It's Bikini Wax Season. Or Is It?

Some thoughts on the long shadow of the Brazilian wax and who is allowed to have visible body hair. Welcome to Fat Swim Week!

Something you might not know about me is that about 15 years ago, I went to beauty school. It was an independent reporting project I devised for myself in the early stages of my women’s magazines divestment journey. I chronicled the nine month experience on a now-defunct Wordpress blog and later tried to write a book about the beauty industry that did not sell. There is a lot more we could say about that project, and for now I’ll leave it at: Had good intentions, but did not age well. 

But I did learn a lot about beauty labor, paid and unpaid. I learned about who we let opt out of that work. And because I trained to be an esthetician, I learned a lot about hair removal.

Mariya Borisova, Getty Images

It’s Fat Swim Week here—on Burnt Toast and on

Big Undies

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So we’re going to talk all week about being a body in a swimsuit: How to find one you like (sooo many good recs coming on Big Undies tomorrow!) how to feel about showing up at the pool, whether or not to make our peace with swim dresses, and more!

But first, I want to talk about the other issue that makes being semi-naked in public fraught: Visible body hair.