IN RECENT WEEKS, Julia Roberts discussed a red carpet moment which made headlines all over the world 19 years ago.

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As absurd as it sounds given current celebrity exploits, it came down to the fact that the Oscar-winner hadn’t shaved her armpits in preparation for the Notting Hill premiere, and deigned to wave at a clamouring press, thereby revealing an armpit not often seen on red carpets.

A child when Julia’s red-carpet wave made headlines, I was fascinated by both the aesthetic and the furore.

Almost 20 years on, the topic remains a divisive one.

Sure, you need to look no further than the fact Julia is still questioned on it almost two decades later to know that.

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As an adult, my personal preference has been to remove body hair, and I have found that when entering into discussion on it, debate tends to get heated.

It seems my personal preference implies a thinly-veiled judgement of other preferences – a suggestion I’m at pains to quash. 

So yes, there have been occasions when I’ve been on a night out or in the middle of a gym session, and realised that I haven’t shaved my underarms, and felt immediately uncomfortable, but I don’t expect other people to feel the same way about their own body.

Indeed, I wouldn’t give a second thought – or even notice – if another woman was sporting the same spiky underarms; it’s simply my personal preference.

What about you? Where do you stand on it?

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