What is the obsession these days to remove body hair? I mean, what about painting on thick eyebrows, excruciatingly painful waxing, and obviously fake hair extensions?

This baby boomer must be feeling my age because I just don’t get it.

Yes, I shave my legs, but I can’t help but notice that women are too concerned about their hair these days. Were we women fooled with this obsession by marketers?

According to the book, Plucked: A History of Hair Removal, more than 99 percent of American women remove their body hair.

Interestingly, Gillette introduced the first women’s razor in 1915 along with the message that body hair was “unsightly” and “objectionable” and therefore should be removed. And it turned out they had the perfect tool. The company now earns more than $9 billion a year in sales.

Brazilian bikini wax was created in Manhattan by seven Brazilian sisters in the early 1990s, who now earn six million dollars a year from waxing, hair and nail treatments.

People are benefiting a lot from this obsession with removing hair. Women not only shave their legs and armpits, but it has suddenly become imperative and very fashionable to shave other places as well. I mean, OW! When did it become strengthening to rip hot wax off sensitive areas?

In fact, women spend around $10,000 and the equivalent of more than four months of their lives on hair removal. Those who wax once or twice a month will spend an average of $23,000 over their lifetime.

Really ladies?

Does all this seem a bit strange to baby boomers who fought for the feminist revolution with the conviction that instead of obsessing over physical beauty, women should focus on their intelligence, careers, achievements and making a difference? During the ’60s and ’70s, women felt free to make their own decisions about hair removal and many things to go au naturel. These days, women feel embarrassed and somewhat dirty without waxing their groins. What happened?

I don’t want to sound old-fashioned, but aren’t there more important things to think about and do than obsess over and spend time and money on removing body hair? In the old days (well, now I sound ancient) people seemed more focused on spiritual and family matters. They didn’t spend all their time worrying about whether their armpits were properly shaved. And many would have donated that $150 for a full body wax, to remove hair that will grow back very quickly, to a good cause.

And while we’re discussing this, when did women become so helpless? Have you baby boomers noticed that women no longer know how to pluck their eyebrows, shave their legs, or paint their fingernails and toenails? In addition to all the money spent on waxing, women spend about $1,300 a year on manicures and pedicures alone. Yes, I do splurge to get my nails done from time to time, but it’s not rocket science to apply nail polish. Wouldn’t you rather take a trip with all that money?

We boomers didn’t go to the salon to “dry off.” Instead, I deftly wielded my own blow dryer like a pro and spiked hot rollers without burning my fingertips to look like Farrah. If we wanted to dye our hair, we bought a bottle of Clairol at the pharmacy. We even dared to get a perm! Yes, we looked like poodles, but who cared? And give me a break. At least we didn’t look like a Dr. Seuss book with multicolored rainbow hair! What’s up with that crazy trend?

When women aren’t busy trying to remove every strand of hair from their bodies, they cut or glue in hair extensions to look like a real housewife or one of the Kardashians. Some women become addicted to the more permanent type of extensions that leave natural hair looking like a war zone. Did I mention the pain of ripping the tape off of the more permanent type of extensions? The possibility of baldness? Do you think it is a good idea? Even Jennifer Aniston admitted that her famous locks had thinned due to extensions.

Okay, I must confess that in the 60’s it was popular to freeze hair. For those of you who don’t remember, this process involved a tight fitting rubber cap with tons of little holes in it. A small metal crochet hook was then used to pull strands of hair through the holes, one at a time. So, it was a bit tortuous and the women may have lost some of their hair in the process. And we baby boomers won’t talk about the bristle rollers that women somehow slept with or teased their hair until it looked like a bird’s nest. Women combed their hair back until they resembled Marge Simpson and then applied enough sticky hairspray to make the hair crunchy.

But that was different. Something like. Why don’t we change the subject?

Can we talk for a minute about those crooked eyebrows, called “power brows”? These trendier brows are supposed to look like works of art, but they look silly to me. Dark brow fillers create these square but perfectly arched brows that look anything but natural. I have nothing against eyebrows, but should these two arches on your forehead deserve so much attention, cause so much work and cost so much money? And why wax your eyebrows if you’re just going to redraw them? I am so confused.

Okay, maybe I shouldn’t be too critical. My photo from senior year shows thin, arched eyebrows that are perhaps a bit overplucked. Actually, I can’t believe he walked so proudly like that, but that’s beside the point. At least I proudly ripped them off myself and it didn’t cost me a dime!

Still, this whole cultural phenomenon baffles me. But wait a minute. Maybe the underarm hair is coming back. There’s an Instagram account called Lady Pit Hair that features women who go against social beauty norms by growing out their armpit hair and dyeing it bright colors.

“Today’s beauty standards really put me off as they constantly police women’s bodies,” says Taylor Carpenter, a 23-year-old whose hot pink underarms are featured on the page. Besides the problem of rebelling against the norms that society imposes on us women, she has another reason to lighten the color of her body hair: “Honestly, I really like how they look. When I see my hot pink underarms, I smile.”

Granted, I like the feeling of standing against this cloud of disgust at any strand of unplucked body hair, but I’m still baffled. Is fluorescent green leg hair the next trend? Maybe I’m getting old!