Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

849 replies

Longstocking2 · 04/01/2011 23:52

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

OP posts:
Serendippy · 05/01/2011 10:50

ASecretLemonadeDrinker I do think it's comparable. The last time a man had a naturally hair free face was when he was a child, yet we don't think that by shaving he is recreating this. It has just become the norm, that is why we don't think it is weird. In 100 years people will look back at us and think, 'Why oh why did they let themselves grow so wild ?'

Disclaimer: Left to my own devices I would have little sprouty hairs on my chin and a moustache. I deal with these things. I don't think it is 'weird' to want to deal with my pubes in the same way.

rubyrubyruby · 05/01/2011 10:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TheFeministParent · 05/01/2011 10:53

bamboobutton Wed 05-Jan-11 10:08:34
i find it pretty insulting saying that some women are weak willed enough to be influenced by porn.

like i said in my last post i was 18 when i started. i never saw porn on telly or in magazines and the internet was hardly used back then. i never read fashion or celeb mags, i was more likely to read the broadsheets and kerrang.

but being out of the house at college all day it was horrible having blood drying and crusting up my pubes. washing over the sinks in the ladies was not an option. it was much easier to have it smooth and wipe clean with wet wipes.

never had any probs with ingrown hairs either.

On a bad hair day do you shave your head?

expatinscotland · 05/01/2011 10:54

I'm 40 and have waxed all but a strip since I was about 14.

Grew up in a very hot, humid climate and did ballet + have a lot of dark body hair.

Just didn't like being sweaty and smelly so have waxed/been waxed for years.

Started shaving legs age 9 and waxing age 11.

I was having Brazilians back when you had to find a salon with real Brazilians to get one.

Now I'm not nearly so hairy, probably because the hair follicles have been destroyed over the years.

I don't like the feeling of hair underneath.

I do find a lot of women who are really anti-depilation are not people with fair skin and lots of very dark body hair.

TheFeministParent · 05/01/2011 10:55

Serendippy Wed 05-Jan-11 10:39:24

I just had to reply to this, shaving ones lega and armpits is because they are visible.

SnowyGonzalez · 05/01/2011 10:55

SecretLemonade, I agree re shaving one's beard. As many cultures where a hairy face is the norm - they tease shaven men, saying they look like boys.

tyler80 · 05/01/2011 10:56

I'm sure the internet and availability of porn has something to do with it. I'm 30 so only 5 years over 25 but it certainly wasn't the norm to have anything more than a bikini wax for the majority. There was never any expectation of baldness or surprise at hairiness from partners. The only big difference i can think of was the internet was just emerging when I was 18, 5 years later it was much more mainstream so definitely a correlation.

gordyslovesheep · 05/01/2011 10:57

I use Nair to keep mine 'in line' - I can't imagine shaving - and catching my lips !!!

Now I have a few grey pubes maybe I should reconsider - but if I did whip it all off I would have to buy a mirkin - I would get cold

itshappenedagain · 05/01/2011 10:57

im 27 (so just over your age bracket). since about 15 i have had it all waxed off, no idea why i do it. its painful and expensive...especially when pregnant, but feel ungroomed if i dont. although on occasion have had little jewels put in place of the hair ( its called a las vagas)
i do think that the porn industry has a lot to answer for as, but seemed to coinside more with internet becoming more popular ( porn for all!)
also in the baby swimming class we attend everyone seems to be the same, no spider legs in our pool! Grin and the mums vary in age from youngest of about 17 to olderst of late 40's.
i take my friend daughter with me now (at friends request) as she has legs waxed too, her mum doesnt shave and never has so she doesnt see the point in wasting time going with her.
i also have a daughter and wonder what will happen when she gets older (she is 7 months) but have plenty of time to worry about that when she hits puberty!

Serendippy · 05/01/2011 10:58

TheFeministParent which just shows that you are doing it for other people. I wear trousers all year round, not very girly, so my legs and armpits are hardly ever on display. As I said in my previous post, I do them because I like how they feel.

theevildead2 · 05/01/2011 10:59

I would say that that in itself doesn't negate its value. But, as someone else said here, I don't find that enough of a reason to shave it all off

See that's fair enough. YOU don't feel that way, no one thinks you should have to, like I said earlier I don't unless I am going for an exam just because I suspect it makes things easier and want it done and over as quickly as possible.

I just feel bad that women tell other women that they are stupid because they do and especially in the name of feminism!

SnowyGonzalez · 05/01/2011 11:00

I do find it slightly hilarious when people try to assert that they're not remotely influenced by mainstream culture!

TheFeministParent · 05/01/2011 11:01

Of course people have been conditioned to think it's all normal and 'feminine' to be shaven. But this, in a more enlightened ageHmm, shaven pubic hair is new and definitely due to Porn fashion.....which is pretty vile. I think objectification of women is more hideous today than ever before, because today we know how wrong it is yet the pendulum still swings toward women as tits, arse and girl like bits.

gordyslovesheep · 05/01/2011 11:02

I just think some women are in denial as to the real reason they do it - and I still have an issue with grown women aspiring to look like pre pubescent girls

JenaiMarrHePlaysGuitar · 05/01/2011 11:02

Men don't look childish by shaving their faces though - even straight after a shave their faces are coarser than those of pre-pubescent boys so they still look like men.

Bare pudenda do look childish however. And seeing as women are apparently having cosmetic surgery to trim their labia, the "ideal" seems to be moving further and further away from what is normal for an adult woman.

everythingchangeseverything · 05/01/2011 11:04

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Lancelottie · 05/01/2011 11:04

Errrmmm

Suspect may be about to out myself as 'oddest fanjo on MN', but HOW do you shave it all off, those who do? Mine grows on the inner surface of the outer labia. Somehow, I'm getting the impression that the wilder razor-wielders don't have this issue?

gordyslovesheep · 05/01/2011 11:04

exactly Jenai - women seem to be aspiring to be 'perfect' body wise - but perfect as defined by PORN - shaven, pink and perfectly even

asshole bleeching, labial surgery, massive boob jobs - all of this comes from PORN!

BertieBottlesOfMulledWine · 05/01/2011 11:04

I'm 22 and don't do anything to mine. Found in the past that a LOT of blokes of my generation tend to expect it to be shaved - most tend to assume you will and are surprised if not, some go on about hair being disgusting, saying they wouldn't go near anything that's not a "shaven haven" (yuck) have had some exes refuse to do oral sex etc if not shaved, but the decent ones don't care either way, as long as it's clean! :)

I think it does come from porn. I always used to hate having hair when on my period but since using a mooncup it's not an issue at all. It's there for a reason!

expatinscotland · 05/01/2011 11:05

'SecretLemonade, I agree re shaving one's beard. As many cultures where a hairy face is the norm - they tease shaven men, saying they look like boys.'

And in some cultures, facial hair on men is not seen as something that's good.

People have used depilatories for centuries now. Ancient Egyptians even had tweezers.

It's nothing new.

Serendippy · 05/01/2011 11:06

gordy I am going to say this one last time. Shaving your legs is looking like a pre-pubescent girl, in that the last time you had naturally hair free legs you were pre-pubescent. Therefore any grown woman who shaves her legs is aspiring to this. You just don't see it like that because it has become so normal, even expected to shave legs. Point made, Serendippy buggering off because nobody can accept that shaving any part of your body is aspiring to be pre-pubescent, whether it is socailly acceptable or not. Aaaargh!

expatinscotland · 05/01/2011 11:07

I never used sanitary towels/pads until I had a baby in my 30s, so hair and periods not an issue.

Just hot, sweaty, showed through my leotard as was so much of it.

SnowyGonzalez · 05/01/2011 11:07

Evildead, I'm not sure that anyone's actually called anyone stupid, have they? Instead lots of posters have said women are being influenced by the pornification of our culture. Then some people's egos found that too much to bear and so misinterpreted it to mean "stupid".

We are all influenced by culture. Some of us just admit it more readily than others.

theevildead2 · 05/01/2011 11:08

Lancelottie thats normal

FestiveOrganisoid · 05/01/2011 11:10

I tried taking it all off a couple of times. It looked disgusting! I don't think I have a pretty fanny Blush I do trim and wax/shave the sides though.