The Husband and I have money riding on the results of this poll.
I’ve been watching a bunch of pregnancy and delivery videos. His primary exposure to human genitalia is from porn. I contend that the majority of women do not groom their pubic hair, except for maybe the occasional weed whacking or day at the beach prep. He contends that the vast majority of sexually active females age 40 or less either go hairless or have some variation on a topiary poodle cut. So, we turn to the Dope.
I’m a male but I think you’re a little old fashioned.
I contend that most women do their “weed whacking” more than occasionally and not mainly for sexual purposes.
Due to technical difficulties beyond my control, my sex life has been vastly lacking, but not entirely nonexistent, for about 8 months (health/surgical complications) but despite this I still groom religiously, shaving everything; with frequent touch ups it is not really that involved of a process.
I chose “bowling ball” but I do occasionally do a little soul patch up top. But mostly it is bare and has been since I was a teen. The wild look just never appealed to me whether anyone would be seeing it or not.
This I predict will be the dominant theme among future answers, even if “taking it all off” isn’t the specific grooming habit of said future answers.
I sometimes do on very rare occasions. It’s odd I guess because I spend a lot of time on grooming my…other hair bits. (Like, I blow dry my hair often enough, I wax my arms, legs, brow, underarms). I guess I can’t help thinking why spend so much effort on something most people won’t be staring at intently?
I can’t help but think this is sort of a ‘new’ thing. And by new, I mean not so common 20 years ago, and very common now.
I concur.
Except for the part about being male.
I don’t know what “most” women do, but I personally can’t imagine being ungroomed in that department. Yecch.
An update for the fellas:
Current poll stands at 10 votes with the break down as follows:
Never - 2
Sometimes - 4
Regularly - 3
Q-ball - 1
Mine is a mix of “regular groom” and “cue-ball.” I like to go bare every once in awhile, but sometimes I keep a little tuft down there. Completely ungroomed just looks weird when I put on panties.
I marked once a week, but it’s closer to once/twice a month whether I’m getting action or not. Too scraggly it annoys me, but it doesn’t need grooming once a week (how fast does your hair grow??) and definitely before swimming.
Thinking on it, I probably groom more than I shave my legs… especially in winter.
Women headed into labor? No, they wouldn’t bother with a wax job. Single women in their early 20s? Well…if they’re the sort who love dating, shopping, and primping, then yeah. But most women?
No.
I do it when I have time/inclination. Probably a little more often than every other month. Lets say, 8 times a year.
I am a woman, not a child, and not a Barbie doll. Any man who wants me to wax my tender bits will need to do his first before I take him seriously.
I’m a mid-twenties gal and very rarely shave, and I’ve never waxed. I trim things down when it becomes a nuisance, but that’s it. Bare feels neat, but it’s not worth the trouble. Besides, I don’t have a big curly mass down there; it’s fine, soft and straight.
Oops, should have made that option read: “About once a week, but I generally leave some hair either all over or in fun shapes.”
Also, I’m pleased that my opinion is currently winning. I suspected that The Husband’s opinion was being grossly skewed by the world of porn.
I rarely shave, mostly because our water tank doesn’t provide a hot shower long enough to complete the job and I am not working on that when goose-fleshed. But, I will weed whack a few times a year.
You turned to the Dope looking for sexually active females for your poll? Good luck with that. You can’t count on this place to be a reliable sample of the population for anything having to do with “normal” anything, let alone grooming standards. For instance, the majority of Dopers right now are thinking to themselves “Well… define ‘normal’!”
This place is going to have more females who don’t shave their legs or their armpits as well. If I needed answers about politics, history, or physics, I would turn to this place in a heart beat. But for information on style, grooming, sex, relationships… probably not the best place to seek a reliable consensus.
What, no option for Vajazzling?
I don’t understand these kinds of comments.
Unless you’re saying that women who groom their pubes are looking to appeal to the pedophile set or are trying to conform to the impossible ideal represented by Barbie dolls.
But I’m sure you wouldn’t say that because I doubt you’d say such ludicrous things. That kind of stuff is the kind of thoughtless knee-jerk-ism that passed for feminism in the late '80s and early '90s.
First of all, I do it for me, not for some guy. And some guys have told me that they prefer things au naturale. But in order to accommodate their aesthetic preference, I’d have to sacrifice a great deal of my own sexual pleasure. I’m not willing to do that.
Second…why are you assuming that men don’t groom their own pubic hair? In my experience, they absolutely do.
You seem to have some really bizarre ideas about this issue. Makes no difference to me if you have a giant bush between your legs, but please don’t assume that those of us who choose otherwise do so because we’re the oppressed victims of the patriarchal male hegemony or something.
I too am a woman, not a Barbie doll, but I’ve never waxed “down there”. I shave it clean off sure, and the stubble bothers me so I do touch ups every shower, but waxing sounds very, very painful to me (for that area) so there is no way I’m attempting it. 
I started doing it on my own without any coercion or input from anybody- in fact I didn’t even have a boyfriend at the time I first shaved it all off (which was just about the time it started growing in during puberty I think- I always hated it!) but if a man wanted me to wax (for the sake of argument) I wouldn’t but I also wouldn’t want him to do it first.
I (briefly) dated a man who went all smooth- he shaved (or perhaps waxed I don’t know) far more surface area than I and it was the biggest turn-off ever. Just nasty. I probably have a double standard thinking the hairlessness looks feminine and sexy on a woman but on a man it is just “little boy” and creepy…yuk! But, if my man found my own grooming habits to be a turn off I would re-consider them to be more to his liking. This guy though, when I (politely, I thought) expressed my revulsion to his smooth chest, legs and ummm…other areas, lectured me instead about how it made him feel sexy and that I should find it sexy too. I didn’t, and I couldn’t take him seriously after that (double standards again I am sure) so that was the end of that little relationship. (Well, not that exact moment or anything, that would have been rude too…I was just incredibly busy the next few times he tried to arrange a date, then formally broke up with several days later over coffee.)
Yeah, but you guys are more awesome.