40 year-old male here.
I don’t shave my pits, but I trim them with clippers that I keep especially for body hair.
And to the ladies who think their men don’t care if they keep themselves trimmed up; yes they do. Silence isn’t always acceptance.
Gotta love human variation.
Are you very thin? I recently saw a picture of some extroadinarily skinny fashion model with her arm up. Her armpit looked like the Grand Canyon. The funny thing was that the pic was on one of those “photoshop disaster” sites. They had obviously done all sorts of stuff to the lady, but they didn’t bother to fix that frightening armpit.
Er…not that all thin people’s armpits are scary or anything. But this model’s sure was. Yeesh.
Goddamnit. The Straight Dope. Making me do things like inspect my armpits for concavity and wonder about what pan fried semen really tastes like.
The pit hair is there to hide our Grand Canyon armpits, silly.
I’m a dude, and I’ve never shaved my pits. I shaved my junk once
8 (actually, my then-SO did it) and after three days I realized I wouldn’t be able to walk for a while. Not pleasant. I imagine it would be just as bad if I did my pits, no?
*I keep it trimmed to about half normal length using an electric now.
I haven’t shaved my legs or my pits (or anything else!) in years. I barely have any hair as it is, and I just don’t care. Neither does my husband.
Me too. I would say you have to be quite the sissy if the only thing defining you as a man is armpit hair.
Ok, I’ve never shaved my legs and wouldn’t do it. But I don`t think that makes you a girly man.
I think you’ve been whooshed.
Underarms - Every day, no exceptions. I don’t feel clean until I’ve soaped up and swiped 'em with the razor.
Legs - I like having smooth legs but it is a little time consuming. I mean, I can soap and swipe but that doesn’t really do an adequate job. I have a hell of a time getting a close shave on my legs so it turns into kind of a once-a-week production.
Bikini area - Good God I wish this wasn’t in vogue, it’s annoying as hell! Every year when it gets warm I think “what the hell, it’s in fashion and it will be cooler.” Stupid, stupid me. Hair looks better than razor bumps any day.
I tried Nair exactly one time - holy crap on a cracker, BURNS US, Precious!
Several years ago I was between professional jobs and worked driving cab to cover the bills. I found quickly that the difference between shaved and unshaved pits when sitting in a car in a parking lot in the Phoenix summer, sometimes for a couple of hours, while waiting for the next call was pretty significant in terms of personal funk over a 12 hour shift.
I’ve shaved ever since. It lets the antiperspirant cover better and just looks and feels cleaner.
Also, I have to admit to a strong degree of hair hate, particularly on women. I know it’s an acculturation thing, but I don’t care. Excessive, untrimmed body hair on men grosses me out and any body hair other than forearms and (maybe) a carefully maintained pubic landing strip on women absolutely turns my stomach.
Thank the gods I’m happily married to a woman who enjoys being well-maintained in that regard. When I was single, there were a few times that body, particularly pubic, hair was a deal breaker, and armpit hair on a woman would have shut things down even more quickly.
The absence of body hair has been a dealbreaker for me on a couple of occasions. Different strokes and all that.
Great…next time I find myself up close & personal with that part of a woman’s body I am going to get a mental image of Gollum. Damn you!
I can’t imagine how uncomfortable shaving my pits would make it with my goalie gear on. Ouch!
I shave the legs, pits, and pubes when I feel like it. I don’t have a lot of body hair as it is, and what I have is much finer and lighter than, say, my head hair or eyebrows. Shaving the pubes with a regular razor is rather unpleasant (to me, anyway), and I’d love to find a trimmer that did the job well. Experiments have so far not been all that productive. I’m not waxing there (ouch) and chemical depilatories like Nair aren’t the way to go either.
I was reading a discussion of these shaving matters elseweb, and some women said they smelled more with hairy pits, while others averred that shaving led to more odor. (No men seemed to be participating in this particular discussion while I was reading it.) I seem to smell about the same, but then soap and deodorant seem to do their jobs well enough.
I shave if I’m going to be wearing clothes that result in bare shoulders, such as the spaghetti strap top I have on. Otherwise, I just let the razors rust in my drawer. I still have the same pack of razors I bought 3-4 years ago.
When I raise my arm, the pit goes from innie to outie. What is this ‘Grand Canyon’ that you speak of? I’m also on the low end of normal weight for my height, so… uh, are those models famine victim size? 
Why not? Ingrown hairs ‘n’ razor burn.
(Well then, why? 'Cause if we’re a girl, we think you’ll think we’re a dirty hippie or maybe some kind of French feminist, and even if we are, we don’t want you thinking that just from our pits.)
Why don’t men? 'Cause they think you’ll think they’re gay, I think.
Really, as per the stink factor, it only makes a difference if you’re in a seriously stinky situation (like cabbying in Phoenix, etc.).
Maybe I’m just really lucky skin-wise but, other than the occasional nick, I’ve never had a razor related injury. No razor burn or painful stubble and certainly no “too painful to walk” (what did she do down there anyway?).
Interesting variation.
I hear if you shave your “hrrrum”, it makes your junk look bigger.
Attn men: It’s up to you whether you shave your pits or merely manscape them, but, for the love of Og, please try to refrain from looking like a dull brown ferret with a hormonal problem lives underneath your biceps.
Yeah. I don’t think that I’ve given my pit hair length more than 2 seconds of thought until this thread, now I’m paranoid. No concavity present though, whew.
Yeah, I’m pretty skinny, so that might be it.
Also, on the topic of shaved genitals - well, I tried that once. ONCE. I have very stiff hair, and stubble is NOT PLEASANT when it rubs against tender bits.
I shave my face. I never thought to shave my pits and pubic area until I saw Russell Peters’ “Red, White, and Brown”.
So I tried it.
Maybe I have very fine hair that irritates less, but I find I “adjust my package” far less often now that I’ve “removed the lawn”, so to speak.
But back on topic: I’ve always wanted to try shaving my armpits. I don’t sweat much, even when undergoing intense physical activity, but it might feel nice.
So for me: No, but considering.