The Bush is Back
Hair down there is certainly trending—but is it really about body acceptance, or just another fleeting fad?
Fashion has always had a complicated relationship with body hair. Touting newness every season, it’s become industry standard to convince consumers that any natural feature they have is taboo, only to sell it right back to them. The latest example? Hair down there.
The seeds of a full bush renaissance have been taking root for the past two years, but when Skims unveiled its controversial bush thong last week—a pubic wig reimagined as a mesh G-string thong with tufts of curly or straight faux hair—there was no denying it: The bush is back.
courtesy of skims
Skims has built a reputation for going viral with on-the-nose releases that tap into piping-hot pop culture discourse (see: the post-op facial wrap and pierced nipple bra). And for its latest drop, Kim Kardashian is cashing in on the current cultural fascination with going au naturel. And that instinct paid off: Skims’s bush thong sold out in less than 24 hours.
But it doesn’t stop there. The bush also recently made its appearance on high-fashion runways and red carpets—in both literal forms and artistic interpretations. For his debut collection for Jean Paul Gaultier during Paris Fashion Week in October, Duran Lantink sent models down the runway in trompe-l’œil-style bodysuits of the male form—pubic hair and all.
Margiela, photo via launchmetrics/spotlight
Then, there was John Galliano’s presentation of the Margiela Artisanal collection in Paris last year, which was an homage to the feminine figure with exaggerated waistlines and verdant vulvas rendered in trompe l’œil.
While designers have reimagined the bush as an artistic motif, celebrities like Doja Cat and Julia Fox have proudly put body hair on full display in the name of fashion. Exhibit A: Doja Cat’s gauzy Dilara Findikoglu gown with a tasteful peek of bush at the 2024 Grammys and Julia Fox’s “The Birth of Venus”-inspired moment at the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscars Party, where S-bend waves barely covered her breasts and pubic area. And who could forget when Fox turned heads on a street style outing wearing a graphic bikini that depicted a hairy vulva with the word “closed” printed across the front?
Photo by MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images
The bush renaissance has also sprouted all over social media. Miracle-Gro (yes, the lawn care company) collaborated with comedian Gabby Windey on a #FullBushSummer campaign (complete with a “Nobody Knows I’m Growing a Full Bush” t-shirt). The #bush has over 185,000 videos on TikTok alone—including one from user Akilha Venzant (@4kilh4) styling her bush with low-rise jeans. At the time of writing, her post has amassed 1.4 million views.
“I’m just naturally hairy,” says Venzant. “I was already bushy down there. And I was like, ‘You know what? Since we’re styling low-rise jeans, let’s style the bush area.’ Some girls are insecure about the bush peeping out a little bit, but to me, that’s an accessory.”
When asked about her thoughts on the Skims bush thong, she said, “Honestly? If I didn’t already have a bush, I would’ve bought a pair. To me, the whole Kardashian family is about business—they’re businesswomen. They’re going to hop on the bandwagon of anything. So, if they see something, they’re going to profit off of it, and I get that.”
“This may be yet another way to unnecessarily sexualize a natural body part.”
So, what do all of these cultural moments say about our collective comfort with body hair? Is this a signal of true liberation from decades of pro-grooming messaging, or just another one of fashion’s fleeting fixations?
“I wouldn’t consider the return of the bush as inherently liberating, especially a fake Skims bush that exists for profit and perhaps for fashion secondarily,” says Jess O’Reilly, PhD, a Toronto-based relationship expert, sexologist, and host of the Sex with Dr. Jess podcast. “Based on their history with the nipple bra, this may be yet another way to unnecessarily sexualize—and regulate—a natural body part,” she continues.
The Skims bush thong might have shocked the internet, but it’s hardly the first time pubic hair has been merchandised—or mythologized. As Rachael Gibson, PhD, writer, researcher, and founder of The Hair Historian, points out, the merkin (the infamous pubic wig) has been around for centuries.
She explains that the merkin first came into prominence in the 15th century as a means of necessity. “Not having pubic hair was a sign of being a sex worker or someone who probably had a sexually transmitted disease. It’s primarily been sex workers and people in the adult film industry who are the bulk of the merkin wearers. They were never at any point a high-fashion item.”
There have been many pubic hair “trends” throughout modern history. From the sexually liberating pro-bush movements of the ’60s and ’70s to the Brazilian wax-obsessed 2000s popularized by Sex and the City, the cycle of body hair trends has always mirrored larger cultural and fashion shifts.
“One might see the return of the bush as a reflection of our exhaustion with rigid beauty standards,” says O’Reilly. “But it’s also possible that its return is representative of how resistance can be reabsorbed and repackaged as a commodity.”
While the internet debates whether or not the bush is just a trend, it comes down to something deeper for Venzant: self-acceptance. “Confidence is sitting in your own skin and being comfortable with it,” she says. “If you can walk around with your natural body, that is the ultimate ego booster to me.” Try as Kim Kardashian may, you can’t put a price on that.
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