Hairy legs

Last 😂😂😂😂

Lightweight dunno about you but I'm Western and white, so that's the only perspective I can really talk from within, and my friends are nearly all from Western or Western-influenced cultures. And there's more to it than culture — different ethnicities have different body/facial hair patterns, both for men and for women, though in any given population there will be lots of individual variation obviously.

I assume everyone here is modern, too, but I suppose I shouldn't discount the possibility of time-travelling ancient Romans.

Aren’t we looking at this with a western, modern, white eye.

The Mughals threaded all body hair away, the ancient Egyptians used beeswax.
The mongols also scraped hair away in fashionable patches with flints and blades.
Middle Eastern and Indian sub continent also threaded hair away through history.

As far as I know only ancient Greeks preferred the unibrow for women... but then the Athenians didn’t allow their women out in public, and were very prescriptive about what they wore and did, and where they could go.

It’s more hygienic not to have hair on your head when there are ticks and fleas... hence the short back and sides styles for soldiers in WW1, and the buzz cut in new military recruits, and the tarred ponytail in the British Navy.

I am hairy in winter and then bald, red and blotchy in summer...

Zhizzh up the middle with a beardtrimmer would be sufficient. But I tend to take off more to try and combat my trich (There are many reasons someone might remove body hair.)

To be unpleasantly explicit, I have to do something with my pubic hair or it forms an impenetrable woven barrier.

Replying t9 myself

www.mic.com/articles/151191/the-unusual-and-deeply-sexist-history-of-women-removing-their-body-hair

Thinking on what googefoot has said below, When and how did it become commonplace for women to remove body hair?

I don't shave anything and haven't since my 20's. I trim my pubes and armpit hair a little.

IMO saying body hair is "disgusting" is the same as saying breastfeeding is disgusting.

just curious but do men look unkempt when they do not shave their legs?

No, but you have to consider that in any social or business setting that's at all formal, men are expected to keep their legs covered.

Well that's terribly convenient for men, isn't it?

Maybe, though there are some men with little body hair, and some women don't like it.

Men shaving body hair seems to be more common now generally though.

I don't like beards, armpit hair or hairy backs on men. It's a preference.
My legs are lasered, my armpit hair never grew and I have a full bikini wax . Because I like it. I'm 60.

Ahintofpercy - do you still think you would still do it if you had to do it everyday? Once a fortnight would be a dream!

I prefer to have no hair under my arms as I sweat and use a deodorant. If I have hair there I find it holds a lot of deodorant to transfer onto clothes.

I like clean lines in art and architecture, and bodies are no different.
I think hairless is more aesthetically pleasing - think Michelangelo’s David, rather than CSLewis’ Mr Tumnes.

I zap the hair I don’t want with a Philips Lumea.

I shave my legs once a fortnight on average, it's just part of my grooming regime and I like the feel of my smooth legs (I also occasionally use a sandpaper mitt to get them extra silky smooth!). DH shaves his face every morning, so it's not only women who are conditioned.

Time40 there's definitely a vibe amongst pornified young men and teenagers that women should be completely hairless, because that's all they've ever seen

Yes, I've heard a lot about that, and I find it worrying. It's a sign that our society is going backwards. I have a nasty feeling that today's teenagers don't have the same sense of freedom about their appearance that I had when I was growing up.

Men i know trim their noses ears and wirey eyebrows though. Some even have their eyebrows threaded.

Interesting thread! I stopped shaving my legs about 2 months ago. It started because I had an operation and couldn't shower for a week and then just decided that I couldn't be bothered to shave anymore. I would love to say I like my hairy legs but I still think they look better hair free so I am a bit conflicted! I am really hairy though - if I shave my legs they are stubbly by the following day and that feels even worse than having hairy legs. It is nice getting that time back.

Well that's terribly convenient for men, isn't it?

No but i think hairyness is manly, i would be turned off if they groomed themselves and shaved their legs or armpits. I am more attracted to men with body hair.. when a man is naturally not hairy i find that a turn off.. i imagine for some men seeing a hairy woman is not a turn on.. i think its a hormones indicator of health and fertility.

"Honestly? That looks disgusting to me."

Do men's hairy legs also look disgusting to you?

Honestly? That looks disgusting to me. Each to their own but I would never allow my legs to look like that. I shave all over in the shower every couple of days.

It's marketing and it's shit.

And why is it hard to believe that for some people shaving makes them sweat more? Just because for you shaving makes you sweat less, doesn't mean everyone is you - you're not the gold standard! Everyone is different.

I personally shave, although reading this thread has made me reconsider.

I think a big part of the reason I shave is when I got unwell, I stopped shaving - and also stopped looking after myself - so I actually associate it with that. When I'm well, and I start 'doing things' I start grooming myself more. So I think it comes from that association, it's something I do when I start feeling better. So now it starts to make me feel a bit more together. A bit like putting make-up on maybe, I don't know.

Anyway, to me, it's a personal decision. Everyone should be TRULY free to do what they want. If someone wants to shave, fine. If someone doesn't, fine. And these arguments that it's unkempt or unhygienic or messy on women, but not on men, are absolute bullshit. I wonder if men rocking up at the office with leg hair are accused of looking like they came from Castaway?

I have a tiny, almost matchbox-sized Ladies' razor after my mum. One of the rare things I have of hers. I've never used it. though.

I shaved when younger to fit in but don't any more. Nor do I wear skirts or dresses. I need pockets and trousers to hide and carry my medical equipment.

Practical trumps pretty for me every time, though I must admit it takes me longer to dry hairy legs so I miss that a bit.

My armpits get done if I feel a bit sweaty and pubes when I can't get past the jungle to use tampons.

OH doesn't care (unless I use his razor!) but it's been a long, hard road as he was brought up with the porn of the time favouring a "landing strip" and that being the only hair on a woman's body.

I think we've both reached the age where we no longer really care.

I brought my daughter up to do it if she wanted to and not because she felt she should or was pressured into it. I bought her first razor with the promise she'd do that and not bend to pressure. She shaves but like me, not regularly. I suppose she's lucky that she now has a chilled partner who doesn't sweat the small stuff.

I don't shave.

I realised a couple of years ago that I don't want to spend the time removing body hair. I don't want my children thinking that women should have to remove it, and environmentally the less 'beauty practices' we all partake in the better. I have made a decision for good reasons and yet am still conflicted! I find the look of my own healthy body repulsive sometimes and have, over time, come to the realisation that this is my own internalised misogyny.

The fact that I can look at my own legs and feel repulsed, is not only sad, but it is an indictment of how women's bodies are viewed on society and how we absorb those values from an early age. To look acceptable, means to look smooth and firm. And to not do this is some how morally wrong - dirty, unkempt, not 'taking care of ourselves', and even disrespectful (if we're not 'making an effort' for those around us).

There is an excellent books called, 'Perfect Me: Beauty as an ethical ideal' which you might find an interesting read OP.
httpss://www.amazon.co.uk/Perfect-Me-Beauty-Ethical-Ideal/dp/0691160074