A woman has appeared on This Morning to discuss what it's like to embrace the excess body hair that she has as a result of an illness, after years of shaving off her beard and chest hair.
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Nova Galaxia, who hails from Richmond, Virginia, said that she started to grow excess body hair - and stopped having periods - as a result of her polycystic ovaries, a common condition that affects how a woman's ovaries work.
Speaking to Phil and Holly via video link from the US, Nova said that she kept her condition from everyone at first, including her parents.
"It was basically a demon that I had to keep hidden from anyone," she said.
"If I wanted to go to sleepover parties, or go out of town with people, I always had to hide my routine, I had to hide my whole process. If I forgot a razor, I would have a meltdown."
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She was eventually diagnosed at 16, when doctors said there wasn't anything she could do to combat the condition.
Nova has now decided to embrace her differences, having been inspired to quit shaving by British model Harnaam Kaur.
She continued: "It wasn't until I saw a model who has the same condition that I have - I just kind of realised that it's okay, I can be like that too. I can embrace everything that I have and be happy with it. I don't have to hold on to all this misery that I have.
"The first time I went out after I stopped shaving, I kept trying to shift my hair to try and hide my face. I caught myself being obnoxiously self-conscious about it, to the point where my partner was kind of annoyed about it."
She added: "My partner has always been very accepting of anything that I want to do. We both have the view that our bodies are our own and we love each other for our personalities - if it's something that I wanted to do, my partner would accept me 100 percent."
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Viewers were quick to applaud Nova's bravery on social media after the segment had aired.
One person tweeted: "Lady on #ThisMorning with the beard. Like she said out bodies are our own. Who are we to judge her. She looks amazing."
Another commented: "Woman with a full beard and hairy chest on #ThisMorning. Take my hat off to the lass and if my beard looked that good I'd flaunt it too. You go girl!"
Someone else wrote: "This lady's beard really is magnificent! She looks super cool (and also like an absolute bad ass)."
Featured Image Credit: ITVTopics: Inspirational, Community