My girlfriend recently suggested that it would be nice if I shaved the hair off my chest. I somehow am not in favour of doing that because of the following reasons:
The hair on my chest is rather soft, not too dense or bushy and does not make me look ugly or at least that is what I believe.
I do not have particularly toned pectorals and so, having a hairless chest is in no way going to enhance my appearance.
On the few occasions that I had to shave parts of the chest, such as when getting an ECG, the shaved area was a little itchy until the hair had grown back to a somewhat moderate length… This leads me to believe that the itchiness will be a lot more if I shave the whole of my chest and as the hair grows back.
As a result of (4) above and to avoid the itching, I assume I will be required to shave my chest more regularly, which presumably, will eventually become a chore as it is with my beard. Shaving is not something that I like very much and would therefore like to avoid any addition to what I already have.
So, the questions for you guys who have chest hair –
How much hair do you have on your chest? How would you describe it in terms of density and how much area does it cover?
Do you shave your chest?
If yes, then what made you start doing that? How often do you have to shave to maintain a hairless chest?
Does it itch when the hair regrows?
5.Does it make the hair any thicker either in terms of volume or for each strand?
Without shaving - craploads. Not quite a classic furball but close to it.
Well, yeah.
Seeing if it would cut down on chafing while running. It didn’t do that, but it did make me feel several degrees cooler in the summer, and also made the top of my chest not itch as much: up to that point I itched below the collar constantly and never figured out why until I shaved.
I’ve never trimmed as I don’t have the time and it doesn’t work that well for temperature control. But the stubble begins to be unsightly for a completely shaven chest between 2 and 4 days afterward. After that it’s gonna look pretty bad until around another 1 1/2 weeks, and then over a month before it gets too itchy and hot that I have to do it again.
A bit but not at all compared to before I started.
If anything it seems to be the same volume but each hair is less thick. Perhaps it was survival of the thickest down there till I started.
Are you metro-sexual? Do you aspire to metro-sexuality? Are you prepared to step up and expend the effort to manscape yourself* on an ongoing basis like a woman managing her make-up, hair, hair-removal, etc.?
If yes - well, then, embrace your metro-sexual self - it clearly works for guys like Beckham and other style-icon types.
If not - then why the heck are you even entertaining the topic?
It is a big investment of time and hassle - so you either want to be that guy or you don’t.
*note: there is a difference between metrosexual manscaping so you appear a certain way vs. practical manscaping, which I suspect many/most guys do every now and then just to clear out the brush, if you will…
Before shaving, you might find out what she means by, “It would be nice if”. If she says you won’t look so much like the ragamuffin you are, it’ll tell you one thing. If she says she’ll enjoy contact with your bare chest more, that will tell you quite another.
I say he should remind her about how quickly shaved legs or faces can get prickly stubble, and see if she’s cool with feeling 5 o’clock shadow there as well.
My husband has a whole lot of chest hair. I used to think that I’d prefer him shaving but quickly I decided I like him the way he is. He doesn’t have a ton of leg or arm hair, and last summer we had a bunch of friends over, and someone teased him, “You’re Italian but you’re not hairy, how did that happen?” His response was to quickly yank down the collar of his shirt to show his chest and there were actually a few gasps.
Of course not. I don’t shave my face, either. But apart for that, I can’t think why anyone other than a competitive swimmer would need or want to shave his chest.
(Side note: don’t do a Google Images search for “hairy chest” with Safe Search off if you’re at work.)
My chest is surprisingly hairy, and it grows in thick, full, and dark black. It’s thicker than, say, 1970s Burt Reynolds or Baywatch-era David Hasselhoff, but isn’t as all-over as those guys. Really thick on the chest, moderate on the stomach. It has particularly shocked girlfriends over the years; I keep my face clean shaven, am slightly built, dress kind of metro, and the hair on my head is very fine… not signs that they’re going to find a bear rug under the shirt.
Hell no, with a slight exception (see 3). My face is difficult enough to keep clean-shaven, and my beard/moustache hair is nowhere near as thick or dark. I’d have to wax to have a clean-looking chest, which would be the way I’d go smooth… if I had to go smooth.
N/A
From having had a small patch shaved once for some medical thing, I can say it itched a little bit. Not bad as… uhh… other shaved places. Since my hair is thick, though, the stubble felt uncomfortable as it caught on cloth until it grew back to a decent length.
It looks thicker since each hair no longer tapers off, but has a blunt ending where it’s been cut, but it doesn’t increase thickness.
I have a moderately hairy chest, not a rug but not insubstantial wisps either.
Only once, out of curiosity, after an EKG left me with 3 or 4 shaved patches. I can’t imagine shaving it regularly without doing some full body hair removal - a baby-smooth chest combined with hairy arms and legs looks ridiculous.
I have a lightly furred chest, but it’s black. If your hair is black, and you shave your chest, you will have to shave your stomach too, or look very silly. Shaving that much area (though mostly flat) involves quite an investment of time and razor blade. Are you prepared for that?
I’ve got a hairy chest, but it’s not crazy-hairy - you can see the skin underneath. I’ve never considered shaving. My wife and I have been together so long (26 years) that my chest was hairless when we met. Then, she told me that she didn’t like hairy-chested men. Now, I’m hairy and she assures me that she was wrong and they are perfectly fine by her.
A fair amount. It covers my pecs entirely and runs down my stomach. It’s fairly dense, but straight and quite soft. Think Paul Rudd (SFW).
Not currently, but I have. In high school I shaved regularly. I haven’t shaved my chest in several years.
In high school it was the thing to do. I shaved a few times in college because of boyfrends who liked it. In order to really maintain it, I have to shave every day (I did it in the shower), or else I’d get stubble within a day.
Yes. What’s more, I have sensitive skin. Dragging a razor across my chest every day gave me serious razor burn, even when I used a balm afterward.
Not at all, no.
Now I trim rather than shaving. I like being sort of hairy as long as it doesn’t get out of control, and it just takes a few minutes with the clippers every few weeks or so to maintain.
Perhaps you should also consider it if you want your girlfriend to continue “woman-scaping” her body. We don’t come without leg and armpit hair naturally, for the most part, and it is a pain in the ass to maintain (and yes, it can be very itchy for girls too, if we don’t keep up the facade.) If you aren’t willing to make the effort for her, why should she make the effort for you? It is a fair enough trade, I think.
