Since when do men start shaving everywhere ? Is this the queer eye/ metrosexual influence ?
Inspired from some other threads here. I am just a guest and could not search-please help me out. I have seen a thread here about why women shave their body and another about a norelco all-over shaver for men.
Here is one thread I just found–
Excellent question. Since when do men start shaving everywhere? Certainly I don’t know anybody who does.
Here is the link
I’m going to shave my body when Saddam Hussein becomes a used car salesman in Illinois.
I don’t know the “when,” but have you ever tried putting posing oil on a hairy chest?
Seriously, though, I don’t know very many men who shave anything other than their face. I find smooth skin more aesthetically pleasing, but it doesn’t much matter to me in the longrun in either gender.
I will argue, though, that any man who demands his girlfriend shave her legs should be ready to go next. 
And some women who demand that a man shaves off his moustache should do likewise
Getting back on topic I don’t believe it is common for men to shave their entire bodies though certain areas (back, sack and crack) are shaved purely for the purposes of attracting the opposite sex. Shaving the pubic region can also make the penis look larger so there is definite motivation there.
Of course swimmers shave their bodies for professional reasons though I have my doubts as to just how much difference this makes.
It’s a comfort thing, honest.
Now that we’ve evolved far enough to make clothes, I reckon we don’t really need body hair any more. And hairy nipples only look good on great apes.
Despite being a keen cyclist, I’ve never shaved my legs (except in the case of injury). I’m not made of razors.
<<And some women who demand that a man shaves off his moustache should do likewise>>
Oh god, moustached women! That’s a very scary thought, and I’m female!
<<Shaving the pubic region can also make the penis look larger so there is definite motivation there.>>
You’ve solved the secret of porn!
Nah. There’s just more commerce in men shaving their bodies. You can sell them shaving oils& foams, razors, posing oils, and, if they don’t shave and feel guilty about it, you can sell them loads of other stuff whith which they’ll try to compensate for their hairy butts or chest.
Or maybe it’s the fault of all those same damned gay fashion designers who want women to look like twelve-year old boys. Now that every woman thinks she shouldn’t have curves, adult men are next.
Pictures in magazines always are more elaborate then reality. Any self respecting stylist or photographer can’t leave well enough alone; they have to add something, embellish somthing, or they feel they haven’t “contributed” anything. There are some artistic conventions that some things don’t need embellishing (no-one would paint fruit for a picture) but the human body isn’t such an exception. As it takes just more effortto shave a hairy body, that body will be shaved. Then as such a fashion starts among stylists and photogrephers and designers, more men might think: “oh, I have to shave” and a new trend is born.
I’m a woman, and personally, I feel the whole men shaving bodies thing is nonsense. I like my men to look like men. Besides, I abhor the feel of stubbles.
<<Nah. There’s just more commerce in men shaving their bodies. You can sell them shaving oils& foams, razors, posing oils, and, if they don’t shave and feel guilty about it, you can sell them loads of other stuff whith which they’ll try to compensate for their hairy butts or chest.
Or maybe it’s the fault of all those same damned gay fashion designers who want women to look like twelve-year old boys. Now that every woman thinks she shouldn’t have curves, adult men are next. >>
I’ll agree on that, though I do think the issue of body hair and the issue of youth are different. The modeling industry wants both men AND women to look young and be very thin. Most male models do look like young boys.
But the idea of body-waxing/shaving extends beyond that. Almost every adult film I’ve seen has muscular, hairless men - and these guys aren’t particularly “pretty”. What’s interesting is that it’s not unusual for a male porn star to have a beard but no hair on his body. Most boxers and wrestlers (the real kind) have no chest hair as well.
<<I’m a woman, and personally, I feel the whole men shaving bodies thing is nonsense. I like my men to look like men. Besides, I abhor the feel of stubbles.
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The only issue I take with that statement is that it suggests that only men with hairy chests are “real men.” Bodybuilders are considered extremely masculine despite the fact that they’re almost invariably chest-bare. A guy’d have to have a pretty flabby chest to resemble a woman just because there was no hair on it.
That said, hairlessness when combined with skinniness, as in male modeling, can indeed be frighteningly young-looking. I just think the body-waxing/shaving goes beyond what’s oriented toward women.
I naturally have very little body hair (I’m a redhead). If (a significant number of ) women like men with no body hair, and all these swarthy dudes are shaving, then I’m going to feel like a naturally busty woman does towards women with fake tits. ::Nudge nudge…See that guy? He shaves:: 
I got into the habit when I was a bodybuilder. I haven’t competed in twenty years, but I still shave – it’s especially comfortable in summer. It also ‘shaves’ quite a few years off at the beach: gray body hair makes a guy look old.
Nitpick: I think you mean “hairy” or “hirsute”,* not “swarthy”. “Swarthy” just means dark-complexioned, not necessarily hairy.
As for the OP’s question about how the current trend got started, I found a reference to a March 2004 article in DSN Retailing Today that seemed to consider the “male grooming boom” a fairly new development, influenced by “Queer Eye” makeovers:
Fashion designers have introduced skirts for men every couple of years since at least the 1960s. You can see how well that’s worked out. :rolleyes:
Hairless upper bodies can be attributed to many of the influences stated here - body builders, porn stars, fashion models - as a way of enhancing the image. Muscles can be seen better when there is no hair in the way. Hair is a distraction as well as a cover up.
But exposing the flesh for aesthetics is just as true for women and shaving public hair. Except that there’s only a tiny bit of public hair compared to chest and back hair.
A few men will for professional reasons take the massive amount of time and effort to shave their torsos. Even fewer will shave their legs and arms.
I was going to say you’ll see men shaving all over about the same time you see men wearing skirts. But not even then. Hairy legs will become even more fashionable. See kilts, wearers of.
IOW, it hasn’t happened and it won’t.
Some folks dig body hair; some don’t. I may be more disconnected than most from what’s going on in the fashion world, but it seems to me to be a personal preference thing, not something that’s being forced upon you from above. Me, I was lucky enough (IMO!) to get the non-hairy genes–though a few have been creeping in on my chest lately. gives the hairs a dirty look
OTOH, it’s probably worth giving the companies that stand to benefit from this a good hard look. Some time ago we might well have been asking who decided women should shave their pits and legs, or who came up with this whole deodorant idea. (I can’t find a cite for deodorant, but seem to recall hearing of it being another ‘need’ invented for us by marketing.)
Hello Everyone!
I have been lurking around the SDMB for quite a few months now and I registered because I had to reply to this topic!
This is just a suspicion, but maybe Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris have something to do with the “hairless evolution” in men. Do you guys/gals remember watching Return of the Dragon from the 1970’s? In the final act, you see Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris in the greatest fight scene of all time (these were the good old days with no computers to mess around with the movies). At the beginning of the fight, both fighters take off their shirts. You see Chuck Norris with his hairy and out of shape torso, while Bruce Lee is hairless and ripped. Needless to say, Lee knocked the daylights out of Norris.
I’m only in my 20’s so I wasn’t around during the 1970’s, but maybe Lee promoted the image of hairlessness in men through his movies and enduring cultural influence. Bruce Lee was most likely naturally hairless in his torso area so he didn’t have the option to grow hair. I’m a guy and straight, but I’m still quite attracted by Bruce Lee’s body. 
Eric W.
The Bruce Lee effect doesn’t seem to have taken much hold. How many hairless-chested male stars can you name from the 1970s? Not too many.
Now, let’s consider the hairy-chested brigade of '70s male stars: Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Charlton Heston, Elliott Gould, Ryan O’Neal, John Travolta, Robert Shaw.
Hello Eric W., and welcome to the Straight Dope! I can’t judge about the possible Bruce Lee influence, but I do think that the current “smooth-chested men” fashion trend may have something to do with the increasing cultural visibility of (mostly non-hairy) East Asian men in general.
Hey, I shave, and I am not gay nor do I wear skirts! I recently went on a cruise and at my wifes request I shaved everything BUT my legs. And I mean everything!!!
Note, I said this was per my wifes request. This is not an every day things. But on most occasions I keep my chest shaved, and everything else trimmed, a la porn star (minus the ten inches coaxed by three viagras.
So I would assume men do it to please their partners or potential partners.
I met a moustached woman at a party recently. I was told she’s a scholar and a published author. Her girlfriend had been saying she wished more women would grow their body hair, then I noticed the moustache on her lover. I paid her a compliment on it and stroked it. Nothing scary, she looked OK to me. But then I’m Sicilian!