Ladies and gentlemen, do you trim? That’s tonight’s question, and one I thought would be fun to lead into the New Year. It’s become more common and socially acceptable to have your pubic hair completely clean shaven, but is this a trend that’s going to stay?
Contrary to popular belief, trimming pubic hair or being completely clean shaven isn’t a modern idea. In fact, there’s evidence of pubic hair trimming before even the Egyptians, although they have solid evidence (in the form of flint razors) of actually practicing it. It can also been seen in both Roman and Greek cultures. It’s interesting to note that with sculptures from both these cultures show women without pubic hair whilst the men have trimmed pubic hair.
The trend started in all of these cultures as an idea of looking fashionable, it was seen as beautiful to be bare and shaving or using hair removal creams was practiced by the nobles and those of higher class. Besides the sculptures, paintings also depict hairless women.
In western society, shaving also became more popular until the reign Catherine de Medici who was very religious, she banned her ladies in waiting to trim pubic hair. Then of course we have the Victorians, Queen Victoria known for her prudishness and thus frowned upon acts which were deemed highly sexual.
That didn’t stop people from trimming, and it was common to find lovers collecting pubic hair. The most famous collector of pubic hair is King George IV who kept snuff boxes of pubic hair from his mistresses. To hide the fact they were trimmed, people would wear merkins, also known as pubic hair wigs!
In Islam, shaving your under arms and pubic hair is required as part of fitrah (pure human nature/ part of being clean) and you can not go beyond 40 days without getting rid of the unwanted body hair. I also like the contrast in the need to remove this hair, whilst removing hair from your beard or your eyebrows is forbidden.
Another interesting contrast in religion would be Judaism’s views on pubic hair. It is practiced by women as part of Niddah which is female purity, this also includes trimming nails and keeping your ears clean. For men however, it is frowned upon to trim in such places, because it’s seen as a female act and men should not do the same thing as women.
Both these religion stress the correlation between trimmed or bare pubic hair to better hygiene and cleanliness. This is the next big question, is it more or less hygienic to be clean shaven? The short answer? Neither. It’s not unhygienic to have hair down there, it’s completely natural and is meant to help with heat regulation as well as for protection of your sensitive parts.
To be clean, whether you are shaven or not, is to simply wash thoroughly and regularly. That being said, I’ve been told by my friends that they prefer to be shaven because, and I quote this “Jizz is damn hard to get out!”. When shaving however, there are other worries to think about such as regrowth, shaving rash or ingrown hairs. You can however now get your pubic hair lasered off, meaning no shaving down there for the rest of your life!
In the surgical world, not only is the completely removal of pubic hair via lasers growing in popularity, so is the maintaining of pubic hair! That is, the completely opposite, as hair transplants to the pubic region is also rising, especially in South East Asia. This is due to a condition called pubic atrichosis, where women lose their pubic hair. Pubic hair is culturally seen as a sign of sexual health and fertility. In places such as Japan, public nudity can be found at public bathhouses or hot springs, and so pubic hair is kept for modesty.
So is being clean shaven fashionable now? The trend has been rising for a long time, with long debates and discussion in high end magazines such as Vogue. It’s been a long time also since we saw any bush in Playboy, and hairy bushes seem to be in their own category of genre for porn. It is without a doubt more socially acceptable to be open about your shaving preferences, and there is no longer the tag of “slut” that goes along with being trim.
I personally like being shaven, but I find I miss my hair after a while. I have this weird limbo where I shave, then let it grow a little and then shave again. I’d love to have some cute pattern trim but I’m just not that agile with a razor. I’ve found oral sex to be much better when I’m bare, and I know that a lot of partners prefer this, so I imagine for the new year I’ll also be more shaven than not!
As for how i feel about the opposite sex, I like guys to be trim, I’m not completely used to the idea of guys being completely clean shaven, but only because I associate men with more hair. I don’t however like it if the pubic hair is overgrown and unmanaged and I think of it like any other part of your body. Hair care is important!
So whilst pubic hair hair is more fashionable now, being trimmed for having full bush is totally fine, and they are all equally healthy and hygienic as long as you keep your generally personal hygiene up! If you’re debating whether or not to shave or trim, you should only ask yourself one question… do you want to? Don’t do it because you think your partners prefer it, or if you think others will think you’re weird if you don’t. Do it because you like it, you personally prefer it or if you really want to try it out and find if it sticks!