Do you shave your armpits?

[ShavenUnderarmHaven]

Have just done mine for the first time since last summer. I don't care what it looks like, but the humidity where I live has been a killer lately and I will try anything if it makes me feel less sweaty/ makes my antiperspirant work more effectively.

I have not shaved regularly for quite a few years now. In my twenties I pretty much always did though.

What's normal for you?

Is there less pressure on women to shave their underarms now compared to 20 years ago?

My legs, armpits have been kept hair free since around 1980 and my nether regions hair free since from around 1986.

Rarely

Do you think anyone would give a shit about the state of your armpits in a road traffic accident?

I shave my underarms probably 4 times a year. Legs get shaved if I'm going somewhere fancy, otherwise I don't bother. Never in winter because I'm in trousers.

My teenage daughter andd her friends shave all the time. I think the pressure to do so is even more than in my youth.

Yes every other day or so. I just feel cleaner that way!

Not often. I have incredibly thick hair, enough for 3 heads and wild. This is mirrored under my armpits. It’s not easy to deal with, coarse and thick. I’ve learnt to embrace it a bit rather than put my skin through trauma. Shaving leaves a shadow, no air removing cream does anything but make it brittle and wax would be like waxing a carpet

Yes - 2/3 times a week.
Before a holiday, I get them waxed.

@WhateverMate @StarlightLady I think it's probably a localised or cultural trend - the types of girls who wear Lucy and Yak dungarees and heave paperbacks bought from local independent bookshops around my university town seem to be unshaven. But I fully accept that it's still perhaps not the majority of women.

I must say though, it seems (at least in my circles) to be a normal and acceptable choice. When I was 20, to shave or not wasn't even perceived as a fashion choice, it was just the done thing. Asking whether you shave would have been like asking whether you wash your hair or wear a bra. Now, it at least seems to be pretty mainstream. I'd say only half of my friends have shaved armpits.

Nope, rarely if ever shave mines and haven't done for years, same with legs.

I don’t feel under pressure to do it as DP doesn’t care and I’m not worried about what strangers think, but I shave my armpits all year round even though I rarely wear anything that shows them. I don’t think it makes a any difference to hygiene - if sweat doesn’t have armpit hair to cling to it just clings to your clothes instead - but for some reason I find the physical feeling of dragging a deodorant stick over hair really horrible! It’s like fingernails down a blackboard for me. I have a slightly weird sensory aversion to products touching dry hair of any kind.

What if you get hit by a car I'd be mortified

I can promise you that when I was in a car accident, I was not thinking about body hair when they were freeing me from the wreckage; my focus was more on not dying

If you don't shower daily, your armpits will smell stronger.

If you do shower daily, you'll smell of anti-perspirant.

Had fudge all to do with shaving.

Mid-40s now. Definitely felt peer pressure to shave as a teenager. Now I do it because I prefer it. Either ever day or every other day, depending on how rushed I am, all year.

I must admit, I find armpit hair unpleasant-looking on both men and women, so I'd rather not have it shoved in my face all day. It's just not an attractive feature of the human body, imo! But of course I wouldn't say anything to anyone about their hair, as it's none of my business.

Surely shaving cream is the secret? While I don't shave every day I certainly do weekly and have never had irritated skin.

How very arrogant of you to presume you know my mind better than me.

For your information, I grew up in a country where porn didn't exist and where there were no societal expectations for women to shave, quite the opposite in fact.

There, hope that helps with your impressively offensive ego.

Care to enlighten me about any other aspects of my culture?

@onefinemess

Now I'm interested to hear whether the men in your culture also shave with no hair on their body as @AllProperTeaIsTheft asked and what the culture is. Is this a sarcastic response or true?

Always waxed as feel like hair underarms makes more smelly. Discovered home lazer and wish I'd done it years ago

This is the frustrating thing, that people don’t understand this.

You seem to think you know how other people's bodies work better than they do. People you've never even met. That's quite a superpower!

Like many others on this thread, I have noticed that my armpits move to the 'whew, need a shower' stage more quickly when they're hairy. I acknowledge that some on this thread have the opposite experience - just because they're different to me doesn't mean they are wrong.

@seddon

If anyone is honking after less than a day, that's abnormal and isn't to do with armpit hair. And how often you shower plays a role in whether you stink or not a lot more than body hair.

I'm allowed an opinion, thank you, thread police constable. Just the same way the person I replied to is.

If anyone is honking after less than a day, that's abnormal

It's quite not. Everyone has the bacteria there but at different levels. It can be influenced by hormones etc.
For some people, it's no issue, some people have more and more active ones.
Some people shave because they have moe active ones an antiperspirant reaches skin better, hence controlling it better. Some people are fine with hair. Everyone has different ecosystems on and in their bodies.

Let's also not forget others smell you before you can smell yourself.

Going by public transport experience, "honking" after a day is not only not abnormal, but pretty common.

@Tartareistasty - Precisely. I would love to see a notice at major rail stations "No deodorant - No travel".

Every few months. I don’t card about people seeing in Woman Has Completely Normal Hair Shocker, but it does get to a point where the deodorant is less effective.

Needs whole public educational message!
No deodorant-no travel
Wash your clothes properly
Wash yourself properly

Sometimes, but probably not as often as a really high-maintenance person would think I should. I rarely have my armpits on show anyway as I'm too fair-skinned to feel comfortable with a lot of bare skin in summer, and it's very light coloured hair. I do think shaving them makes it easier to keep them clean and smelling nice, but that purpose doesn't require them to be absolutely stubble free at all times.

Every day, same with my legs. Even if I'm not going anywhere I'll shave at least my armpits.