14 DAY TRIAL // A 23-year-old woman named Harnaam Kaur sports an impressive beard and, as surprising as this may sound, claims that this anatomical quirk makes her feel more feminine than she would, were her face free of excessive hair.
The 23-year-old says that her beard started growing over a decade ago, when she was 11. At that time, her arms and her chest also came to be covered in hair that had no business being there.
Harnaam Kaur, who now lives in Berkshire, England, further explains that, according to doctors who have had the chance to examine her, the excessive hair growing on her body is due to the fact that she is suffering from polycystic ovary syndrome.
The woman admits that, when she was younger, she was often bullied by her schoolmates, who picked on her because of her odd appearance.
She goes on to detail that, on several occasions, she received death threats over the Internet, and that, at one point, she even contemplated suicide.
"I got bullied badly – at school I was called a 'beardo' and things like 'shemale' and 'sheman,'"Harnaam Kaur says, as cited by Daily Mail.
"I can laugh about it now, but back then it affected me so badly that I began to self-harm because it felt better than all the abuse I was getting," she adds.
In her younger years, the 23-year-old did her best to alter her appearance, so as to look like an ordinary woman. Thus, she resorted to waxing, shaving and bleaching to have the excessive hair on her body removed.
At one point, however, she decided that going through the trouble of trying to look normal was not worth it, and that accepting herself for who she was was the best thing that she could do.
At the age of 16, the woman embraced Sikhism, i.e. a religion that bans cutting body hair, and allowed her beard and her arms and chest hair to grow.
"I feel more feminine, more sexy and I think I look it too. I've learned to love myself for who I am nothing can shake me now," Harnaam Kaur explains.
Furthermore, "I would never ever go back now and remove my facial hair because it's the way God made me and I'm happy with the way I am."