Believe it or not, this girl feels more feminine in her thick Sikh beard!

While that one tiny little pimple on your face freaks you out, it only goes to show our obsession with body perfection. But #Harnaam Kaur is one girl who slams the thumb rule that any facial hair left unattended on a woman is a blotch on her beauty. Her “lady beard” stretching from one ear to the other tells you how she has thrown caution to the winds and loves herself just as she is.

It all happened as a side effect of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome that she is suffering from. Due to the over-generation of male hormones in her body she had to deal with profuse growth of facial hair. And at 11, she was flaunting a full-fledged shock of hair.

In an interview to a wedding blog, she tells how she has managed to comb out the knots:

“I was severely bullied all the way through school, starting from nursery right through to my late secondary school days. I even got beaten up a few times. I became very aggressively suicidal and I even resorted to self-harm…

At the age of 16, I hit my biggest low. I had been suicidal all year due to immense bullying from school and people in society. I hid away and did not want to venture out into the public. My bedroom was my only safe haven. I was hugely depressed. I remember sitting on my bed and thinking about taking my own life. But instead, as I sat there, I started to counsel myself. I told myself ‘The energy you are putting into ending your life, put all that energy into turning your life around and doing something better’…

At that point I decided I wanted to be me. I decided to keep my beard and step forward against society’s expectations of what a woman should look like. Today I am not suicidal and I do not harm myself. Today I am happy living as a young beautiful bearded woman. I have realised that this body is mine, I own it, I do not have any other body to live in so I may as well love it unconditionally…

I love my beard, my stretch marks and my scars. These elements make me who I am, they complete me…”

Her recent bridal-themed photo shoot (no, she doesn’t have any such plans on the cards. It’s just for fun) at a south London studio makes us sing hosannas of praise for her.

The 23-year-old lives in Slough, Berkshire. She works as a teaching assistant in a school. Last year, her beard found place in a photography exhibition that celebrated the world’s best facial hair. She became one of the 60 participant of the Project 60 to raise awareness about skin cancer.

The body confidence activist shows you how a girl too can rock the beard! It certainly takes more than the wild spirit of the Vikings!

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