Is the bush back?

• and more here, sorry for multiple posts:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3250022/

It wasn't this one I had in mind, but there seems to be useful info here:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/aug/07/pubic-hair-has-job-stop-shaving

Body hair has several important functions. I had an article on it somewhere ...

No hair removal in this house.

I don’t think my historically miserable sex life had anything to to with the presence or absence of a bush

I can't say I've ever seen waxed pudenda that don't look a bit pimply and sore. If you're doing it for aesthetic reasons, I just don't understand how reddened chicken skin is more attractive than a proper bush.

But of course, this is where the arguments come in about cleanliness, or that it "feels nicer" or even enhances sex. Given that full pube removal wasn't the norm until less than 20 years ago, do people really think that women before then were all dirty and had miserable sex lives?

I think any man who brings up the "I don't want to get a mouthful of pubes" argument for waxing is probably doing oral sex wrong anyway.

I am a bit suspicious of the "cleaner" argument – it's like douching, it may be apparently cleaner but may also remove natural functions that you're better of keeping. But also I don't understand how having pubic hair that's always removed and regrowing can possibly feel nice. And on Naked Attraction, everyone's plucked bits look so manky, sore and ingrown.

If having no hair down there is cleaner why aren't we all bald as well!

In addition, if we all do what we like with our pubic hair and don't give a fuck about what others think, why do we cut our head hair at all?

ChattyLion you are completely right. Your post is spot on.

'TBH I think saying it feels cleaner isn't the same as saying it is cleaner.' I completely agree.

I'll be pleased if young women can fight back against yet another attractiveness diktat.

Me too. Excellently put by Antibles. I think by the time we are older most of us are big and hairy enough to do whatever we like with our body hair and not have to think about it that much. It’s girls, teenagers and young adults without that confidence or that blessed absence of fucks to give that have this hard.

Obviously not only re pubes- but the general stress and cost and time and fuss and comparing and judgement and need for every personal inch of self to be well presented for partner approval or for self-acceptance. It’s always been there to an extent but it feels relentless now. (Thanks porn. Thanks social media and camera phones. Thanks late stage capitalism commodifying and monetising basically every fucking thing..)

I spent a short time recently with a few 11 year old girls and the whole social chat and activity was around taking good pictures of themselves for others (who were not present) and gossiping about who had commented what on pictures they’d posted. It was the normal teenage competitiveness and insecurity and testing things out but many, many, magnitudes greater. There was also this very wierd (to me) sense of not only living in the moment but also constantly performing for some unseen panel of judges.

I felt shit for them and can only hope that there will be increasing numbers of young women getting angry and sick of it all soon - hopefully the upside of social media will be that they will find each other quickly.

Sorry to ramble on in a thread about pubes

If having no hair down there is cleaner why aren't we all bald as well!

TBH I think saying it feels cleaner isn't the same as saying it is cleaner.

Mine never went anywhere.........in fact none of the women in my family shave. Other than trimming the bikini line for stragglers. We are very, dark and hairy tho. If full on bushes ever come back in we'll be well ahead of the trend.

I should also add that I use the Venus sensitive razor with the soap attached which gives the best smoothness with no cuts or ingrown hairs.

My Mum was appalled when it came up in conversation and I said I was completely bald down there! She said for hygiene reasons/infection control you should have hair and I agree to some extent but I've always used femfresh wash down there and I've never had a problem with infections of any kind so each to their own.

I shave everywhere.

I am dark haired and very hairy, legs, armpits, underneath, my arms. I shave armpits every day and have to shave legs/underneath every over day. Arms once a month or so.

I like feeling smooth and I also like to tan so it stops me being patchy or uneven but I think every woman should just do what they feel comfortable with.

DH couldn't care less if I had hairy legs or a bush!

bald as well - on our heads I mean...

If having no hair down there is cleaner why aren't we all bald as well!

littlealexhorne I don't think women only do things because men expect them to. I think we all do a lot of stuff because other people in society expect us to. I wonder what made you think of doing it in the first place, if you are willing to share that, (you honestly do not need to).

I shaved my armpits and legs when younger and I am fairly sure I did that because it was social convention. But it is social convention for women to shave there and men not to, so it does have some elements in a societal 'rule' for one sex. If you see what I mean. Which I must have bought into. Though now, I do wonder why.

Women don't only do it because men expect it. It's just a general trend. I've heard from plenty of women on MN talking about men wanting them to be de-bushed, but also more indirectly, things becainse a "fashion" and women will be influenced by other women to try it, or just because they've heard of it.

You probably wouldn't have been doing it 300 years ago because it "just felt cleaner" or whatever. Why not? Because it wouldn't have been a thing and wouldn't have occurred to you.

It bothers me that its always assumed that women, like myself, only shave because of 'pressure' or 'society'. I shave regularly even though nobody is going to be seeing it, because I feel cleaner and more comfortable that way. To me, the idea that women only do so because men expect it feeds into the belief that women can't make a decision for themselves.

I'm sure I read somewhere (probably on here!) that the female elite cyclists were advised to keep their bushes due to unfortunate chafing otherwise.

Mine never went anywhere. I did try years ago as I felt the pressure but ended up with ingrown hairs etc and as I’ve been with dh for years, and he doesn’t seem bothered, I’ve just kept to a trim with scissors every now and then.
It just another reason I’m glad I’m not single.

I think social conventions around grooming are inevitable. But why have one that has such a poor result? I don't think being clean shaven would be so popular for men if most ended up with rashy faces that inch like crazy and end up with ingrown hairs. I don't think that's particularly a sexist thing, btw, more that because faces are right in front of us all the time, we can see if they look irritated. Whereas people don't have to look at their own, or others, nether regions most of the time. (I am aware of course that there are men who have to shave and it gives them trouble, but I think it's less common than trouble with removing pubes.)

My bush never went away either. I realise older women don't count though.

I'll be pleased if young women can fight back against yet another attractiveness diktat.

I must have seen about fifteen thousand naked women on operating tables and in labour suites during my NHS career. I could never understand why so many of them removed their pubic hair - they always had spots, in grown hairs, etc and looked like the parson’s nose on a plucked chicken! I suppose opinions vary, but I think clean glossy hair is far more attractive, and normal for adult humans.

I am very hirsute but have been going swimming without any grooming whatsoever. Hairy legs and pubes. No one looks. If they do and they don’t like what they see then that’s a pity.

It’s taken years to accept my body. It’s not easy and I still feel ashamed but not enough to spend time faffing around with razors or wax.