In 2013, British beauty brand Escentual surveyed women about their "most hated beauty chores." The results were alarming: Thirty-five percent of the women surveyed hated shaving their legs. Yet over the course of their lifetimes, women spend 1,728 hours — or 72 days — doing the "chore" they hate the most.

Although a large swath of women aren't fond of shaving, a lot of them still acquiesce to a cultural need for women to be hairless. 

Fitness blogger Morgan Mikenas isn't one of them.

In an effort to disrupt the sexist assumption that women must be hairlesss, Mikenas stopped shaving. For the past year, Mikenas has stopped removing her armpit and leg hair.

"I guess my number one reason that I stopped is that [shaving] took so much time," she said in a March YouTube video. "It took up so much of my time to get in the shower and have to shave everything and then wash my hair and then wash my body. One day I was like, 'why am I doing this anymore?'"

Mikenas then decided to let her body hair flourish.

Choosing not to shave led Mikenas to several revelations about the connection between body hair and femininity.

A post shared by Morgan Mikenas (@i_am_morgie) on

"I was worried that if I let my hair grow out, I would feel dirty and ashamed because I didn't feel feminine," she said. "Then, I would feel obligated to go shave my legs so I would feel good and feel sexy. Not anymore."

A year later, she's grown an affinity for the body hair that she used to feel compelled to remove.

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"After I let [my body hair] do its thing and grow out, I realized 'oh hey, this is kinda nice,'" she said in the video. "It started getting super soft. When you shave your body hair, it's prickly, itchy, and uncomfortable."

Like many women, Mikenas learned as a child that body hair is unacceptable for girls. It's cultural conditioning that she's committed to undoing for herself.

"When I was in middle school, I just remember being 11 or 12, some girls on the playground were making fun of me because of my hairy legs," she said. "Ever since that, I came home to my mom I was crying and telling her to teach me how to shave my legs. That's when it all began. I would shave my armpits and my legs. It felt good, it felt silky."

Mikenas said that she doesn't want to persuade all women to stop shaving, but her argument may be compelling enough to do so.

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For instance, she said the kindergarten-aged children that she works with have harassed her for having hair on her legs.

"[They say] 'Eww, you look like a man. You didn't shave," she said. "What does that say if that is how these kids are being taught. I've even seen children in childcare, in the third grade, who are shaving their legs. I didn't shave my legs until middle school." 

Mikenas advocates for women being able to do whatever works best for their bodies.

However, she also wants women to understand the impetus for their body hair-related decisions.

"I just think it's unfair to people that think they have to be in this culture norm," she said. "You should just do whatever makes you feel good."

She loves her body hair — and wants other women to grow to love theirs as well.

"I love my body hair," she said. "I love the hair that grows on my body."

Revelist has reached out to Morgan Mikenas for comment.

Watch Morgan Mikenas' video explaining why she's stopped shaving below: