Dora Semanu, a Ghanaian woman living with hirsutism, has shared her experience of living with excessive facial hair, revealing how years of public ridicule and insensitive comments have shaped her journey.
Speaking in an interview with BBC Pidgin, Semanu said she has reached a point where people’s opinions no longer bother her, despite frequently being the subject of conversations wherever she goes.
She recalled that strangers often question her gender because of her facial hair.
“Anytime people meet me, they will say, ‘Hey, is she a man or a woman?’ And you will see that I have a big breast. Even with all this, I don’t resemble a man,” she said.
Semanu explained that although she has endured constant mockery and judgment, she refuses to let negative remarks affect her self-worth.
“I saw many people looking at me. Some people will be talking about me anyhow they like. They look down on me like I’m nothing. But me, I don’t care. I am me. I just want to look natural. That’s all,” she said.
She revealed that the condition runs in her family, although no one else has experienced it as severely as she has.
“The first time I saw this hair, only one hair like this. We have this kind of thing in our family. They don’t have plenty. It’s only me who has it like this,” she added.
Rather than continue removing the hair, Semanu decided to embrace her appearance and live confidently.
“The reason why I stopped shaving it, I just want to look different.
“I want to be like this so that if you don’t have anything to say in your house, when you see me at any place, you will have something to talk about,” she said.
She admitted that one of the most painful comments she has ever received was someone telling her that no man would ever be interested in her because of her appearance.
“The most painful thing that somebody has said to me before was that, the way I look, she didn’t think that any man could approach me.
“It doesn’t make me shave… this thing doesn’t change my lifestyle to be a good person or a bad person,” she said.
Encouraging others with visible differences to accept themselves, Semanu urged people not to let society define their worth.
“Don’t mind anyone. You are on your own. If you listen to people, you can’t keep it.
“And it’s nothing wrong. We are not thieves, we don’t kill, we don’t do anything. We are like you people, so please accept us like this,” she said.
