26-year-old man here. I’ve got a veritable jungle of hair between the cheeks. Are men expected to be hairless or groomed in this area?
I ask because I’d imagine some maintenance would look the most appealing, but I can’t imagine the effort that would go into regular ass grooming. I’m leaning toward just leaving it as it is, but I’d like your opinions.
I would never expect a man to shave his ass. My husband has had many surgeries on a cyst that develops of the base of his spine and has been shaved for the operation. It’s now crazy with hair. I don’t care or mind.
Nobody will care outside of porn, and even then specific porn.
However, I will note that if you shave, you’ll have scratchy ends, and of all places in your body that rub together, I think you would want scratchy hair on your bum least of all.
Not to sound crass, but are you straight or gay?
Now and then, I will do a pretty thorough manscaping job, and I’ve found it is more common among gay guys than straight ones. Brought up something along those lines (basic grooming below the neck) with my friend and his wife, and from the looks on their faces, they’d never given it much thought.
Choice is between a) not shaving, b) spending several hours a week shaving everything, with necessary, inconsistent assistance, c) shave ass, and look ridiculous when you miss spots elsewhere, and end up looking like a baboon. I say a).
I think the little bit of fluff you can see peeking out even while standing around is appealing, if you’ve got hair like that. If you’re into playing in that area though, grooming it from time to time as you feel like is a nice change of pace for your partner.
I’d say grooming the taint and around the front is more important than the bum for average bed play though.
Thanks for the responses, all. I figured as much, but sometimes your mind starts spinning.
I’m straight. My concern pretty much stems from the fact that I am loaded with hair back there. I suppose I don’t have much basis for comparison, but I feel like it’s atypical. It doesn’t bother me personally, but I always wondered what the general consensus is, as I’d like to look sexually appealing.
Frankly, I don’t shave or trim my front either; I’m like Adam Sandler in You Don’t Mess with the Zohan 
I haven’t heard any complaints about my wild, substantial bush. How uncommon is it to let the front grow as it will?
Well, I am also a straight dude, so I haven’t been checking many penises, but I would wage that it is far and away more common to not trim your pubes at all than any other option.
A good reason to not shave down there. Posted many times here before.
I am by no means a hairy guy, but I shave my crack occasionally because I was sick of the hair getting tangled up, having TP bits getting stuck, and generally smelling and feeling gross down there. I do a general pube trim once a week or so, too (for similar reasons) so crack shaving only adds a few more seconds a week to the meager amount of time I invest in crotch grooming. It isn’t much trouble at all.
I’m straight, and the women in my life have never suggested they cared about how I groomed my nether regions at all, so I only do this for myself. I get a lot of guff any time I grow a mustache, so it isn’t that they’re too shy to mention it. Women don’t seem to care about ass grooming, so don’t do it on their account.
Oh that is hilarious. What I discovered the first time I shaved my booty was that I could no longer sneak a fart out. Your smooth, slick butt cheeks act like a living whoopee cushion. Little ones will come out with a pop or a bang, and bigger ones are expelled with an astounding BRAPP! I never had any problems with the sweat and stench described in the article though, and even the grow-back itching was minimal. So overall, it was not a negative experience.
On the other hand “it provides friction” is definitely true, and it means the hair can cause nappy rash.
The hair also is faster at becoming smelly and can form dags. (which might not go away with just a quick wash and makes dirty bath water.)
You could pluck … just grab the pinch of the longest and yank them out. Then it doesn’t grow back with the sharp edges like it would if it was shaved. The drawback of plucking is the chance of a cyst resulting from damaged follicles doing odd stuff.
You could just do a little manscaping with a clipper and blade guard of length of choice. Just kind of shorten everything and avoid the repercussions of a bald shave or wax.
As a female who refuses to go to the removal lengths (and expense!) that many others seem to, I just do a bush shortening with an electric clipper and epilate the bikini line to ankles and that’s it. I’m a cheap chick. Haven’t had any complaints either. I got the idea from a couple of dudes I dated way back when (separately!) and I appreciated not dealing with voluminous dude-bush. But the dude who shaved himself bald - that was weird. And stubbly. Don’t do that.
Why not just try it once, and see if you like it? Who knows, maybe you’ll love it so much that you’ll never want to go back to being gorilla-man. And if it turns out that you hate it, hey, it’ll grow back. What do you have to lose?
I’d at least trim it if there’s that much. As to the frontal region, trimming is good (I’m not a fan of the full shave), especially if you expect oral attention. Having to pick hair out of your teeth is not fun.
Thanks everyone.
I’m not concerned about smell/hygiene, as I already keep the rear very clean and haven’t had any problems. Appearance is my only concern, but it seems like it’s not a big deal.
Now the front . . . trying a little trimming doesn’t seem like a bad idea, but I do like all that hair. I’ll have to ask my girlfriend about it to see what she thinks. It just occurred to me, but she spends more time down there than I do. Feels odd!
I can’t imagine the itchiness if I shaved my crack. I do my balls, and that demands my attention 2-3 times a week. The occasional stubbly itch is not pleasant but bearable, but I don’t think I’d want to start blindly swiping around back there with a razor. I’m puckering just thinking about it.
If you like your pubic hair, and your girlfriend is fine with it, then keep it! I’m only 2 years older than you, but I’m gay, and gay guys tend to have different grooming habits overall, so I can’t really say what’s “normal” for straight guys our age.
If your girlfriend admits that she’d really prefer you to trim your hair, then feel free to use an electric beard trimmer instead of a razor. You can set a specific length and then go to town. You’ll still have a bush, but it’ll look much “cleaner” if you know what I mean.
Otherwise, if both of you are happy with your natural look, keep it! And have fun down there
For some strange reason the OP’s name and his topic should be the butt of typical SDMB humor but you all seem to be restraining yourselves.
If you shave your ass, all of the other asses will make fun of him and the braying will be annoying after a while.
There are few things as annoying as continuously mocking braying.