To ask what cultures you're from and you're attitudes re: body hair?

[BettyCrockerLover]

Hey everyone :)

I know this is a personal question, but I was wondering about beauty/body hair issues and if these attitudes are different within different cultures around the world and if so, how

I am from North Africa but I was raised in a lot of places and I think the only places a woman should have hair are on her head and her eyelashes and eyebrows, anything else seems a bit...unhygienic to me.

What about you all?

[shufflehopstep]

White British with red hair so have very light coloured fine body hair. I shave underarm hair daily, but everything else is as and when I need to. Legs generally only if I'm going to be using fake tan as they're not very hairy.

[RiaOverTheRainbow]

White British, pale skin and dark hair, don't remove any of it. Yet to have children run away screaming.

[attheendoftheday]

I'd urge you to reconsider the idea that female body.hair is unhygienic, it isn't, and it seems like another idea that puts women down. Nobody thinks male body hair is unhygienic.

I'm white british, I shave my pits and lower legs and pluck the odd facial hair.

[WafflyVersatile]

head - leave it
eyebrows - pluck when I remember
other facial pluck or thread as and when
arm pits - shave once or twice a week
treasure trail - had it lasered, it's great
fanjita - nothing if I'm single and not going swiming. bikini line if I'm going swimming and bikini line and occasional trim if I'm getting any.
upper legs - shave the backs if I'm going swimming or getting any.
lower legs - leave in winter unless swimming/getting any. in summer shave a couple of times a week as on show.

white british.

I would have full legs, bikini line armpits and facial hair lasered if I could afford it.

[cory]

Swedish. Do shave lower legs and armpits in summer, though I actually a bit dubious about the armpits: have been struggling with an infected cyst thing for well over a year and can't shift it, despite repeated surgery and multiple antiobiotics: doctor reckons it might be due to shaving.

My understanding is that body hair (especially in the genital area) does actually help hygiene in the sense of preventing dirt from entering your body.

[SuperiorCat]

Real cultural mixed bag - born in UK - pale skin and dark hair, but European Muslim and Asian Christian heritage.

Some family members (particularly those in African countries) do the all off below eye lashes, and given the heat I can understand why they might want to, I'm too lazy so only do the bits that show, when they show. So nothing gets removed apart from tache in the winter; and pits and legs below knee in the summer.

[AHandfulOfDust]

White British, brunette, pale skinned. I don't remove any hair, I find the whole concept utterly bizarre. I see body hair as a secondary sexual characteristic (which it is) & find it very erotic. If I see a woman with full underarm hair I.love it.

I am heterosexual though & think the issue of men removing bodily hair utterly repulsive.

The thought of a shaven scrotum & the motivation behind it makes me feel a bit ill.

[WafflyVersatile]

Do you use anti-perspirant deodorant, cory? A friend of mine used to get cysts until she cut out all perfumed products and anit-p.

[AHandfulOfDust]

Actually, I'm going to be a bit more base about that.

I cannot imagine really dirty, good fucking wholesome sex with a person who is so concerned about where hair is growing in their body.

I reckon shavers are shit lovers.

[BettyCrockerLover]

But Handful oral sex is infinitely more pleasurable when both parties have removed the hair on their privates.

[JazzDalek]

I am white British with dark hair.

Pluck eyebrows
Shave armpits and lower legs in summer
Trim bush

That's it. Shaved down there one time and the regrowth was HELL. Never again.

[Bogeyface]

But Handful oral sex is infinitely more pleasurable when both parties have removed the hair on their privates.

Is it? On what experience do you base that assertion? And they are genitals, not privates, we are not 7!

[BettyCrockerLover]

On my experience, albeit I have only been intimate with my DH.

[olidusUrsus]

I am white British with dark hair. I shave under my arms and my lower legs occasionally. I rarely trim my pubic hair. I rarely pluck my eyebrows or bleach my upper lip. I do no other body hair maintenance. I prefer men with their hair on, too.

[AHandfulOfDust]

I disagree, I love to bury my face in a full man- crotch, have just asked DH, who says 'Fuck that shit, if you meet a woman with a shaved fanny she is probably not secure in her sexuality'.

He adores a full bush, as has every man I've met.

[Jan49]

White British.

I shave underarms and trim bikini area. Have never really had visible hair anywhere else (other than head!) so I've never shaved/waxed my legs or arms and now that I'm 50 +, there's even less. I cant remember being taught anything as a child re shaving or not.

I don't like seeing hairy armpits on men or women. It looks dirty somehow, like you haven't washed. I think I'm more sweaty under my arms if there's hair there. I prefer people not to be too hairy.

[AHandfulOfDust]

I disagree, I love to bury my face in a full man- crotch, have just asked DH, who says 'Fuck that shit, if you meet a woman with a shaved fanny she is probably not secure in her sexuality'.

He adores a full bush, as has every man I've met.

[LittleSporksBigSpork]

I'm Metis but was raised in Bible Belt Protestant America White homeland. My (White) mother was very anti-body hair and would mock me relentlessly if I didn't shave enough for her, I recall being called cactus several times. She was also very big on head hair being coloured and styled fashionable (hates that I've gone natural), pretty much the idea of women needing to look a certain way for men by the forced actions of other women.

I stopped shaving soon after leaving home and let my head hair go natural. Basically, I backlashed so badly against those expectations that I didn't cut my hair for about a decade, only cut it when it got to my thighs and just too much stress even when wearing it up under a cloth cap most of the time. The hairdresser seemed quite amused by it as I lost over half of my hair and still had it to my mid-back DP's very English and doesn't shave, only trims his beard when it starts and curl under, and his head hair is now longer than mine (he looks like a very pale ginger Viking), his mum keeps talking about "when" he's going to cut his hair and beard, even ten years on.

[AHandfulOfDust]

He actually feels uncomfortable about it, there's something de-humanising about it really.

[Bogeyface]

I wonder if the OP is asking this because she is questioning her cultural and marital expectations....

[BettyCrockerLover]

Mary, When I'm giving him oral sex it is better for me if he has removed all his pubic hair and vice versa.

[AHandfulOfDust]

I shaved my head recently to see what it felt like, it was very interesting, I went from long brunette to bald. People's reactions were wildly varied.

It really gave me an interesting perspective on 'femininity' though.