In being surprised that apparently 98% of UK women under 25 have no pubic hair at all?

[Longstocking2]

Is that true?

A friend who is a practice nurse says she presumes it's just a fashion. None of her women under 25 who come for smear tests have any pubic hair.. all shaved, shorn, waxed to nada.

Obviously that's fine but it seems a little universal to me. Aren't there any rebels out there?
Is it just for the boys they do it?

Does the image not come from porn originally?

{shock]

would love to be enlightened!
Clearly I'm over 25

I am 26 but I have pubic hair. My best friend is 18 so does she and so does every girl I have ever seen down there, which are all my friends aged mainly between 18 - 23.

I can honestly say that I've never seen any of my friends naked, so have no idea if they're shaved or not. I am an old fogey, however. In what circumstances do you see your friends naked, snowflake? Gym? Swimming?

it surprises me

doesn't it get itchy when it grows back?

don't you get stubble?

you'd get a kind of hedgehog effect through your pants wouldn't you?

I mean each to their own but I never realised it was a proper trend in pubes so to speak

Haven't you got to leave it to get quite long before you get it waxed off?

What's more odd is the presumption that all men and most women watch porn.

Purely in the interests of research, spurred on by MN, I did view some recently. However, when I told DH that I had, and that everyone was hair free he was amazed.

He is far from past it, but just never watches porn.

But from reading MN, I am beginning to think he is the only man in the UK not to.

I don't assume that all men and most women watch porn. Most women I know don't and most men dont(much) either.

I do think watching it has become a lot more generally acceptable in society though.

And because of that, fashions from porn seep into (especially young) society.

If you think about it, sex is one area where a lot of people feel a little insecure and are maybe easily influenced by "the professionals"

Hmm.
Not sure I think they are professionals! other than they are being paid for it!

I consider myself fairly switched on yet did not know about this shaving lark until quite recently- and certainly not in connection with porn.

I was sent this link by a US friend - about "virgin waxes" - waxing little girls in hopes they'll never grow any pubic hair. And by "little girls" they mean 8.

really - and

Where is the weeping in despair emoticon?

'In what circumstances do you see your friends naked, snowflake? Gym? Swimming?'

Erm usually in the toilets on a night out, getting changed all sorts really lol. I had my friends looking at my bits after I gave birth cause and I had to go back to have stitches. I was drunk and just wanted second opinions! Maybe I have strange relationships with friends.....

slhilly Wed 05-Jan-11 22:41:49

What I said about Middle Easter/N African countries isn't from research, I was raised in North Africa and that was just the done thing, and I was told by my mother it was hygiene, although the wax in this country is less painful than the sugar back home

But to be honest when you're living pretty much in the Sahara desert, and running water isn't always available, most women are hair free EVERYWHERE, probably to keep cool...which I guess is unneccessary in the West.

This is why African (Kenya etc) women don't really grow a lot of hair, it's to keep them cool...hence afro hair can bead sweat as oppose to soak their scalps.

Not too sure why Northern African women are made differently when the heat is the same!

It isn't uncommon for a Moroccan woman to have Henna patterns down below for her wedding night...so that's obviously down to sexualisation...but that has been going on since the beginning of time (or Henna)...!

And I quote from the Koran above about the requirement to wax. It's a bit like Jews and Arabas and pork - in the desert it goes off so it's wife to avoid it, hence the custom. Same with this absence of hair stuff.

Well I'm not under 25 but not that much over and I don't take it all off, but have tried it. I think it not only makes me look like a pre-pubescent girl but also makes me look a bit fat in that area and quite frankly I can do without ADDING to the areas of my body I need to feel self concious about weightwise!

I still don't buy the hygiene or neatness argument. Surely you have to wait for the hair to grow a certain length before you can pull it all out again, so you must look a right state for those few weeks - I'm thinking clammy football hooligan as opposed to soft natural tresses. Ik. Or is it even more regular than every few weeks? What a waste of your life. My 'me' time involves a good book and some chocs, not a perma-tanned orange stranger advancing on my nethers with scalding hot gloop.
Oh and to the poster who asked if I never cut my hair or nails after I called waxing a grooming Forth Bridge, well I cut my nails nice and short with clippers when I'm cutting my son's. I don't wear polish ever, and I have my hair cut nice and short so it styles itself while I sleep and I don't have to wash it so often. I realise this makes me sound like a woman of 'sensible shoes' but m'eh I guess I find this high maintenance grooming a symptom of vanity and frankly of someone with too much time on their hands, or on their bald highly polished minge.

What's wrong with vanity? Or, as I would look at it, taking care of oneself? Why not make the very best of what you have and celebrate your body.

I've not been able to read every post but it's a huge topic, clearly. Northernrock - I agree with you entirely and the whole porn issue concerns me greatly ever since I became a Mum to 3 girls.

Anyway, on a funnier note, an ex-boyfriend once took a razor to my LG (a shriek emoticon would be appropriate here) and in a moment of erotic madness, I allowed him to shave me. 15 years on, said hair has of course grown back in droves......apart from an inch thick landing strip down the middle. So now, my mini is forever bald down the centre with what looks like pig tails at the sides.

I'm kind of with Sarah on this- I have been posting but recently name changed due to technical difficulties!

If, as you say, you don't "buy this hygiene reasoning", then don't. Grow wild! Just don't presume you know the whys and wherefores why some women choose to do it.

Realistically why does it matter to those who don't?

i prefer to be without hair in my pubic region.

DP would far rather i grew a little bit of topiary but i dont. so i take it all off.

can#t see why that is anyone's business but my own or why anyone would feel shocked or saddened that i like it that way.

and as for the porn thing.most of the porno films i have seen have shown full on 70's afros on the nether regions so im certainly not being influenced by that.

i attempted to trim edges when i was younger and it was fiddly and too much like hard work, so i just whipped it all off. i prefered it that way.

it felt cleaner.

I can't remember who it was on the thread that said that none of the depilated folk were making any personal comments about people's choice to not depilate, yet the same courtesy doesn't seem to be afforded the other way around. Shame really, because whoever it was had a point.

There really is little point feeling self-righteous because you choose to do/not do something to your body which others don't/do. I just don't see why people care so much about other people's nether regions - don't worry so much as whatever another person chooses to do with their pubic hair, it's really not a reflection on you Unless of course the other person starts making derogatory comments directed at your personal pubic region ...

@ WelshSara

Just to lighten to tone- about 4 years ago in Florida, my mother tried using hair removing cream on her bikini line...she was about a size 18 then (has since had a gastric band)...anyway, when she bent down to pick something up, the cream, shall we say, spread....she shouted me to come in and she was half balded. At 50. That was hilarious and she was absolutely mortified that she looked like "a child".

I tried not to think about her reaction when I was giving birth at home, and she was there...!!

*the tone even.

Libero - I am the least depilated woman you could hope to meet. I do no hair removal at all. I have hairy legs, hairy armpits, the works. And yet when I posted further up the thread, I passed no judgement on those of you that depilate. Contrary to your post, I find judgement being passed on me. The same courtesy is not being extended to me.

For example, people have been saying that is more hygienic, cleaner, sanitary, and one poster said "What's wrong with taking care of oneself? Why not make the very best of what you have and celebrate your body" The implication is clear. Us hairy folk do not take care of ourselves or make the best of our bodies. Is that not judgemental? Perhaps ypou have not seen the derogatory comments directed at those who do not choose to depilate because it suits you. I do not see the universal courtesy you talk about.