What she said. Mr. Scarlett does not fall into what you would normally call the “hot sexy stud” type (although he is generally nice-looking, his protests to the contrary.) But I do have one picture of him where he’s sitting on the couch, wearing a blue plaid shirt unbuttoned just enough to show a little scruff, looking ever-so-slightly swarthy with his full beard and tousled hair, leaning slightly forward, hazel eyes looking right at me most intensely. swoon Very sexy.
Oh, and there’s a little yellow bird (the late great Zak the parakeet) perched on his shoulder.
I personally like a man with hair on his chest. I just love running my fingers through it. But I’ve dated the smoothie set as well, and that’s fine. I’m in the column where I don’t really like hair on my man’s back, but I wouldn’t throw a good one back because of it.
Personally, I like chest hair. In fact, the gorilla look doesn’t turn me off either…if I like someone, however, how much body hair they’re endowed with makes no difference. A guy who shaved or waxed would be a turn-off for me, though.
I don’t think it’s shallow to have preferences in how one likes one’s datee to look. I don’t judge my friends - male or female - on looks. But I do have preferences in those I date, or are intimate with. I just won’t date a short guy, a fat guy, and I just would not go to bed with a man who I did not find sexually attractive. This says nothing about what I think of this person as a human being, just that sexual “chemistry” has to be there, as well as a whole constellation of other factors having nothing to do with physical criteria, when it comes to doing the wild thing.
Yep, I do. And if you have a problem with back hair, well, it’s your problem. There are enough ways that people cause pain to each other in the world without people mocking each other for physical attributes over which they have no control. I, for one, am sick and tired of being made to feel bad about myself at the beach, or the gym, by people who are hung up on body image. If you participate in that kind of cultural stupidity, then shame on you.
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My wife can do whatever she wants with her armpits and legs. They’re on her body.
And if there’s a double standard, it’s that men are made to feel like cads and villains for supposedly promulgating the anorexia- and bulimia-inducing “perfect female body image,” while on the other hand men themselves are held, culturally, to a baby’s-ass-smooth, muscular body image that most cannot attain.
PunditLisa, thanks for pointing that double standard out. That was my first reaction reading this thread.
My boyfriend is hairy. HAIRY. Hairier than any guy I’ve ever dated. Back hair used to be a dealbreaker for me, but since he’s the bee’s knees, I changed my mind. I have suggested that he, uh, separate his eyebrow into two, but he thinks that that’s too much to ask - take me as I am, baby. Now, my eyebrows are naturally pretty heavy, but I toil daily to keep them apart and shapely, as well as keep the Fu Manchu at bay. If I were to stop doing that, well, I’m sure he wouldn’t be too pleased. If I let the leg and armpit hair grow…that would certainly roil the waters.
How many of you guys yelping “If she doesn’t like it, too bad” would date a girl who never shaved her legs and who could braid her armpits? Precious few, is my guess.
If I was to construct what I considered to be the physically perfect male, I probably wouldn’t put a lot of chest hair on him.
On the other hand, if I was in love with a relatively hairy man, I would love his chest hair along with the rest of him. I’m pretty easy going that way.
Immaterial, although most of the men I’ve been really attracted too have it. But I think that’s just a coincidence- I’m really into personalities. Hell, I don’t even care if a guy’s good looking or not, let alone whether he has chest hair. Most of the guys I know who have great personalities just happen to have chest hair.
I generally spend a few months sizing a guy up for kindness, gentleness, patience, intelligence and warped sense of humor, then I decide if he’s attractive. If he then proves to be sporting a manly tuft beneath the unbottoned top button, I think it’s incredibly sexy. If, on the other hand, he has absolutely no chest hair, I think it’s incredibly sexy.
Frankly, if she’s seeing your nekkid chest, I’m sure the amount of hair is low on her priority list.
Funny story: I was at my friend’s house the other night, and he has a boxed Paul Stanley of KISS action figure displayed. And the ACTION figure has painted on chest hair. I giggled quite a bit.
If men are chubby enough to have breasts, chest hair is mandatory IMHO. Otherwise i don’t care really. Back hair is fine as long as some skin shows through. It should be hair and not fur.
If they have ear hair, then that will get plucked. I can’t stand looking at that, but it is correctable.
Hmm. As an unshaved female, I can confidently state that most men don’t really care. (Or at least, all the ones who can deal with my personality can deal with hair, too. It works out to the same thing.)
Um… I think we’re carrying things a bit far. Since when did having a preference equal judging someone? How does thinking one thing is sexier than another mean that it is a factor in whether or not you like someone? Me, I don’t like body hair in general. I find men sexier without chest hair, or with minimal chest hair (just the little line up the middle and a little patch between the nipples)… but that doesn’t mean that I think men with chest hair suck. Hell, I just celebrated my 9th wedding anniversary with a man who has copious chest and even back hair. I love him to death and beyond. If I meet a guy, I’m interested in him or not so regardless of (and usually without even knowing) how much hair he has on his chest. Even so, if I were to build a model of the “perfect looking guy” he would have very very sparse-to-no chest hair. Basically, I’d consider it a “bonus” if the guy I was with happened to not have much chest hair. I also like shaved pubic hair on men and women. I think people who are taking this into some extreme “judgemental” angle are just itching for an argument and aren’t really being fair to the question.
I agree with Magdalene - whether or not he had chest hair is secondary to more important matters, such as personality and sense of humor (two big ones in my book). Opal, I understand what you are saying but I simply have no preference about chest hair either way.
That being said, there is a man at work with the huge, thick, dark patch of hair (looks almost like pubic hair) constantly sticking out at his neckline. This does not do anything for me. Doesn’t gross me out, but I don’t think it’s sexy.
I shave my underarms everyday and shave my legs every few days and wax my eyebrows because I like the way it looks and I choose to do so. Frankly, hairy legs and underarms itch more than a five o’clock shadow. And if I haven’t shaved in a few days, I am not at all excited by the look of my legs. So I shave. I don’t think of it a societal pressure or a double standard biased toward women, but a personal decision.
Non-shaving woman here, and the SO hardly notices–about once a year I shave my legs, and I have to point it out to him. The underarms havn’t been shaved in a couple years, and he likes that just fine. Before me there were French movies.
Personally, I am pretty impartial to body hair/ lack of body hair. The SO shaves his face once a week, and I find i enjoy every faze from smooth to very stubbely for its own special qualities.
