For centuries, society has labeled pubic hair as unhygienic and unattractive, particularly for women. However, this is changing.

Women are now reclaiming the choice to have pubic hair, treating it as part of holistic body care, and social media is a key platform for them to speak out.

Kiehl’s, trusted skincare experts since 1851, aren’t ones to go with the status quo.

Born in New York’s East Village and deeply rooted in their community, they’ve always had a bit of a punk attitude. Now as a global brand, that rebel spirit has set them apart in the industry.

They strongly believe in love and respect for all skin, including skin with pubic hair; it’s natural, and there’s no shame in taking care of it. So, for the launch of their new grooming oil for intimate areas, Kiehl’s unveiled a campaign featuring proudly unwaxed models, defying the conventional beauty standards.

Not surprisingly, the campaign faced complaints, resulting with a ban in multiple locations, forcing Kiehl’s to take down the visuals. This ban indicates a clear cultural conservative shift in the US and the will to regulate and control women’s body and sexual wellbeing again.

Society has often labeled pubic hair as unhygienic and taboo, especially for women. To launch its new grooming oil for pubic regions, Kiehl’s unveiled a campaign with models showing a glimpse of hair, but these were banned in some malls, for being “offensive.”

Not ones to “beat around the bush,” Kiehl’s found a way to spread their message even louder with a new series of posters using an original typeface made entirely out of human pubic hair.

The new campaign featured bold, sarcastic headlines written in the bushy type, like “Our photos of models with pubic hair were censored so we removed the models,” and “Apologies, we won’t show pubic hair ever again.”

To create “Pubic Display Type,” Kiehl’s enlisted an artist to handcraft each letterform from real pubic hair, using their historic Time New Roman font. Samples of colors and textures were donated by 33 individuals—celebrating uniqueness. Every curve, straight line, and fill adapted the hair’s direction, density, and movement to mirror natural growth. Texture dictated form, straight and thin required different techniques than curly and thick. Vectorizing would lose detail, so each letter was cut from PNGs, retouched, then converted to SVGs while preserving texture. Kerning was refined for readability. Finally, Kiehl’s released it as open source, so people could make the message their own.

Kiehl’s daring campaign contributed to enriching and expanding the discussion to normalize pubic hair—promoting acceptance and inclusivity.

Kiehl’s bold campaign became a hot topic, generating over 10,000 comments. Nevertheless, it faced backlash from some conservatives, leading to 1,110 reports and resulting in 2,000 Instagram users unfollowing the brand's account.

However, despite the haters, bush was back. There was clear support for the initiative: 16,000 people downloaded the typeface, and 9,000 units of their pubic grooming oil were sold within just three weeks.

It was one of the brand’s best launches for a new product, and the most pubic hair in a campaign...ever.

Kiehl’s not only boosted its visibility but also contributed to a broader conversation about normalizing and embracing pubic hair diversity and inclusivity. The campaign helped transform a traditionally private topic into one worthy of public discourse and reflection.