(TMI) Trends in pubic hairstyles

In My Humble Opinion
1

Loosely inspired by a couple other threads, but more just cause I’m curious and… where else can I find out this kind of stuff?

Background: When I first started “going with girls” as a teenager, some girls did a little bikini trim or wax, but that was about it. Ditto for the women in the girlie mags and skin flicks. Except one girlfriend, who was bi, who had shaved her pubes into a kind of mohawk and died them purple! I dug it. :cool: But it was unusual. And I also liked the girls who didn’t, especially this one very voluptuous gal with gorgeous fiery red hair, very Bonnie-Raitt-esque, who… but I digress…

When I was in my 20s, a gay friend who was “going granola” casually announced one day, “I think I’m gonna stop shaving my balls”, the way a straight guy who’d just broken up with his girlfriend might announce he was going to stop shaving his face. I’d never heard of this before, but he said it was common among gay men.

By the time I hit my 30’s, every woman I dated was trimmed (and I mean manicured, not just edged) and a couple were completely shaved. Again, I dug it. One girlfriend asked me to shave my scrotum and trim the pubes, which I did. Felt kinda funny at first. I thought I looked like a little boy, but she enjoyed it, and her reaction was enjoyable for me.

My current mate shaves, and likes for me to trim up top and to shave on the shaft and underneath.

And of course, all the girls in the mags and the actors in today’s porn films shave.

So…

Is this experience typical for other Dopers? Is there a cultural difference among straight/gay/bi? Do younger dopers view pubic grooming as just another chore like clipping your nails and brushing your teeth? Are older dopers thinking “What the…?”

2

I’m straight and married and not very young (35), but it’s one of those bi-weekly chores like cutting your toenails. The real chore is doing a full body trim every 1 -2 months. My wife doesn’t mind either way, but it’s just a habit I kept from my single days. I just feel cleaner and more presentable, should I ever have to whip it out for some unpredictable reason.

3

I had never heard of a widespread shaving or trimming trend until I landed on these boards, and I’ve never done more than a bit of trimming down there. Nobody I’ve been with cares if there’s hair there, apparently. I do shave the usual other places, but normally I don’t mess with…that…hair.

I’m straight, female, and 29 (as of today).

4

I’m a 43 year old straight man and I’ve never shaved any hair below my neck.

But I have noticed a definite trend on female pubic hair disappearing over the years. It’s hard to say how widespread it is because women who show their pubic hair to the public are probably not a representative sampling group and the number of women I’ve encountered on a one-on-one basis is unfortunately not large enough to be statistically significant.

5

Happily married, but the last few years before I met my wife, I seem to recall most of the females I encountered shaved the pubes in some fashion. It also seems to be a trend among teenaged females, or at least the ones I overhear at the mall. :open_mouth:

Personally, I have seldom trimmed any hair below the waist, and then mostly for medical or related reasons.

6

I read recently that girls around 12-13 (AKA is there really enough there? AKA I truuuuly hope this isn’t to impress someone) are going in for the ____ strip.* Which is, I gather, a clean half inch wide or less strip down the middle.

To the OP: I was brought up in “Sex doesn’t exist, but you fiddle with my daughter and you’re marying her if my shotgun has anything to say about it” territory. Currently, making Mr Happy bald is not something that’s ever going to happen unless some medical procedure requires it. If a girlfriend wanted it done…well short of I wanted to marry and live with her for the rest of my life and that was the only thing standing in the way, we’re keeping the hair. But it would weeeeiiird me the hell out for a long time and I would bitch about it plentifully.

  • Cannot recall what the first word was. I assume someone will fill this in
7

Landing Strip

8

Born bi married straight female, 26. I have shaved it all off since I was 16 years old.
I had seen it in porn, but that wasn’t my main influence - that’s just where I saw it first. I’m a personal hygiene freak, and often shower twice a day normally, however, when I started getting my periods at 12 years old, I began to shower three or four times daily. When the pubes starting growing in, I felt very dirty at that time of the month. It was almost obsessive-compulsive. Heck, maybe it was.
Anyway, my mother complained for years, because I’d use up all the towels too quickly. They already had bought extra because of my two showers a day routine (once when I wake up, another with a shower cap before bed - nothing feels nicer to me than getting all comfy and clean into a soft bed… ahhhh!) This went on for a couple of years, before I started wondering if there was some way I could feel less “dirty” each month. I decided to try shaving.
I’ve never turned back. Well, once, briefly. It makes me feel cleaner, neater, and… er… “fresher”! On top of that, it feels so soft and smooth, and I like that. It makes everything feel more sensitive during sex (I did try letting it grow for a very brief period, but didn’t enjoy it much. Once I got past the itchy stage, the hair was just distracting and seemed to attract more mess than I was comfortable with during sex…)
I don’t look at others and wonder how they can not shave, however, because every person has a comfort preference. My husband is a very hairy man, and he thought I’d find him unattractive because of my body’s hairlessness. I don’t think that at all. He also looks, smells, and feels very clean to me, which is the only thing I care about.

Has to be shaved off completely, for me, though, none of the landing strips or fancy designs. That makes me itchy.

I can’t think of any cultural or social influences for me… I didn’t ever know anyone else who’d shaved theirs growing up. Not something I ask, you know? :wink: The idea came from porn, but the motivation was personal cleanliness.

9

I shave it all off because…well…ya know…it makes the area more sensitive to certain…uh…ummm… :o

never mind. :smiley:

Female and bi.

10

I trim short. I used to shave around the edges, but then I got a few very stubborn and repeat ingrown hairs (always the same couple of folicles), and the doctor said no more shaving for me.

I trim because it is cleaner and thus collects sweat and stuff less. Always nice to know no smells have built up during the day down there. Also, I never get hairs pinched in zippers that way. Also easier for partners to find the happy parts.

I actually don’t like the full shave on males or females. I don’t like to screw children. Yick.

11

Oh, and I’m 28, bi and married (male partner).

12

Speaking of which, just got this story from my brother in an email today:

A man goes to the unemployment office in Phoenix to look at job openings on the bulletin board. Since there aren’t many jobs it doesn’t take him long. Then, just as he’s on his way out, he spots something. “Wanted,” the ad says, “Single man, willing to travel, must have own scissors. $500 per day, guaranteed, plus company car and all expenses.” It sounds too good to be true, but he makes a note and walks up at the counter.

“I’d like to apply for this job,” he says, “reference number E/784/B46.”

“Oh, that one,” says the clerk. “It’s a modeling agency here in Phoenix. They’re looking for a pubic hair groomer.”

“The agency supply’s young women who model underwear and bathing suits. Before they go on the catwalk, they’d report to you and you would inspect them carefully for any wisps of pubic hair showing and snip them off. It pays well, but there are a few drawbacks. It involves quite a lot of travel. The Bahamas, Tahiti, Paris, London… that sort of thing… and you have to get used to expense account living in first-class hotels.”

“I reckon I could learn to live with all that,” says the fellow. “I’d really like to apply for the job.”

The clerk shrugs and says, “OK, here’s an application form and a bus ticket to Prescott.”

“Prescott? What do I wanna go to Prescott for?”

“Well,” says the clerk, “that’s where the end of the application line is at the moment!”

13

Yes. Except for the bi part.
I don’t usually participate in these kinds of threads, but I feel I must defend myself from this:

I *tried * to shave it into a landing strip. I really did! Or a heart. Or anything but completely bare. But my hair is curly and very thin, and no matter what I did it didn’t look like any kind of style, just messy. I’ve tried and tried and tried! So now I just shave it all off, it’s easier that way.

I guess I’m not that young anymore either, 29.

14

That’s possibly the most awesome thing I’ve read today.

Anyway, my first girlfriend had a full-on bush. My last one shaved it, but not very well–for the longest time, she had a little tuft of hair on the inner fold just next to the hood. A little Clitler moustache, if you will. And it was most always stubbly. I’d rather lick a shag carpet than a piece of sandpaper, thank you very much.

15

I tried shaving it off once, but I hated the stubble- plus, it looked kind of funny, IMO. So now I just trim. I have very thick hair, so I trim that down a bit so it’s not poofy, and a bit around the edges.

16

My first reaction to the “trim topside, shave below” was kinda that way. It didn’t freak me, but yeah, I thought I looked like a kid. But my girlfriend at the time (GREAT sex, btw) found that it facilitated her, uh, oral fixation, shall we say.

I got used to it very quickly, and soon it just seemed kempt. (A later girlfriend, tho trimmed herself, nixed any suggestion of shaving the twins.)

However, when sleeping with shaved women, I never got the kid vibe from it. There’s so much else involved in the experience, it just never entered my mind. Plus, ditto, inkleberry, re the happy parts.

Mmmmm… happy parts… :smiley:

PS: I don’t think I’d ever do the shave up top. Can’t imagine changing/showering in the gym with a bald pube.

17

47 year old male physician who’s seen more varied pubic stylings on my patients in over 2 decades than any of you really want to know about, including one style which seemed designed to give those poor crabs shelter from the storm.

No, don’t ask.

18

What, the pubic weave?

So, QtM, seriously, have you noticed any change in frequency over time, or variation related to age?

19

Maybe a higher frequency of trimming/shaving than there used to be, but frankly there’s nothing new under the sun. Tattooed and pierced pubic regions weren’t particularly noteworthy back in the 80’s and are less so now. Assymetric stylings are nothing new either, nor is multi-colored dye jobs, weaves, and even the comb-over, the rat-tail, and the mullet were old hat before the 90’s was half-over.

I even saw a rather patchy pubic styling that was the result of a chastity belt pulling out a lot of hair.

20

I had a way too long post about this all ready, but it disappeared. I’m 26, single, female, and bisexual.

Pubic hair was not a big topic among my peer group growing up. No one really mentioned it. I didn’t think much about it until my first male lover mentioned that he’d like it if I trimmed or shaved. So I trimmed, but couldn’t get a good style, so I shaved off what was left. That particular lover didn’t get to see it since we broke up soon afterwards. I let the hair grow back in. My next lover asked me to shave, so I did. I’m all about the polite requests. I shave it now, more or less regularly, because I’m fairly used to it. As far as other people’s hair goes, I really don’t care, but if anyone should ask me what I’d like them to do, I’d request at least a little trim. Makes things easier to deal with.