The lady garden, pubic hair, your bush. Whatever you call it you will have made a decision whether to prune it or let it grow.

Until now it’s a subject kept firmly inside our knickers, but has been under the public spotlight recently due to celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow.

Now Michelle Becker has whipped the veil of secrecy off the taboo subject with documentary Secret Garden, which sees women discuss whether to groom or not to groom. And it has just won the Bechdel Award at the St Albans Film Festival, given to a film which passes the gender bias test.

Michelle, who now plans to enter it for Sundance, Raindance and Birds Eye View film festivals, says: “It started off with a chat in a bar with some friends.

“It’s something we hadn’t talked about as girlfriends before and I had no idea if they were all having Brazilians.“ The 39-year-old photographer and filmmaker from St Albans said finding women to appear in the 15-minute film was really tough.

“At least 95 per cent of the women I asked said ’no way’, which I understand as it’s quite private.

“It’s still very much something we are embarrassed to talk about.“

The film keeps it classy with fluffy and hairless cats and scenes of hedge trimming to illustrate the subject and asks questions such as ’Has the natural look become obscene?’ and ’Should there be an age restriction on waxing?’.

“The thing that most shocked me is that girls as young as 12 are having the full Hollywood,“ says Michelle who produced the film with local radio presenter Natalie B.

The mother-of-two keeps her own grooming preferences under wraps and says: “The message is that women should choose and not be forced into anything.“  

View the film here

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