A woman with a hairy chest has revealed that she now feels empowered after ditching the razor and embracing her body hair.

Esther Calixte-Bea, an artist from Montreal, Canada, once hated her chest hair so much that it left her severely depressed.

However, in 2019, she decided to give up constantly shaving and embrace what Mother Nature gave her.

Explaining what life with a hairy chest was like in an interview with Glamor, Esther said: "No matter what I did, whether it was waxing or shaving, they seemed to grow back longer, stronger, and blacker than before.

"In university, I stopped trying to remove my chest hair and simply kept it hidden, lifting up my shirt if it was too low and using every precaution to make sure that no one would see it. It became exhausting and I realized how my body hair issues were affecting me mentally."

In the video below, Esther opens up about embracing her body hair: 

Esther explained that the procedures that she went through to remove her body hair for ten years left her in much pain, and even inspired a painting called You Must Suffer to Be Beautiful.

However, at the age of 22, she finally decided that hiding and removing her body hair wasn't worth it anymore and began to embrace the skin that she is in.

Instagram was a key part of this decision for Esther, who said that she slowly began to admire women who were embracing their body hair on the platform.

"I [found] Instagram accounts of girls who accepted their body and who flaunted their body hair. Especially when it was truly out of the ordinary, for example, women accepting and loving their beards, mustaches or unibrow, although I did not find many. I would often go back on their accounts and admire their bravery."

While social media has helped Esther in this journey, with many taking to her Instagram page to share messages of support, she has admitted that she still receives the occasional negative comment.

She told Glamor: "What I tell myself when I receive these negative comments is 'Apparently, you are so important that people take the time to comment negativity under your pictures.'

"In other words, if someone takes a minute of their lives to pause and write a mean comment under your picture, they have nothing better to do and maybe you are actually doing something good."

Esther said that she now ultimately feels empowered by her decision to ditch the razor, although this wasn't the case when she first stopped shaving her chest hair.

"Originally showing my chest hair wasn't empowering. I simply did so to liberate myself from this burden and live authentically," she explained.

However, as she learned more about other cultures and their attitudes towards body hair, everything changed for Esther.

"Body hair became empowering because I had set myself free from this prison I felt I was in, that society had constructed for us women," she said.

Esther continued: "In different cultures, body hair is seen as beautiful on some part of the body. When I went to Haiti last year, I remembered my cousin telling me that he found girls with mustaches cute and I saw women not shaving their armpit hair, which was a great relief.

"Body hair became empowering to me once I realized that women have body hair and it is completely normal and natural."

A woman with a hairy chest has revealed that she now feels empowered after ditching the razor and embracing her body hair.

Esther Calixte-Bea, an artist from Montreal, Canada, once hated her chest hair so much that it left her severely depressed.

However, in 2019, she decided to give up constantly shaving and embrace what Mother Nature gave her.

Explaining what life with a hairy chest was like in an interview with Glamor, Esther said: "No matter what I did, whether it was waxing or shaving, they seemed to grow back longer, stronger, and blacker than before.

"In university, I stopped trying to remove my chest hair and simply kept it hidden, lifting up my shirt if it was too low and using every precaution to make sure that no one would see it. It became exhausting and I realized how my body hair issues were affecting me mentally."

In the video below, Esther opens up about embracing her body hair: 

Esther explained that the procedures that she went through to remove her body hair for ten years left her in much pain, and even inspired a painting called You Must Suffer to Be Beautiful.

However, at the age of 22, she finally decided that hiding and removing her body hair wasn't worth it anymore and began to embrace the skin that she is in.

Instagram was a key part of this decision for Esther, who said that she slowly began to admire women who were embracing their body hair on the platform.

"I [found] Instagram accounts of girls who accepted their body and who flaunted their body hair. Especially when it was truly out of the ordinary, for example, women accepting and loving their beards, mustaches or unibrow, although I did not find many. I would often go back on their accounts and admire their bravery."

While social media has helped Esther in this journey, with many taking to her Instagram page to share messages of support, she has admitted that she still receives the occasional negative comment.

She told Glamor: "What I tell myself when I receive these negative comments is 'Apparently, you are so important that people take the time to comment negativity under your pictures.'

"In other words, if someone takes a minute of their lives to pause and write a mean comment under your picture, they have nothing better to do and maybe you are actually doing something good."

Esther said that she now ultimately feels empowered by her decision to ditch the razor, although this wasn't the case when she first stopped shaving her chest hair.

"Originally showing my chest hair wasn't empowering. I simply did so to liberate myself from this burden and live authentically," she explained.

However, as she learned more about other cultures and their attitudes towards body hair, everything changed for Esther.

"Body hair became empowering because I had set myself free from this prison I felt I was in, that society had constructed for us women," she said.

Esther continued: "In different cultures, body hair is seen as beautiful on some part of the body. When I went to Haiti last year, I remembered my cousin telling me that he found girls with mustaches cute and I saw women not shaving their armpit hair, which was a great relief.

"Body hair became empowering to me once I realized that women have body hair and it is completely normal and natural."