Facial hair? Not an affair: Famous women who proudly owned their face fuzz

In a highly influential celebrity culture, if one thing about renowned female celebrities moves you, let it be their ownership of facial hair.

As ignorant as society remains of the natural growth of facial hair in women, simultaneously profited off of by the beauty industry, perhaps a few famous women may help put things into perspective — from just plainly acknowledging their face fuzz to actually finding it functionally beautiful, many popular divas have their own stories to tell about the organic physical phenomenon.

Here are some of them:

Marilyn Monroe

The late Hollywood icon and an eternal beauty inspiration around the world, Marilyn Monroe credited her glowing appearance in a camera lens and under heavy studio lights to the fine growth of hair on her face — which she refused to curtail.

“She had the heaviest peach fuzz beard of any actress in Hollywood,” revealed Gene London, a TV personality often described as an expert on Monroe . “[Studio chiefs] wanted to remove the facial hair but Marilyn absolutely refused. She said that when the light hit the fuzz it caused her face to have a soft glow, so they didn’t have to photograph her through special lenses, lace, or Vaseline the way they did with so many stars.”

Adele

Adele revealed her struggle — or rather, acceptance — with facial hair during a concert in 2016, where she told the crowds that she even had a cheeky moniker for her “beard”.

“When I got pregnant I had so much testosterone in me that I grew a beard… I only cropped it last night,” she said during a performance in Scotland. “It’s actually true. I’m not telling a joke. I actually have a beard, but I’m proud of it. I call it Larry.”

Madonna

The Queen of Pop, Madonna actually suffers from a condition known as hirsutism, which results in massive hair growth in women for a number of reasons. While discussing her facial hair, Madge revealed that she was influenced by another famous woman herself. In a self-published Harper’s Bazaar article from 2013, she wrote that during her struggling period in 1980s New York, she would “look at a postcard of Frida Kahlo taped to my wall, and the sight of her mustache consoled me.”

“Because she was an artist who didn’t care what people thought. I admired her. She was daring. People gave her a hard time. Life gave her a hard time. If she could do it, then so could I,” she had further shared.

Thandiwe Newton

The British actress who reclaimed her birth name, after going by Thandie Newton for years, Thandiwe Newton made her facial hair management public in 2015. Posting a snap of herself while preparing for a movie premiere with hair removal cream on her upper lip, she wrote on her socials, “Dealing with the tash in readiness for the Royal Premiere tonight! Go Jolen! XT.”

Amy Adams

The six-time Oscar nominee, Amy Adams proudly owned her facial hair by going method for her appearance in 2024’s Nightbitch. For a move essential to the movie’s plot, Adams grew her own beard, “proudly” telling Variety, “The hair on the face — that was mine. I saw it as a wonderful expression of the human experience without any artifice or filters. Or tweezers!”

She further confirmed that she naturally has “that kind of hair that just grows overnight” — “One day it’s not there, and the next day it’s like I’m a catfish. That might turn some people away,” she unapologetically admitted.