brand because in May, the female-first razor company launched its Magic in the Mundane initiative, which is all about making everyday routines, such as shaving, a little more delightful (and affordable).
Ridiculous: It also reinforces the idea that paying more for a razor because it’s ‘pink’ is absurd
Old-fashioned: Co-founder Georgina Gooley said that Only showing smooth, hairless legs seemed like an archaic way of representing women
Different perspective: She added that Billie was excited to launch a campaign that will help normalize body hair and change the way women are portrayed in mass media
Billie was launched in November 2017 by Georgina Gooley and Jason Bravman as a way to fight higher priced products specifically geared toward women – otherwise known as the pink tax.
Delivered direct to the consumer Billie’s products are priced at half the price of competitors (Gillette’s Venus brand cartridges cost $17 for a four-pack) but unlike other brands, Billie believes that if a women wants to shave, she should be able to do affordably.
‘We built Billie to be a brand for all womankind, not just women who use our products,’ Georgina told Forbes. ‘We think of our customers as our friends.’
‘We would never dictate what they should do, especially when it comes to personal grooming habits. If a woman chooses to shave, we want her to have a great product that is tailored to her needs at a fair and affordable price.’