A strange observation from a heterosexual male, but ny curiosity has been piqued in recent weeks.
I’m noticing a disproportionately large percentage of males, at least compared to a year or two ago, parading around shirtless. They’re usually in the 18-25 age group, rail thin, and … this is the strange part … their chests are always shaved. My apartment complex is filled with 'em, and compared to 'em I feel grossly obese because I’ve got five or ten pounds hanging around my gut that will not go away.
Is the skinny/shirtess/shaved chest thing some popular new fashion statement or trend that, in my journey towards middle age, I’m blissfully unaware of?
I am equally baffled. When I first saw the movie “Pink Floyd The Wall” in 1982, and saw Bob Geldof shave his chest with a razor, it seemed like the most bizarre, crazy thing a person could do. Go figure! My only guess is that this trend is being commercially perpetrated by those looking to make a living by shaving bodily hair.
A WAG, but if all the hairless men have good bodies, it could be because they want to show off their muscles (which may be obscured underneath male furriness.) Or they might be models. Or have girlfriends/boyfriends who dislike body hair.
I know swimmers who do it for the nerve sensations in the water making them think they go faster. I shaved my stomach once, it itched like hell when the stubble grew back. I think it is better shaved, because it highlights muscles and doesn’t look as greasy and weird…
I know a triathlete who shaves his chest, but he also shaves his arms & legs. Swimmers have said for years that they are faster in the water without all that hair drag!
The irony is that the ultrashaved look has (huzzah!) finally started to fade among gay men.
It all started with muscleboys wanting to show off - especially muscleboy porn stars. One wag referred to the look as “roasted, plucked and basted,” meaning fake-baked, shaved and oiled.
Of course, as has been discussed ad nauseam elsewhere on this board, once body hair starts to grow back it usually itches, and the maintenance really gets to be a pain. Lately, it seems the preferred look is just trimmed short enough so you can see definition. (Hairstylists in my neighborhood will do body clips as well.) It’s a nice medium, I think.
I haven’t read the other thread on shaving chests, but I’ve seen movies of the 1960s and 1970s that portray hairy-chested males as “real he-men”. Think about Sean Connery as James Bond or Burt Reynolds in Deliverance.
Maybe “the hair thing” goes in cycles? In the 1800s men sported thick beards. In the 1950s and 1960s (from what I’ve seen in movies anyway) clean-shaven was “in”. (But chest hair was good.) Ancient Romans thought body hair was a bad thing and would have it plucked out at the baths – even their pits.
My guess is that Youth is “in”. Everyone wants to look younger. And a shaven chest might make a 20-something look like a teen and a 30-something look like a 20-something.
I’ve had women ask me if I’ve shaved my body hair off and when I’ve told them “no,” they’ve been horribly grossed out. (Yeah, like any of them would have been willing to sleep with me to begin with, but I digress.) Personally, I don’t really pay much attention to my chest hair, unless it happens to repulse someone I dislike. Then I make sure they see it whenever possible!
Ummm, no, it actually makes them go faster. Aerodynamics, not because they “think” they are going faster. 1-100th of a second is all it can take to win a race and eliminating body hair can help make the difference.
My brother was in the Olympic trials back in 84 or 86…whenever it was a long time ago (we’re both in our 30s now.) Most of his fellow Olympic Trials buddies also shaves their legs…about the only thing that wasn’t touched by a razor was the pubic hairs, I think. Sorry I hate to see my brother do that and a hairless brother makes me ill anyway. < snort >
BTW, my brother and several of his friends were not exactly full of chest hair anyway, but they shaved their chests, backs, legs, arms, etc… When the competition is that tough, you do what you can to get the upper hand.
I’ve thought about shaving some hair off of my body, but only off of my ass. I get the impression that that’s the only thing that really bugs women, is a hairy ass. I’m only 15, and i’m already hairy like a monkey, so when being hairy comes back in style, i’ll be stylin’.
