Why I Choose to Get Hairless

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This past week a friend of mine had the courage to finally ask me, “do you remove all your body hair?” I say courage because we have been going to the gym together for years and I figured he noticed but never brought it up. I guess curiosity finally got the cat.

To answer his question, I casually told him, yes I have pretty much lasered my whole body. He didn’t seem phased by it, rather he asked, “why”. I told him I prefer it that way. He was cool with the answer and the conversation stopped there.

That said, as I reflected on the discussion, I was thinking to myself, why did I spend years shaving and ultimately thousands of dollar on laser hair removal. I came up with 3 answers:

1) I prefer it

Ever since I started growing pubic hair, I shaved it off. I simply prefer to be hairless. Nothing beats the feeling, as far as I am concerned.

2) Its more comfortable

I prefer the comfort of not having body hair. When I wear clothes, I like the feel of my body better under the clothes, when I sweat I find not having body hair easier to manage and when I have to go in for needles (unfortunately I get a lot of them) not having any body hair makes the removal of band aids much easier.

3) I got addicted to removing my body hair

I started removing only my armpit and pubic hair and that eventually led to legs, arms, chest, back, buttocks, feet, etc. I hear that when people start with tattoos that you can get addicted to it, well in my case, hair removal become an addiction. I couldn’t stop when I started.

Point #3 is my only word of caution. If you start you may not finish until it is all gone. Just saying.

Research from Brazil – The Preference of Women and Men Regarding Female Genital Depilation

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I came across the following research document from 2017. You can read the full report which is located here. Below are some highlights from this report.

The conclusion of this report: Most Brazilian women and men prefer the complete removal of female pubic hair, especially those who are younger andmore sexually active.Women who are satisfied with the appearance of their own genitalia have a stronger preference for complete removal of pubic hair.

What I found surprising about this report was the sample size. The report had 69,920 subjects (52,787 women and 17,133 men) who provided feedback.The mean age was 31.9 years for men, and 28.5 years for women.

It was almost equal between women (64.3%) and men (62.2%) who preferred complete removal of female pubic hair, and this preference was more pronounced in younger women and men.

Preferences for extent of female pubic hair removal in different age groups of women and men

The study even looked at the preference of women/men who considered themselves heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or other. Pretty even among all groups, doesn’t seem that sexual orientation has much to do with preference.

Preferences regarding the extent of female pubic hair removal in men and women with different sexual orientations

Lastly, the question of what method women use. I figured shaving would be first, but waxing is with laser hair removal coming in third place.

In case the links to the article stop working, here is a direct link to the pdf below.

Most Brazilian women and men prefer the complete removal of female pubic hair, especially those who are younger andmore sexually active.Women who are satisfied with the appearance of their own genitalia have a stronger preference for complete removal of pubic hair.

Pubic Hair Grooming Prevalence and Motivation Among Women in the United States

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Here is another report I found. This one is on women’s hair removal in the US. It would be great to get an updated report on men and their grooming behaviours to see if more men today or conducting hair removal as part of their routine.

If you want to download the full report, you can view it here. Below are some highlights.

Pubic hair grooming is an increasingly prevalent trend. Several studies have sought to characterize its prevalence, associated demographics, and motivations.To characterize current pubic hair grooming practices in the United States.In this cross-sectional study, a nationally representative survey was conducted in January 2013 of noninstitutionalized adults aged 18 to 65 years residing in the United States via the GfK Group (formerly Knowledge Networks) panel members. Data analysis was performed from November to December 2015.

3372 women were surveyed. 3316 women were included in the analysis. Of these, 2778 (83.8%) reported pubic hair grooming and 538 (16.2%) reported never grooming.

Some of the results can be seen below.

How often fo you groom and have you ever removed all your hair?
What areas do you groom?

The following table was a bit of a surprise to me. I would have figured, based on the rise of popularity, that laser would have been more popular.

How do you go about grooming your pubic hair?
Frequency of pubic hair grooming per year by age.

Key conclusions by the author were:

Female pubic hair grooming is a common practice seen by all health care professionals and providers of aesthetic treatments for women. Familiarity with the motivations and characteristics of women who groom can help inform health care professionals in terms of identifying women for counseling regarding grooming risks. Furthermore, our study demonstrates that, contrary to prior studies,2,3,5 grooming is less associated with specific sexual activity and relationship type and more associated with age, race, and educational level.

Thus, our study demonstrates a role for cultural sensitivity as it relates to pubic hair grooming because women have diverse motivations for grooming that are not universal. Future directions for research include understanding the cultural differences as they relate to pubic hair grooming and the role of the health care professional in influencing women’s grooming habits.

Body Depilation among Women and Men by Michael Scott Boroughs

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Probably one of the most comprehensive documents on body hair removal covering both genders. Published in January 2012, the full title is “Body Depilation among Women and Men: TheAssociation of Body Hair Reduction or Removalwith Body Satisfaction, Appearance Comparison,Body Image Disturbance, and Body DysmorphicDisorder Symptomatology”

As somebody who has started and almost completed my journey to be hairless from the neck down, I am fascinated by how many other people have a tendency towards this. According to this research, you can see below the prevalence of body depilation by body site and gender.

I can tell you that I started with my pubic region and buttocks. Then I moved only my armpits. From there it just kept going. Chest/Stomach and then legs. By 2016 I was removing my hair from my arms.

I have heard that when people start with 1 tattoo it can become an obsession to have more tattoos. In my case, hair removal has been the same thing, once I started, I just couldn’t stop.

Anyway, if you want to read the full research by Michael you can download here.