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“Your mission, should you decide to accept it,” challenged Chloe Marshall of the Armpits4August movement, “is to refrain from removing your underarm hair for an entiremonth. This is bound to attract even more first time growers, and what starts out as a challenge can for some, end up being a personal preference.

“Whether you ditch the depilation or continue to wax lyrical,” Chloe concluded, “at least you’ll finally know how your underarmgardens really grow.” D’oh

Here’s a quick video reminder of what this month’s movement is all about:

“But why does the subject cause such controversy?” wondered The Daily Mail. “And can Armpits4August succeed in making body hair on women the norm rather than niche?”

Yet it used to be the norm … until advertising took the country by storm!

“Prior to 1915,” recounts the vintage blog Bustle, “body hair on women was seen as a non-issue, thanks to the straight-laced styles of the Victorian era—with women draped and buttoned up to the chin, shaving your armpits was as odd and unnecessary as shaving your … whatever.”

“Then along came the sleeveless evening gown,” Outskirts of the Twenties blog picks up the story, “and suddenly hairy pits mattered rather more than before!”

Thus, in the spring of 1915, Harper’s Bazaar published a pair advertisements telling women that ‘sleeveless dresses (below left) and modern dancing’ have made it necessary to remove ‘objectionable’ underarm hair.

“Summer Dress and Modern Dancing combine to make necessary the removal of objectionable hair” read the ad for X Bazin Depilatory Powder (above right). ‘So it was that modern sinful jazz that started it!” notes Outskirtsof the Twenties. “I should have known. Nothing good ever came out of jazz.”

Except the dance craze of the decade, The Charleston

… in which scantily clad sexpots ‘put their hands in the air like they don’t care’—long before rap urged its audiences to do so.

As epitomized by Lucille LeSueur of San Antonio—who became the Charleston Champion of 1923, a springboard to Hollywood where she changed her name to Joan Crawford.

Clearly, unshorn underarms would never do with the outfits those movements required! “There wasn’t much you could do to hide wisps of hair when you threw up your arms for the Charleston,” writes Marlen Komar.

“The first product for hair removal that was given widespread advertising was Zip powder (below left),” adds one historian, “which helped you get rid of ‘offending hairs.’ The way history tells it, it was all about dollar signs.” King Gillette—the regal founder of the blade company that still bears his name—was the man behind the lady razor, which he cleverly called Milady Decolleté {from the French for ‘to bare the neck and shoulders}, below rt.)

When Gillette realized he could double his profits by doubling his customers,” Bustle points out, “he got to working on how to bring blades into powder rooms.” And the rest is history: “Armpit hair was deemed officially out of style—and unseemly—by the mid-1920s.”

Ironically, the most popular song of 1921 was I’m Just Wild About Harry … when just a decade or so before, ‘I’m Just Wild About Hairy’ would have been a bigger hit!

In fact, before razors, fuzz had all the buzz—which is why models invariably posed with their arms raised, to convey ‘The Scent of a Woman’ that drove men mad.

Indeed the armpit area was always emphasized as a sexual turn-on … the svelte ‘angel’ below right clearly ‘hearts’ her long ’n’ curlies.

And it never really went away: Down through the decades hair was always there … despite products like Nair.

That warm and fuzzy feeling didn’t wax and wane in the 1950s or ’60s …

… reaching its zenith in the Seventies when Hippies let it all hang out!

But by the turn of the Millennium, bare skin was in … and ‘quoth the Raven (haired) nevermore ’:

Happily, a recent revival is underway … when it comes to underarms. With art and glamour photography leading the way.

Perhaps in part because of ‘The Pioneer of Pits’ in cyberspace, Furry Girl … a Seattle schoolgirl who at age 18 launched what’s become “the longest-running amateur hairy porn site in the world, open since 2003!”

“I wear glasses with some cute brown frames (above) you’ll see in some of my photos,” she shared from the outset. “Although usually I have my contacts in during the day.”

“I’m Furry Girl,” the 5-foot-6 cutie proudly proclaims, “an amateur gal with a full bush, fuzzy legs and hairypits. And this is my homemade porn site” … which you’re free to comb through (bottom right).

“Though I rarely wear a bra, I measure in at a perky A cup. I like hot women and have a definite ‘queer’ streak”—being tasted and tested by Tasty Trixie below …

... “but I mostly hook up with men (I know, I’m a cliché female bisexual). I mostly fuck plain old dudes.”

Such as Gary (above) in her first ever hardcore photo set,” which Furry Girl grins “was a hot experience having another friend take pics of us fucking in my bedroom, because it was exhibitionistic and also very intimate.”

“23% of Women Don’t Shave Their Pits, Thanks Feminism!” headlines a May 26, 2017 blog by armhair advocate Audrey. “Nobody loves fucking up the patriarchy and gender expectations like us queer women.” And indeed it appears “a large percentage of women with unshaven underarms are lesbians” {like real-life lovers Cassie and Zooey}:

“As a gender-queer human who stopped shaving my armpits mostly because I literally could not be bothered and was deeply inspired by the generation of dykes that came before me” activist Audrey admits, “I feel pretty strongly about the importance of pit hair in the queer community.”

But unlike the stereotype, not all are “man-hating muff munchers” … in fact, many lovely ladies “are now finding mutual pleasure in licking each other’s pits as much as their tits!”

As Dr. Mark Griffiths explains: “Many people enjoy kissing, tasting and smelling their partner’s hairy armpits during sexual foreplay. Sometimes they ask their sexual partners not to shower, bathe or wash their armpits, so that the smell is as strong as possible.” Witness Sapphic sweethearts Barb and Carmen:

Adds Dr. Brenda Love in her Encyclopedia of Unusual Sexual Practices: “Sexual arousal from armpits is more common in Europe where women allow their armpit hair to grow. This area is very sensitive to the flicker of a tongue or the warmth of a penis {‘armpit fucking’ is often called ‘bagpiping’ since the woman lifts her arm up and down as if playing the ‘instrument’}. Unshaven hair is also said to retain pheromones, the sex hormones that cause arousal when inhaled.” As Sarah does to Cleo below.

“It seems so obvious,” reasons writer Alison Stevenson of Vice. “Your pits are right there, when all that stuff is happening—so close to the other body parts that are licked and sucked, and yet they rarely get attention. As weird as it may feel, seem or sound, armpit fetishists might be on to something.”

See for yourself:

Chapter 3: Armpits4August—The ‘Hair Apparent’!