This Is How Much Time & Money We Spend On Hair Removal A Year

The majority of us, at some point in our lives, have spent time and money removing hair from our bodies. From the moment you reached for your mum's razor when you first started to get leg hair, to the emergency wax you gave yourself before a last-minute date, to plucking that rogue yet bitterly persistent boob hair – for better and for worse, hair plays a part in women's lives.

Hillary Clinton recently revealed that she spent 600 hours (25 days) in hair and makeup during her 2016 presidential campaign. Even she was shocked at this discovery, expressing her disappointment at the sexist culture that judges a man on what he says and a woman on how she looks when she says it. To be fair, we bet Donald Trump spent around the same time fake-tanning and hair-coiffing – but in the wider context of gender roles, this double standard is infuriating. “I’m not jealous of my male colleagues often, but I am when it comes to how they can just shower, shave, put on a suit and be ready to go," Clinton wrote in her memoir What Happened. "The few times I’ve gone out in public without makeup, it’s made the news.”

Inspired by Hillary's admission, we decided to take stock of how much time (and money) we spend on hair removal each year by asking six women who work at Refinery29 to take us through their routines. Ranging from 40+ hours and over £1,000 a year for darker-haired women, to a mere three hours and the price of a razor for the natural blondes, prepare to feel shocked, angry at society's oppressive beauty standards, or, if you're one of the fair few, blessed!

More From The Hot Fuzz Series:
Confessions Of A Bikini Waxer: The Dirty Truth
The Secret History Of Hair Removal
What It's Like To Date With 'Excess' Facial & Body Hair
Laser Hair Removal Made Me Hairier 
Let's Get Real About Body Hair 
We Are All Hairy Beings – Male, Female, Cis Or Trans 
Conversations People Have With Me About My Body Hair