This question is mostly aimed at other women here, but obviously I'll happily accept helpful input from anyone. It's slightly embarrassing for me to bring this up at all, so I'll also appreciate everyone trying to be nice.
I'm a woman who is generally on the hairier side. I'm not bordering on hirsutism by any means, but I'm of South Asian heritage and we tend to be a little fuzzier than most. To clarify, I don't mean just the obvious culprits like legs/pits/pubes, but dark hair on the stomach, lower back, arms, etc. For the most part I've outgrown my issues with this because I can just shave my legs, the arm hair isn't too noticeable unless you're relatively up close, and the only person who really sees the rest of it is my boyfriend, who either doesn't care or is nice enough not to mention it.
My problem is that every time the occasion arises for me to wear a bathing suit, I avoid bikinis even though I really want to wear them, and opt for one-pieces or tank style two pieces instead. I'm very self conscious about the hair and it really annoys me that I feel this way. Does anyone else here have this problem? And whether or not you do, what do you think I should do? I'm torn between trying to force the fear out of myself by just sucking it up and wearing a bikini, or just doing what I've been doing and not potentially embarrassing myself. Would other people even notice, or am I overthinking this?