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?

[JollyHolidayGiant]

I'm Scottish.

I shave my armpits once or twice a week. My legs are done about twice every six months. I trim my pubes usually with a scissors but occasionally use a razor. When I'm pregnant I can't see down there and find it safer to shave than to cut!

[BelaLugosisShed]

I'm dark haired and pale skinned, quite hairy, I sometimes shave my armpits and occasionally legs, I went swimming on Tuesday with fully hairy pits and legs, nobody ran from the pool screaming, I have no idea if the other women had hairy extremities, it wouldn't even occur to me to notice
People with zero pubic hair must be incredibly wet and sweaty in this weather too.
I can't imagine anything less attractive than a man with no body hair at all tbh.
Pubic hair also serves a very important purpose, i.e. protection of a mucous membrane, removing it seems like ripping out your eyelashes to me, pointless and potentially damaging.

[cory]

WafflyVersatile Thu 18-Jul-13 00:25:58
"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."

Thanks, I'll take that on board.

[scarletforya]

I'm white, Irish, over 40 and I shave everything.

[sleeplessbunny]

White british, very pale and red hair
Shave armpits and legs if on show
Otherwise CBA
Shaved my bikini line once and got so many ingrown hairs it was awful. Never again.
Wish I had the guts to just not bother at all really.

[freddiefrog]

White British

Shave legs and armpits, trim my bush so that it's short and not hanging out of pants, etc and have my eyebrows threaded

[thebody]

white British and no body hair here

[cannotfuckingbelievethis]

White, Scottish. Pluck eyebrows, shave armpits and legs. My lady garden alternates between a mad, crazy bush and a thin landing strip depending on how I feel. Mostly shaved at the moment. OH prefers oral sex this way and so do I probably, feels more sensitive somehow.

I have very short hair and (when I used to have money to go out) men would sometimes comment that I would look better if I had it long. They'll usually always have something to say about body weight, hair, clothes etc. But I wear what I like and have the hair on my head (and my ) how I like.

[TheCatIsUpTheDuff]

White British, pale skin and thick, dark hair. Shave legs every day because they itch if I don't, presumably regrowth. Armpits less often, if I'm wearing a sleeveless top or otherwise every 2/3 days if not on show, because they get sore from too much shaving. Bikini line I trim with razor and scissors, but don't take it all off; tried it once and didn't like the way it looked. Pluck eyebrows and wax moustache when they need doing.

I'd look better and feel more confident if I could get rid of all except head, eyebrows/eyelashes and trimmed pubes. I shaved my arms as a teenager but realised that it looked silly because there was a line where my arms met my body and I couldn't sensibly shave all over, so I stopped.

I've had less hairy legs and moustache since being pregnant and more single dark hairs on my chin, but no difference anywhere else.

[WorraLiberty]

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'.

What a strange, sweeping generalisation to make over a bit of personal hair.

[SilverOldie]

Old, white, English with pale skin and fair/grey hair. Never shaved my legs may trim my bush and pits very occasionally.

Why anyone wants to look prepubescent I don't know.

[OnIlkelyMoorBahtat]

I'm half North African, born & brought up in the UK, visit my North African rellies often. I know when my aunts got married, they did the traditional thing of sugaring off all body hair except what was on their head, their eyebrows & their eyelashes. (and in fact my nan did it for them, as their tradition is that this is the mother's role when their daughters get married). Don't know if they keep to that before or after.
I shave my pits every day, legs to the knee every other day in the summer (but can go for months without shaving them in the winter!), shave the bikini line and trim the rest as and when I can be bothered. I shower every day & don't consider hair to be "unhygenic".

[Whothefuckfarted]

I shave my armpits, legs (all the way up) big toes and line from my belly button to my ladygarden and usually make my lady garden a lot smaller and do all round my flaps etc and in between my butt cheeks too.

I do this because I feel it's ladylike to be as hairless as possible. It's a pressure from society and it's expectations. Does my head in.

I'm white British with dark hair.

For the record it's NOT unhygienic to grow hair anywhere! Saying that is really ignorant. Idiot.

[DonDrapersAltrEgoBigglesDraper]

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

How can you even say this, OP?

Given your abhorrence of body hair, I can't imagine you've ever even had oral sex with a full or partial bush. So what exactly are you basing your comparison on?

How can you say it is 'infinitely' better?

I mean, it's just not. It's not 'infinitely' better. That is hyperbole in the extreme. And to say that it is sounds like you're trying to convince yourself of something.

Besides... Exactly how hirsute are you?! Are you telling us you grow hair on your clitoris?! Or is your DH a bit, um, confused about exactly what he's meant to be doing down there?!

I am Antipodean and keep things neat down there. When I can be bothered. Other than that, I pluck my brown, shave under my arms and my legs. I am not particularly hairy, so it's not a big thing for me.

[ThreesyDoesIt]

White British here too.

I shave legs, under arms, arms, all bikini area, eye brows threaded.

Dh shaves underarms, chest, and pubic area too

I really cant stand hair on bodies male or female. Yuk!!

[Whothefuckfarted]

I think men who shave everything off downstairs do it because it makes them look BIGGER

[gordyslovesheep]

totally agree with dondrapers post

I also don't see hair as unhygienic - it's part of our physiological make up and serves a purpose

I am UK born and I have very dark hair - I shave my legs and underarms and I trim my bikini line - My arms are hairy but so what.

I suspect I have more experience of oral sex and have never found pubic hair a problem - is it your DH how has told you it is?

[WallaceWindsock]

Threads like this often come up on here and I think fail to take into account age. I am early twenties. I have grown up with it being seen as the norm to take off as much body hair as possible. I can remember on the school bus when I was in year nine - all th younger ones sat upstairs and downstairs was where all the popular kids sat. One day one of those popular boys came upstairs. Looking back I think it was probably a way to intimidate us younger ones. Anyway he was loudly talking to a friend who was sat on the stairs of the bus about a "gash" he'd "fucked". He was talking about how disgusting it was when he went down there and she had a "massive fuck off bush". I can remember filing that away as something that was so disgusting that boys would talk about it on the bus.

In PE changing rooms the other girls massively took the piss if you had unshaven legs, any pubes visible, or granny pants on. They used to bring veet and wax in with them to lend to each other to remove pubes. I do remember though that the very popular, fake tan, smoking, thong wearing girls could get away with announcing they hadn't bothered to shave their legs so were wearing trackies. If I'd said the same I'd have been ripped to shreds.

Going through school amongst this, and it was everyone and not just a small group, I of course shaved. I could tell you the names of the tiny handful of girls in my year who didn't shave their pubes. Most of us wore lacy semi see through knickers on PE day to prove that we weren't "frigid" and that we shaved so it was genuinely known who didn't shave and it was literally a tiny handful. I'm still friends with one of those friends and she is still referred to as "bush girl". Jokes were made about her having to plait it, having to scrape period blood off it , about her fanny being full of dust and cobwebs because who'd want to have sex with that?

I didn't make these jokes obv, I was her friend but its what it was like. I stopped shaving for several short periods over the five years I've been with DP. He doesn't mind the difference although says he does find it harder to see what he's doing when I haven't shaved as he's obv used to it all off. I do feel more comfortable shaving it though. Yes I do notice the area is more sensitive when shaved but I know that I just feel deepy uncomfortable with a lot of hair there and yes that is certainly due to my experience through school. I'm not prepared to force myself to feel uncomfortable however to challenge that attitude. If that makes me weak then fair enough.

Sorry this is so long. It's a perspective that we never get on these threads. It's always those of us that do shave being accused of trying to be prepubescent girls, or having partners who are porn users. Actually DP and I have only ever been with each other and only very recently did we even venture into oral sex and experimenting a bit. My decision to shave is based entirely on my memory of doing whatever I could to avoid becoming the target of widespread bullying throughout secondary school.

[shewhowines]

I've got better things to do with my time so don't do more than the basics- armpits and below knee in summer. Brows all year round.

How do people actually manage to do their lady gardens anyway? How do you get the hairs underneath? Wouldn't you have to do it everyday? I must admit that is one of lifes mysterys that I've never managed to find the answer to.

[shewhowines]

wallace thats sad

Yet more pressure that kids don't need today.

[digerd]

I remember , some years ago, reading about the some women who cut the hair off round the clitoris so it was easy to find and the man didn't get hair on his tongue. The bush always covers it.

I never had hairs on my legs so did not have to shave them, also just a little under arms, which I shave when showing armpits.

I am older now and inherited my DM's ageing 'bald as a coot' pubes. Have just a bit right down below

I also am unsure why giving a man oral sex means your lips touch his hairy pubes? Mine were not anywhere near?

[DonDrapersAltrEgoBigglesDraper]

Wallace, thanks for your post. It's a pretty depressing state of affairs, isn't it?

In fairness, a huge amount of the pressure to de-hair does come from other women.

I am 39 and I also remember the massive amounts of pressure and teasing at high school. Even pre-high school. Not re pubic hair, but definitely with regards to legs and underarms.

I started shaving my legs at 11 through peer pressure. 11...! It is crazy. 11 is still a child.

And so in the years since I was that age, it's only gotten worse and worse. :(

I remember someone posting on one of these threads to say that her midwife friend laughed at women with bushes. Horrible, undermining, insidious stuff.