beauty

These photos will make you want to grow your underarm hair. For real.

There’s a new series of beautiful, intriguing photos taking over the internet.

And the unexpected effect of them? Is that they’re making us consider growing our underarm hair. (Well, almost.)

The series, titled “Natural Beauty”, reflects photographer Ben Hopper’s view that armpit hair “is natural and can be a beautiful thing”. There’s a political message to the images too: Hopper is commenting on how razor companies effectively created a market for its women’s products — by perpetuating the idea that armpit hair for women was somehow repulsive.

“Most people can’t even stand the look of a hairy female armpit. Now that is brilliant marketing,” Hopper comments.

“I don’t want to say that I want women to start growing their armpit hair, I just think that it’s a possibility and people shouldn’t dismiss it. I’d like people to just question the whole thing.”

Whatever you think of the message’s effectiveness, the series is undeniably intimate and strangely gorgeous to look at. Take a look:

What was your reaction to the images?
Ben Hopper is a UK-based photographer. You can view more of his images at his blog or his website, or visit him on Facebook here or on Twitter here.