Did you catch Offbeat Home & Life and How-To Hair Girl on the Today Show?

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dying armpit hair

Remember Roxie Hunt’s post about arm pit-dying DIY post from last month? Well, it’s been getting some mainstream attention this week — first the LA Times, then the Today Show. Here’s Kathy Lee and Hoda Kotb being horrified by the concept, and decreeing it “freaky”:

As you might expect, they were super negative, but we love Roxie’s public response to the press:

What I would like to say on behalf of myself is that as a woman, I have opted to exercise my freedom to choose the so called “freaky” things I do to my own body, and I feel like this is an important message to spread to other women. Trust your gut. Do what feels right to you. Experiment and don’t judge each other.

We are stoked on the free press, glad the concept of celebrating body hair is finally catching on, and want to stress the fact that the Pit Hair Movement is about much more than pit hair. It is about empowering women to celebrate their bodies, in whatever way they choose.

Kathie Lee and Hoda, we clink our glasses to you for recognizing our efforts, and offer you a challenge: why not grow out your pit hair, color it, and join the pit hair revolution before you judge others. Don’t knock it till you try it. Hell, I’ll even dye it for you!

(Read more on Roxie’s blog, How-To Hair Girl.)

Despite the negativity, we fucking LOVE that Roxie’s post for Offbeat Home & Life got the Today Show to talk about armpit hair. Of course they were dismissive about the concept, but Roxie brought up an issue that was thought-provoking enough that it slightly blew Kathy Lee’s mind. As we’ve said before, in an attention economy, ANY attention is a form of currency. Anything that gets blue armpit hair (and Offbeat Home & Life!) on The Today Show is a tiny win for weirdos everywhere.

Comments on Did you catch Offbeat Home & Life and How-To Hair Girl on the Today Show?

  1. Yeah, Roxie! Decades ago, women wearing pants and being in male-oriented workplaces that was freaky. Keep up the good fight – if it wasn’t for women like you, they would not have their jobs!

  2. Thank you for this. I’ve been growing out all my body hair this winter, which started for a medical reason (severe eczema and infections) and now has become a bit of a statement. If it’s more comfortable for me, and I don’t care about being hairy (maybe even like it) then why am I required to be hairless? It’s super tough going against something so ingrained in our culture though and yesterday I had almost convinced myself to shave because I wanted to feel “normal” again. Seeing someone get so upset and speechless over something so trivial makes me feel like maybe it’s worth pushing the envelope and questioning why things are “just done”. Whenever I’m feeling unsure about what I’m doing I watch this video and it makes me feel a little better about making my own conscious choices on body hair: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRS8NkpE8hc

  3. While I may not attempt to grow out and dye my pit hair in the near future, I am always puzzled when people recoil in horror when someone else chooses to do something like that, or do any other ‘offbeat’ modification. If the person doing the modification likes it, who cares? We accept so many other beauty modifications (covering grey hair, Botox injections, wearing spanx to look thinner) why should blue armpit hair be concerning?

    • Well, I would say that things like Botox freak me out way more than growing (and dyeing) armpit hair, but that’s just me. And sure, some types of body modification scare me (anything involving implantation of objects under the skin, pretty much, aside from tattooing…), but ultimately, if someone wants to do it, it’s not my business. I can’t see why something as reversible as growing and dyeing armpit hair is so disturbing to them.

      On a sidenote, I wanted to mention that for the last week or so, every time I open OBH, the recommended reading for “More Offbeat Home Awesomeness” was always the post on dyeing armpit hair, until today. I was sorta wondering if you guys were really trying to tell me something… 🙂

  4. I Love the idea of dying my pit hair but my hair is so dang dark I don’t think the dye would take. If anyone has any tips I’d love to hear them!
    It always blows my mind how freaked out people get about body hair. It’s just hair. I haven’t shaved my legs in ages. Once upon a time I used to shave all the things and finally I decided I was done. I still shave my face because I’m not quite ready to rock my ladybeard in public but one day I will!

  5. I love how they ask “where will it end?” Implying that women will start dyeing the other hair on their bodies. But I don’t think they’re very well informed. Women dye pretty much all body hair except their pits (until now). I’m sure they themselves have had their mustaches or knuckles bleached in their lifetime, or had their eyebrows dyed to match their hair. And I think it’s pretty well-known that women dye their pubes, too.
    In my opinion, dyeing armpit hair is kindof the last frontier of dyed body hair.

  6. I heard three different radio stations talking about this yesterday on the way home from work.

    Of course the general idea was “Ew gross you’ll never get a man” because of course, lest we female identified humans forget, our sole purpose on this earth is to lock down a man. And of course, all male identified humans only like one kind of woman and could never be attracted to anything outside the pages of Playboy.

    I did get a kick out of mainstream media picking it up. I did not get a kick out of mainstream media reminding me why mainstream media sucks.

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