Fashion

Fun Ways To Style Your Armpit Hair This Summer

by Skyller Tritch

With summer just around the corner, we're all looking forward to showing off our legs, arms, and stomachs. But there's one area that always seems to get a little excluded from the sun fun: your armpit hair That's why this summer you should try some armpit art. Armpit art has been a growing trend because it's a fun way to express yourself. Armpit art uses arts, crafts, and imagination to achieve interesting styles for an area that goes usually unnoticed. It's a fun and simple way to brighten up your day or spruce up an everyday maxi dress.

How many times a day do you look at your armpits and say, “eh”? This article will be a five step guide to jazzing up, and reclaiming the voluptuous tassels under our arms. Of course, you can always dye your underarm strands, but what about taking things a step further? Armpit art is gender inclusive celebration of the hair our mom's might make sour faces at. It's a feminist and fun way to celebrate an area that seldom gets applause. Whether you want to throw a handful of glitter or attach googly eyes under your arm, armpit art will be a fun way to enjoy tank top weather.

1. The Pixie Pit

What you need: Glitter and hair mousse.

How to: I put a dime-sized amount of mousse onto my fingertips, sprinkled pink and white glitter on to the mousse, rubbed the glitter mousse through the armpit hair and wah-la! It's a pit disco! Here's a step by step guide, if you want a more in depth tutorial.

2. The Rebel Mohawk

What you need: Shaving cream, a razor, hair gel, and imagination.

How to: For this look, I shaved the armpit hair into a clean line, about an inch wide. I like to outline the area with the shaving cream so I have an idea of where I would like to shave. This is a little challenging to do in the mirror, so I suggest having a friend help. Mistakes are OK! It's just armpit hair, after all, and it'll grow back. I put a very small amount of hair gel onto the tips of my fingertips and I began to work them through until I was satisfied with the mohawk look I had achieved.

3. Ombre Pits

What you need: Face bleach (I used GiGi Gentle Bleaching Cream), hair dye (Manic Panic Cotton Candy Pink is featured here), and gloves.

How to do: This style is a little tricky. When dyeing your armpits, I suggest not wearing deodorant so you can really work the product in and make sure it sticks. I collected all of the armpit hair between my index and middle finger and rested my fingers on the armpit to keep the product from getting on the area I didn't want color. When applying the bleach, I worked it through the hair, slightly massaging the product all the way through the area I wanted lightened. Follow the instructions on the bleach you choose; mine said to leave the bleach on for ten minutes before washing out. Before I added the dye, I made sure the area was completely dry so the product would stick. I left the dye on for 10 minutes before rinsing it out.

4. Tie Dye Pits

What you need: Face bleach, hair dye, and gloves.

How to apply: For this look, I layered two colors to give more of a tie dye effect. Like the ombre armpits above, I used Manic Panic Semi-Permanent Hair Color Cream and GiGi Gentle Bleaching Cream. Make sure the armpit area is clean and has no deodorant on it before you start, just so the product sticks better. Follow the directions of your products. For mine, I left the bleach on for ten minutes before washing it off. Make sure the area is dry before adding the dye. I started with my lighter dye, Manic Panic Cotton Candy and let the color sit for 10 minutes before washing it out. Saving the darker color for the last step made it easier to purposefully show the lighter color. The darker color I used was Manic Panic Ultra Violet. I let this sit for 10 minutes and made sure to not completely cover the pink underneath it.

5. Peek-A-Boo Pits

This is my personal favorite just because of how ridiculous it is. The best part of this pit art is, you don't even need armpit hair to partake!

What you need: Any accessory you want, preferably accessories that stick. I chose googly eyes because when you wave at people, it will immediately bring them a smile.

How to apply: For the googly eyes, I bought ones with a sticky back and applied them on to the areas with little to no hair. They will not last a long time, but they will make an impression.

Bodies are weird things. Why not live your life celebrating them in all their hairy goodness?

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Images: Skyller Tritch (6)