Publications
- Martina Diaz suffers from a health condition that causes thick hair to grow all over her body and face.
- She has gone a year without shaving and proudly shows the results on TikTok to push back against traditional female beauty standards.
- She believes that activism is about naturalising body hair in women.
This influencer has gone a year without shaving and proudly shows the results on TikTok to push back against traditional female beauty standards.
Argentine Martina Diaz suffers from a health condition that causes thick hair to grow all over her body and face. It means she has had to shave more than the average woman would all her life. But, after years of having to shave constantly, she decided against it.
"A year ago, I realised that I didn't want to shave anymore. I realised all the suffering I had gone through because of hair, and I wondered what would happen if I let it grow."
READ MORE| Beautiful from birth: Bullied for birthmark on her face but that didn't stop her from being a model
After sharing this on her social media, she was met with vitriol.
"It shocked me that something that is exactly the same is so condemned in women and so accepted in men."
Diaz is now using this experience to create a platform to challenge the societal norm of women without body or facial hair.
She shared: "Activism is about naturalising body hair in women. This doesn't make sense, what are we doing?
"First, I started spacing out my hair removal, I let it grow, started showing it on social media, and I found a lot of people who were inspired by it and told me about their experiences of suffering in adolescence because of hair, and I said, 'No, this has to change'."
READ MORE | Zoey Seboe on Miss SA and her rare skin condition: 'Beauty is knowing that simply existing is enough'
Diaz's posts have garnered numerous comments from social media users, largely supportive, but some are critical.
On one of her latest videos, showing off her bushy brows, one female TikTok user commented: "I love your natural eyebrows! Divine lashes!"
And, on another post, a male user remarked: "I don't like women like this, but that's my problem; as long as you feel good and don't sadden anyone, everything is perfect."
However, another person wrote next to one of Diaz's videos: "You're not ugly, just your eyebrows, and that's it."
Her TikTok bio jokes: "This account belongs to my eyebrows."
