Do you ever think about how much time we spend removing hair from our bodies? Shaving, waxing, plucking… This idea keeps me up at night sometimes. How much more time would I have in a week, a month, or a year if I gave up hair removal cold turkey? Let’s attempt to do the math and find out.

In an average week, I would say I spend this much estimated time on the following:

• Shaving legs – 10 minutes a day, every other day = 35 minutes per week
• Plucking eyebrows – a few minutes here and there each day = 15 minutes per week
• Shaving armpits – 5 minutes a day, every other day = 20 minutes per week
• Bikini area – shaving, trimming, etc. = 15 minutes per week
• Waxing upper lip – 15 minutes every 3 weeks or so = 5 minutes per week
• Removing other random stray hairs – 5 minutes per week

Altogether I’m at 95 minutes a week of performing hair removal tasks. That’s an hour and a half, which means in a month I spend about 6 hours every month, and 72 hours a year removing hair! 3 entire days of my life every year just trying to look less hairy!!!

What age were you when you first started the never-ending, life-long task of removing your own hair? ***side note – are there any of you out there who don’t do any hair removal at all? Are you naturally hairless? Tell me your secrets!***

I was in 5th grade when I bought my first razor to shave my legs. It was a purple Schick razor that came in this little case to hold the razor and extra blades. I didn’t tell my mom because I was embarrassed about it. The blades had these wire guards around them to try to prevent nicks, but I still ended up cutting myself.

I was in 7th grade the first time I plucked my unibrow. I was in college the first time I worried about any bikini line hairs. And just a few weeks ago was the first time I ever tried waxing my upper lip. Spoiler alert: it hurt. But I will say it is much quicker than trying to pluck your lip hairs out one by one with tweezers.

I’ve threatened many times to just throw in the towel and be my hairy self. But honestly, I know I will never do that because I’m too concerned about my appearance; too tied up in the idea that being beautiful means I have value.

Deep in my heart I know this is not true, but I must confess, I spend way too much time, money, and effort around the task of trying to look beautiful. How much time is the right about of time, one might wonder… I think it depends on each person. For myself, I know it’s something I’ve always been overly preoccupied with. No matter how much time and energy I spend trying to make myself look better, I can always find something I wish were different. I have to intentionally put my perfectionism to the side and give myself grace regarding body image. (And sometimes in my stubbornness, I just decide not to.)

But I digress… what would you do with an extra hour and a half each week? That doesn’t seem like a lot until you think of it as three extra days per year.

I think I’d probably take a staycation and read books for fun, do some writing/journaling, and maybe repaint some places in the house that need touching up (a project that’s been on my perpetual to-do list for a while!)

I suppose the bigger questions surrounding all of this are what are you currently spending time on that you need to let go of? Are you living according to your values and priorities? Maybe it’s time to reevaluate how we spend our time, or even reevaluate our priorities.

As 2021 approaches (if you’re a New Year’s resolution-setting type of person), I encourage you to make a resolution to be more purposeful about your time. Or even just be more mindful about how you currently spend your time. Is there anything important that’s just not fitting in to your schedule? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading.

*image at the top is from a Flamingo waxing kit box