Rain Sissel
The funky blue hair in Rain Sissel’s armpits took the international media by storm.
Sissel, a Millard North and Creighton University graduate, works at a hair salon in downtown Seattle called Vain. She and a former co-worker, Roxie Hunt, both had body hair for some time, and they had always embraced it.
“So we wanted to try to push the envelope a little further,” said Sissel, 24.
They dyed Sissel’s armpit hair blue to match the hair on her head. Hunt and Sissel wrote a post about it for the blog Offbeat Home and Life. The post was a hit. Sissel said it got about 30,000 views and was featured in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and on MTV. It even hit media in Singapore and Denmark.
Most responses were positive, Sissel said. But others mocked her, including Kathie Lee and Hoda on the “Today” show, who called her hair “freaky.”
“I feel like people being hairy is not a new trend,” Sissel said. “Its not even a trend. It’s just how your body is naturally.”
Sissel and Hunt run freeyourpits.com, a website featuring images submitted by women with hairy armpits. The site also offers beauty advice and interviews, and there’s a shop selling a natural deodorant spray and specially designed tank tops.
Free Your Pits encourages women with unshorn armpit hair to strike up discussions about feminism, identity and body positivity.
It’s just a movement to encourage people to feel comfortable with themselves regardless of what they choose to do.
“Because it’s no one else’s business,” Sissel said.
Sissel moved to Omaha from Des Moines with her family when she was 9 and left for Seattle at 23. She studied public relations, journalism and English at Creighton University.
Growing up, Sissel struggled with her body image. She said she often felt self-conscious and uncomfortable with herself. She faced bullying in school.
“After years and years of being told you’re weird or ugly or sad or you aren’t good enough, sometimes you start to internalize it,” she said.
She said the Free Your Pits project is a step along a longer journey “for me to accept myself for who I am.”
http://www.omaha.com/living/creight...cle_80ede805-699e-5ba3-acef-815f4b2f33fc.html
