To want to wear a burkini

[voldemortsnose]

Lighthearted rant coming. Huge respect for the fact that some people want the choice to wear a burkini and thought it was ludicrous when a place in France, a democracy, was requiring women to bear more on beaches last Summer. (How dare men require women to do that etc etc ...)
My issue is that I have just spent an hour of my Sunday which could have been spent with my family attempting to remove the hair that every woman in the planet has so I can go for a swim with my family this afternoon. Normal swimwear requires that I either a) expose my pubes or b) go through a painful, time consuming process which will leave me feeling prickly still in a week's time. I don't like seeing my leg or underarm hair either, so that's had to go too, but even if I was cool with it, the general public would judge. How did we arrive at this nonsense and what's to be done? And where can I get a burkini?

I was at Center Parcs in France a week ago. There was a woman wearing a burkini and no one batted an eyelid. She was darker skinned and likely Muslim so I'd say it was on cultural grounds. I don't have much hair. But wear what you like op.

This sort of thing.

http://www.sportsdirect.com/slazenger-tankini-set-ladies-354023?colcode=35402322

There's no need to shave before you go swimming if you don't want to. Men don't shave under their arms or shave their legs before swimming unless they are Michael Phelps so why should you?

Shave if you like, don't if you don't want to and wear whatever you like, nobody will care and if they do then ignore them.

I swim all the time and just go hairy! To be honest I have never noticed if other women have stray pubes or leg hair as I don't tend to inspect them!
Who are you trying to impress at the pool?

I really want a burkini. I like swimming, but have some pretty bad scars and I'm very self conscious about them. I get that people will stare at a burkini too, but I think I'd feel better knowing they were staring at my clothes and something I'd made a choice about, instead of staring at my scars and judging me based on a really horrible time in my life.

Hopefully, of course, no one would do either. But if I had to choose...

Go swimming naked - then nobody will give a toss whether you're shaved or smooth!

I have PCOS and am basically a gorilla. It takes me well over an hour to make myself reasonably presentable fire swimming and even then I'll have a rash from the hair removal. I miss swimming with my family all the time because I just can't bring myself to do it. The costume with legs rides up my thighs. I often wish for a bikini!

You can get swimsuits with short skirts or you can just wear loose shorts.

B U RkINI. FFS.

Well, the only dangerous thing about going out with hairy legs is someone might correctly identify me as feminist. But in the civilised parts of the world, I feel safe. :P

Yes, people might judge. But you will survive it.

NBU or racist at all, OP. I often fantasise about wearing a burqa: no need to brush hair, put on make-up, worry about VPL... feck it, I could sling it on over my PJs and head straight off to work.

Having said that, I agree that there is no reason other than stupid convention why you should shave. However, if you don't feel like risking this month's Chewbacca award at your local, a Philips Lumea will sort you out in the long term.

local pool, I mean. Brain faster than hand again.

If you are in the water swimming you can't be seen. In a pool full of yelling kids I doubt anyone will be inspecting your armpits and groin. Seems unlikely anyway...

Board shorts are great for holidays but not much use for active swimmingBT.

BT?

I would like to wear a burkini. It would cover up all of my flab, and stop me from burning.

This is quite good
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00RWSTFXQ/ref=pd_aw_sim_193_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=RYWBG2MRD7Z0J31ZDWDW&tag=mumsnetforum-21

Why bother with a burkini? Why not just buy a wetsuit if you're that fussed? It all screams a bit of 'look at me!' when people wear them. And given the sights you can see in a bikini these days I don't think anyone will really look twice to spot a stray pube.

Mmm. I'm about to have chemo, so will lose my hair. I rather would like to wear a hijab. It will hide the pipes on my neck too!
Seriously perhaps if we all feel we could wear them, perhaps some countries would feel more ok about them and they would become less as a symbol of religion.

It takes 5 minutes to slather yourself in Veet, potter around for a bit, 5 more minutes to wash off and voila. Whilst I have no issues with anyone that chooses to wear a burkini, I can't help but imagine how hideously heavy, uncomfortable and clammy they would be after a swim. The thought of having to peel out of it and still be all wet and damp underneath, bleurgh.

Not everyone can use Veet. I'm allergic to all hair removal creams, as well as the nickel in razor blades.

Sorry, went off and had lunch and didn't realise this was going a bit mad. Sadly underarms and legs does not take me 2 minutes in the shower. I would be cut to ribbons. I epilate under arms or I get eczema. If it grows I get eczema. This I can live with. I lack enough pigment for lasering, I have tried. The legs I epilate bits of if I can be bothered as it lasts much longer, otherwise use shaver, which still take ages. If I had time for waxing, I'm allergic.
I really like the shortie suit suggestions people are making as that would seriously cut down the time I'm taking and it's more what I had in mind than a burkini. Burkini wasn't a particularly serious suggestion as I did try to signal.
My original rant was about how crazy the accepted norm is for practical purposes.

I've got the swimsuit in the link too. It makes my bum and thighs look very wobbly!

Do I care? Not really!

By the way, am a feminist, but not keen on leg or underarm hair. Not sure why I have to grow my leg hair to make sure people know I'm a feminist. Are we not 30 years past that crap or do I have to burn the bras that make me feel more comfortable too just to establish my femmo credentials?

No, if you're a feminist then you know your opinion about your own body hair is entirely up to you, whatever that opinion is. It's only if you want to have an opinion about other womens body hair that we run into problems...

Can live with looking wobbly. No real way of avoiding it. Love my shortie wetsuit. Going to look into the swimsuits with the longer legs. Thanks folks.