I’ve grown all my pubic hair back and I love it!

[BuffaloCauliflower]

Sorry I know this is a weird post, but I’m 31 and have a full bush for the first time since I was 14, and I need to talk about it.
I started shaving pretty much as soon as I had hair, I was sexually active at 14, and despite a lot of professed feminism I had clearly internalised something about a need to remove my public hair. I’ve been bare or maybe the odd strip ever since 14.

A couple of weeks ago I somehow flicked the telly over onto Naked Attraction (what the hell is that show?!) and noticed a whole line up of totally pubicly bald women, and had such a strong reaction. We’re adult women! We’re meant to have hair! What was I doing? So I’ve left it all to grow back and honestly it feels so good. It’s all soft and nice and I feel weirdly sexy, how did I never realise before?

All women should absolutely do what they want with their own bodies and their own hair, I’ve argued long and hard for why I shaved, so please don’t take this as a judgement, but as an adult woman with my natural hair for the first time ever, I’m feeling so liberated and just wanted to share!

I’m just wondering how having pubic hair is unhygienic? Surely if you wash properly there shouldn’t be a problem? Are the people who remove their pubic hair bald too?

I'm gonna go totally opposite to pp but 4 days after having my dad I couldn't wait to get rid of the built up hair 🙈 I bloody hated having a bush and would never go back! Made me feel grubby 🤮

Dd not dad!

@Catsinthecupboard erm no it's not just for one reason...I didn't shave because of sex, I shaved because I hated the bush. Ok?!

But pubic hair removal was practiced in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, it is nothing new.

It’s weird that so many people think we are all porn influenced in mainstream life. Maybe the mainstream influences the porn industry, rather than the other way round? Who knows? I do not remove my hair because of porn.

Neither do I remove it for any man. Being in my 40s and having had a fair number of bed friends, I have had people ask me to grow my hair out and politely refuse.

I assume everyone who argues that the hair should be there because it’s natural, has hairy armpits, which, incidently smell more.

A couple of other points.

Hygiene: There are arguments for and against, it’s not clear cut either way, but if when you have a wee some of your hair gets wet, then that at least should be removed. Stale urine and stale sweat on hair smells.

Itching: For most skin types, itching will not occur with frequent and regular hair removal. The body adjusts.

Oral sex: Just lay back and feel the difference.

But what does it matter, if you mert me in the street that I choose to remove my pubic hair? Nobody is being kidnapped and forced to remove it against their will.

@ QuimReaper Sat 15-Jun-19 16:01:07

"Marianne why did they shave your pubic hair to take out your appendix?!"

I have absolutely no idea: the nurse just showed up with the razor and announced that she was going to do it. I wasn't in any kind of state to argue about it.

But the itchiness during the regrowth definitely put me off ever doing it to myself!

Starlight, nobody removes their pubic hair because they were inspired by ancient Greece.

Lots of women depilate against their will, or with gritted teeth, because they know how astonishing men find it these days. Men find it astonishing because of porn.

I used a Phillips Lumea on mine and now never need to shave my undercarriage or bikini line, all zapped off. Bliss as it was all going very grey.

Does this do it permanently eventually or is there routine maintenance? I get waxed routinely which is ok but would cut my beauty appointments down if could cut this out?

Just shows how everyone is different and great we can all choose. I have waxed now for ages and don't get any itching or anything. I was neutral about it at first but husband has always loved me being bare and over time I've got to prefer it like that

@mathanxiety I did not say anybody did it because of ancient Greece, l merely pointed out that it is not some new fad be ause of porn.

Plenty of modern women can think and choose for themselves.

I have (female) friends who remove their body hair and friends who don’t. I know some men who remove their pubic hair. It’s no big deal either way.

So, what about men who shave their faces, what inspires that?

I've never in my life shaved any hair on my body, including legs and underarms.
But this is because i'm a lazy cow.
I'm a believer in people doing what they are comfortable with though.
Some prefer it, some don't. Personal choice.

Question. 3 months postpartum and my head hair is starting to shed again and looks less full. That's expected.
But does it happen to pubic hair too? The whole area seems very sparse.

Of course it's a new fad because if porn. Barely anyone who was a teen twenty-five years ago shaved it all off. Now the vast majority do. Yes, there may have been people who did it at various times during history, but the trend for it to be "normal" has started because of the wide accessibility to porn online. Women might not think they individually choose it because of that, but that's where the trend came from.

There's something really distasteful about the hectoring posters who are criticising every woman who removes their pubic hair. They keep referring to porn as if it's some kind of 'done deal' reference. It isn't. Some of us do not watch porn, have no interest in it and find it just a bit ick.

Why are YOU watching it if it's such a dreadful thing?

Women on this thread, with their lived experience of discomfort with pubic hair, have been mocked and ridiculed. I don't care whether any woman has hair or not, not my business... and here's a newsflash - not yours either.

I get that feminism doesn't mean supporting women in their choices. Got that. Loud and clear. Nothing gives you the right to dictate to other women what they can or can't do with their own bodies and it's only by dint that it's other women doing the insulting that it's even tolerated. It shouldn't be.

Don't want to support women in their choices? Absolutely fine. They still have those choices and there's nothing that you can do about that.

I agree Dippy . Of course there will be women who say they shaved theirs 40 years ago but it has not been mainstream in my lifetime until online porn was accessible so easily.It makes me really cross as I have 2 teen DDs and they feel their hair would be a turn off to future partners. It's a tough job to persuade them otherwise.

Lying I'm all for women's choice and freedom to shave their pubes but it doesn't happen in a vacuum. Choices are influenced.

Choices are influenced

I’m in the genuine - and rare - position of having not made the decision.

So my judgement of hair vs hair-free is without prejudice.

There are of course women whose hair has shed, those that remove it for other reasons but the masses for whom it has become the expected norm are influenced by men's expectations from porn. I know that there are many men out there who do not watch porn and I am sensitive to this because I have teen DDs that will meet boys who have seen porn as their first sexual education.

Yes, redspider, I acknowledged that earlier. Car buying is a useful example. Nothing happens in a vacuum (doesn't everybody know that?), not just hair removal which is absolutely pounced on.

I'm not keeping one eye on the porn industry or any eye, I have other things that I want to focus on and as far as bringing up my own children, they're being taught to think about the choices they make and not be swayed by 'borg-thinking'.

I see some disparity in the concern that hair might be a turn-off to future partners in concert with the celebration of pubic hair as seen on this thread. Women who remove their hair don't crow about it, celebrate it or, more importantly - lecture other women who choose not to do it.

These threads all go the same tired route and women's choices are paid lip-service. We'd be outraged if men were dictating to us like this.

I can only comment on what I hear from my DDs. Other girls even make sick noises at the thought of girls not removing their pubic hair. That makes me angry as the message drips through. So yes, pro pubic hair comments need to be louder!

I don't lecture anyone on their choice to remove their hair. I never talk about it apart from on these threads and when dealing with a tearful, ashamed DD.

So yes, pro pubic hair comments need to be louder!

It depends how they’re said though.

Look at this thread?!

“Pre-pubescent”
“Ugly”

Etc etc. We need to find a way of promoting doing what you bloody want with your pubic hair without criticising or implying criticism on those that make a different choice.

I was a teen 20+ years ago. Yes I removed my hair then as did my sister. Generally women’s vulvas were not in the public eye as they are today, so grooming habits were more of a mystery.

I have lesbian friends who remove their hair, so it is not all male driven.

Of course, we are all influenced by things and fashion. I challenge any woman on here to say she has not been influenced by others with regard to what is in her wardrobe, her makeup, if she chooses to wear it etc.

Finally @LyingWitchInTheWardrobe , l love you more and more every time you post. The voice of pragmatic reason .

I haven't made any of those comments lying . I don't care if a woman chooses to remove he hair for her own reasons. I do care when vulnerable girls are being made to feel ashamed of their natural state and that they are in some way dirty.

Choices are influenced

Exactly. It's a growing trend. I think at least some people including men feel obliged to remove hair or be seen as unkempt.

redspider, I know you didn't, my comments were about the whole thread - actually this one and the countless others.

I understand exactly what you mean about the 'sick noises'. Those stem from spite, insecurity and immaturity. Your daughters' partners will presumably, hopefully view your daughters with a different gaze. If hair/no-hair is such a line-in-the-sand then those conversations should happen pre-sex. Actually, lots of conversations ought to be happening beforehand; that's what I'm teaching my own children.

This thing that we're doing, this back-and-forth volleying, isn't changing anything, is it? We're not doing anything other than wearing some sort of daft 'badge' of 'hairy' or 'bald', showing where our position is. All very tribal but oh so impotent. Imagine what we could do if we, as an enormous target group, stood together and said, "Actually, we're not going to play this game anymore, we will have our hair the way we want it and, if you don't like it, too bad". We could use that same tactic for, oh I don't know, being or feeling pressure to have babies without safeguards in place. We could use that same pressure to lobby that men must pay the true costs of maintenance for any and all children that they create, no argument - legislated and regulated. You can bet your life that men would do this if women had the upper-hand as men do.

I'll wager that they wouldn't be doing this. This all-too-frequent navel-gazing (hairy or not), that's divisive and sets women against women. What's the point? Perhaps there is some kind of 'end-game' that I'm not aware of?

Why are we wasting time on hair when we have no mandate for ascribing whether it's removed or not? Futile and maddening.