Happy belated birthday to supermodel Ashley Graham: champion of body positivity, advocate of attachment parenting and working moms, and now… normalizer of body hair.
In a series of Instagram pics posted on Monday, Graham shares some special moments from her 33rd birthday. “Perfect bday with my boys,” she wrote in the caption. “And if you didn’t vote yet, get out there tomorrow folks!!”
Naturally, there are pics with her husband, director Justin Ervin, and 9-month-old son Isaac. We also love an assortment of colorful autumn nature shots. But what really caught our eye was the grand finale: a nude selfie from the bathtub. With only a gold draped around her neck, Graham flashes a sliver of her unshaved right armpit—and fans were there for it.
“It’s the pits for me ????????????????????,” read one comment. “Beautiful. What is that underarm doing,” asked a follower. “Living its best life ????” answered another.
This actually isn’t the first time Graham has flouted old-fashioned grooming rules. In February, she told followers in an Instagram story, “For all the ladies out there who did not shave their pits basically their whole pregnancy or at least until the end, I haven’t shaved since my last public appearance, which was [The Tonight Show Starring] Jimmy Fallon [in December 2019].” At the same time, she posted a selfie from her bathroom mirror with hair on her armpits. The image served as the leading example in an August Vogue article titled, “Underarm Hair is Back—Here’s Why.”
And in 2018, when a Twitter user asked Graham what her preferred method for hair removal was, the answer was simple:
I just shave them, but only sometimes😃 #hairypits
— Ashley Graham (@ashleygraham) May 2, 2018
We imagine women everywhere are happy to see this trend take hold, especially when social interactions are mostly limited to Zoom meet-ups thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. If there’s any time we shouldn’t feel bad about giving our razors a rest, it’s now. But you can certainly count Graham among those who hope the movement outlasts these times. For more birthday pics, check out her latest post on the ‘gram: