Blogger proudly shares photo of her armpit hair, calls out unrealistic beauty standards

A blogger has shared a photo of her unshaven armpit hair in a bid to highlight the unrealistic beauty standards women face every day.

Taking to her Instagram, Sara Puhto, from Finland, shared an image to her 107K followers of her wearing a white bandeau top and knickers.

With her arm raised confidently in the air, the 20-year-old’s unshaven underarm is proudly on display.

“This idea of beauty we have currently is so odd. Who decides what’s beautiful?” she wrote in the accompanying caption.

“It’s not some checklist that you go through and suddenly can qualify for.

“Should one have flawless skin, a lean body and groomed body hair to be considered beautiful?

“No. Because that idea of beauty is non-existent. Nobody in reality has that 24/7.”

Sara goes on to say that beauty shouldn’t be some kind of exclusive group only certain people are allowed to join.

“I currently don’t shave my leg or armpit hair because it’s cold where I live, my skin is breaking out and I do not, nor ever will, have a lean tummy with 0 skin folding or minimal amounts of fat. That’s the reality,” she continued.

She then appealed to her followers to stop judging one another and shaming people by posting hurtful comments online.

“Please don’t be one of those people that tears others down,” she wrote. “What’s the point. What do you gain from it? Does it make you feel better when you comment these things on people’s posts? Do you ever think why? I’m sure everyone has something they’re insecure about.”

“We all have our own problems to deal with and you never know what someone’s going through. Please consider that before you say things that could hurt someone,” she added.

The blogger ended her empowering post by encouraging her followers to be kinder to themselves too.

“Also think about that when you say hurtful things to yourself. There’s no point in being rude towards yourself,” she wrote.

“Learn to love yourself because you are an amazing person and you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself.

“As long as you’re doing your best, you’re doing an amazing job.”

Since sharing her inspiring words, the post has been liked almost 8,000 times with people praising the blogger for delivering an inspiring dollop of realism.

“I just wanna say that I love all these body positive posts!!! I’m 25 and your captions totally sum up how I feel about loving my body and are the messages I want my daughters to see one day, but if only posts like these were around while I was growing up! It would have saved a lot of self-hatred and feeling ‘abnormal’, so thank you for the messages you’re sending women in general, but especially young women who need this encouragement,” one woman wrote.

“It’s odd that something so natural such as body hair is considered gross if you have it. Who along the line was like ‘shave it all off,’” another woman added.

“I love this so much!” another woman wrote. “The idea society has put in our heads of what we should look like is completely unrealistic. I don’t shave my legs purely because I’m lazy.”

Sara isn’t the only one who’s spoken out about unrealistic beauty standards of late. Earlier this year, fitness blogger Morgan Mikenas took to Instagram to reveal the results of not shaving her body hair for a year.

The idea was to encourage others to not to feel bound to societal beauty standards and to find confidence in their bodies in their natural hairy state.

Both Morgan and Sara are part of a growing body love movement that’s seen women chuck out their razors and embrace their body hair in all its natural beauty.

In April, Madonna’s daughter Lourdes was pictured on a beach proudly showing off her armpit hair. And she’s not the only celebrity refusing to conform to de-fuzzing beauty standards. Miley Cyrus, and ‘Girls’ actress Jemima Kirke have all proudly flaunted unshaven underarms.

Back in January, Jemima’s sister – actress Lola Kirke – contrasted her princess-like Andrew Gn gown with some nicely grown body hair at the Golden Globes.

Body hair, it seems, is the accessory du jour and while not everyone will be rushing to ditch their monthly wax, it’s certainly refreshing to see more women embracing their natural bodies, armpit hair and all.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for non-stop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyleUK.

Read more from Yahoo Style UK:

In defence of underarm hair

This woman had the best response to trolls who body-shamed her for having armpit hair

7 shaving mistakes you’re probably making – and how to avoid them