Remember when Tom Selleck was the star of Magnum and People Magazine ranked him the sexiest man alive? Back then, chest hair was clearly in — not as much anymore. Our general perspective at ForMen.com is always do what you want, but be informed doing so. If you want to consider changing body hair tastes, there are options and it’s certainly interesting to understand what comes in and out of vogue.
Chest Hair
In addition to what you like, it might be relevant to take into consideration what women like as well. The current trend is definitely to manage chest hair to some degree through trimming, or if you want to go more extreme, waxing or laser hair removal. These options are reviewed in greater detail in our manscaping article.
ForMen Take:
If you have a lot of chest hair consider trimming it. We wouldn’t go shorter than ½ inch. Keep in mind what your significant other likes (or the types of gals you are dating.) We wouldn’t do laser hair removal on the chest, it might come back in style.
Pubic Hair
Pubic hair trimming is pretty common these days, especially with the younger single set. You can trim with scissors (carefully) or use clippers — also carefully. It goes without saying that anytime you are coming close to your package with sharp cutting instruments you should be highly cautious. As to whether or not you decide to go more than a trim, up to you, depends on what you feel like hassling with and also any upside that you might receive from women. There are some benefits to reducing or eliminating pubic hair: 1.) Women don’t love getting hair in their teeth = more BJs. 2.) Your penis will look bigger with less hair 3.) A lot of guys say they just feel more comfortable. That said, if you take off too much there is a risk of irritation, which is highly dependent on the person and the type of hair/skin you have.
ForMen Take:
There is minimal downside to trimming and it could improve your action in the bedroom. We would be cautious about doing anything more than that, but certainly nothing wrong with experimentation, it will always grow back.
Bonus Topic:
You may not know this, but 50% of women 18-29 go totally bare. We just learned this recently and it was a shocker. As a matter of fact we interviewed six guys in their 20s, and only three of the six had ever even been with a woman who had any hair “below,” and these were sexually active guys. Consider that for a moment. The times are definitely changing. As far as whether this is good, or weird, or irrelevant, it can make for a spirited debate topic over cocktails.
Interestingly, the rise of Tinder has completely changed dating for the 20-something set. This access to women is mind-boggling — we don’t know how millennials get any work done. They do, right?
Here are a couple of good related articles:
The Atlantic really gets into details RE: women’s grooming habits down low, origin, trends now, percentages.
Amusing piece on what women think about men shaving certain parts of their bodies.
http://www.sheknows.com/love-and-sex/articles/1031497/dear-men-heres-what-we-think-about-your-hair
