Woman Trolled For Embracing Moustache And Unibrow - But Says It Has Boosted Her Confidence

Ever tut to yourself when shaving your legs, and think, 'it's so unfair that men don't have to go through all this'...?

Well, that's what Eldina Jaganjac thought one day, when she decided not to shave off her moustache and unibrow.

Tutor Eldina, from Copenhagen, Denmark, grew up in a small city where everyone was expected to fit in and look similar.

But as she got older, Eldina grew frustrated with the beauty standards she was forced to adhere to as a woman, and she recently decided she would stop plucking the hairs in between her eyebrows and removing the hair on her upper lip, out of principle.

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After taking the plunge in March of this year, Eldina says she's faced some trolling from teens online and comments in the street from men, with one even shouting 'pluck that' at her, or staring at her unplucked brows as if she has a 'third head'.

However, overall, she says, the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, and her unibrow and facial hair has actually been a blessing, as it means she gets to weed out any 'conservative' individuals.

"The reaction is actually almost completely positive, but I am sure that there are some negative comments behind my back, but I don't really care about that. I have noticed a few grown men stare at my unshaven legs and my eyebrows like I had a third head.

"If anything, I get more positive attention and I get to weed out the more conservative people from the beginning."

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Edina reasons: "I used to feel less feminine because of my rather voluminous eyebrows. Growing up, I noticed that I was considered a brute when my body hair first started to grow as a teenager.

"I noticed most girls around me panicking around the age of thirteen to fourteen and starting to shave and pluck anything pluckable because they wanted to be accepted as female and tried to fit into their new role as a young woman.

"Before I let my unibrow grow out, I did feel like there were extremely limited options to how women were supposed to look.

"Compared to men, we are expected to spend much more time and money on our looks just to be deemed visually acceptable in society, especially when you are in public spaces.

"If a man doesn't shave and doesn't pluck his eyebrows, no one notices or comments and it's nothing out of the ordinary.

"Just like many other women, I have learned to police myself. For instance, I used to not feel comfortable going outside unless my eyebrows were the accepted small size, and I wouldn't go to the gym unless my legs were clean shaven.

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"Now, I've chosen to focus on the tasks and goals that I need to have done and less on how I appear while doing them and whether people like me or not, because I probably won't ever see them again, and if I do, I still don't care.

"I don't care what people think. I don't want it to become this big thing - no pun intended - but it's a personal choice for everyone to make themselves, and I wish that people wouldn't care no matter how a woman chooses to look."

While Eldina claims that letting go of these beauty standards has been freeing for her, she goes on to stress that people should only do so if they feel comfortable.

"In a way I am more confident because I am not afraid to look different anymore and I've come to feel like I can make more untraditional choices in general," she says.

"It's also helped me to be more visually open and creative and have more courage."

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Offering advice to other women, she says: "I think you should do what you want to do. Of course, some jobs and places, you have to fit a description so it's going to be a compromise. I would take it slowly and safely because you never know how people will react.

"It's also a balance; Is the more natural look worth the worry? Are you going to spend more energy worrying about if people are staring and what they are thinking?

"In this case, I would ease into it and see how it feels and what is right for you but try it out and people might just not notice or you might end up feeling quite comfortable.

"I want to convey the message that we are all different, and that's okay. There's no one right or wrong but every person, despite their gender, should have the right to do as they want with their appearance.

"I think we have to ask the question: Why do we, as a society, deem it so important that women remove hairs from their bodies? I think this should be so irrelevant as there are so many other and more important things to focus on."

Topics: Life News, Beauty, Real, Life, Hair

Joanna Freedman

Joanna is a journalist at Tyla with a particular interest in highlighting women's issues and telling inspiring first person stories. She's also their resident foodie, and loves covering exciting new beauty launches, too. Contact her at [email protected].

@joannafreedman