To consider getting a Brazilian wax

[GalGadont]

Never had one before as it seemed like a lot of trouble and wasn’t something I particularly felt the need for, I usually just shave and trim. Previous bfs have seemed to be fine with that (and of course I believe it’s up to me what I want to do anyway).

For some reason, no idea why, I’ve been recently feeling it’s something I might like to do. Not currently in a relationship so it’s not because of that, I just fancy being hair-free. Am I insane? Will it be expensive and incredibly painful? What are people’s experiences?

I'm mid 60s and have had complete waxing for about 20 years. The good thing is there's very little to remove now!

Indeed.

I've been on the Hollywood train for 18 years now (36). Big fan - I suffer from really bad ingrowns if I rock a bush. I also find it much more comfortable as I have PCOS with very heavy bleeding. Having hair makes being clean during my period almost impossible other than getting in the shower multiple times a day.

Erm, because we want to.

I got sick of waxing as I didn’t like the regrowth so I got laser. Best thing. I feel cleaner and I love it. I know there’s lots of “evidence” that says having pubic hair is supposedly cleaner, but I feel cleaner without it. Period blood and sweat in my pubes at the end of a day was not doing it for me. Each to their own, but I made the choice for myself to suit my preferences, porn nor men had any influence whatsoever. Actually, I’ve been watching some porn lately (honestly for study purposes), it seems hair is making a comeback? Lots of the women have hair.

Not if you go regularly to a decent salon it's not.
First couple of times maybe but after that it shouldn't really hurt

During covid I actually learned to do my own (you can buy the hot wax on Amazon). Best life skill ever 😀

I didn't even know what porn was when I started hair removal down below as a teenager. Have less or no hair felt so much better especially when I had my period, it all felt cleaner down there.

When I started work I was able to visit a beauty salon and be professionally waxed but in the last few years I have gone back to doing it myself using a combination of removal cream and a flawless trimmer/shaved and the occasional razor.

Have u thought about laser?
I noticed a big difference (decrease) in 3 sessions.
Lot less painful than wax I found.

In a number of cultures women remove their pubic hair after each period. That’s hardly porn related.

OP, have you decided?

Its the best thing I ever did

Has your life been very uneventful? The best thing has been having your pubes pulled out? 🤨

I'm always amused by the "it's not about porn" outrage. It probably isn't for you as an individual, but why do you think that western society suddenly decided that women should have no pubic hair?

I'm not a waxer, but the constant bray of "porn!" in connection with a woman's choice to remove her pubic hair really annoys me.
People have been removing hair for centuries. It's often a cultural thing. The rise in popularity in the west for femal pubic hair removal has been recent, and the word "Brazilian" is a clue: salons run by Brazilian ladies took off in the US and gained high profile celebrity clients. I saw an article in a Sunday Times in the 90s about Naomi Campbell singing its praises. Brazilian women got into waxing because of the skimpy carnival outfits and bikinis they wore.

Porn of the 70s and 80s featured pubic hair; this gradually changed. Porn followed fashion, rather than fashion following porn.

I have a free 'hollywood' courtesy of alopecia. Mine is perfect, painless, permanent, supersoft.
And vile.
I would give the amount you all are spending for the discomfort and humiliation of a wax to get my lovely bush back again.
Everyone is different, I know. But I just feel empty, featureless and clinical 'down there', like a Barbie doll. And my labia feel exposed and vulnerable.

How is it humiliating?

Porn followed fashion, rather than fashion following porn.
I don't think this is true. Porn in those days featured pubic hair because that's how women's bodies naturally are, not because there was a 'fashion' for having a natural body. It pretty much occurred to no-one that a woman's vulva should be hairless.

@Imsomeoneelse Hi, I’m over 60 and have Hollywoods all the time. Had the first as a wedding present for DH (late marriage) - he’d mentioned it, definitely no pressure on me, so I thought I’d give it a go just once and I’ve never stopped. Entirely my choice.

I love the feel of it - it feels sexy and fresh. I’m not wild about the look - it certainly doesn't look prepubescent any more than my naked bum or naked boobs do, but it’s all about the feel for me.

It is a billion times better than shaving on every level.

The first time definitely did smart a bit and the area round my clitoris is not something I look forward to but now it’s no more than a brief sharp pinch and it’s over so quickly.

Not sure what you mean. Women's bodies still are naturally hairy.
And if it occurred to no one, how did it start then, in porn or elsewhere?

It did, in fact, occur to plenty of people, including the (female) practitioners of the Brazilian, whose "work" gained popularity and spread beyond their community. Lots of people - women - removed pubic hair before it took off as a fashion in the nineties, and it did feature in porn, but was always presented as a quirk or fetishy thing; a deviation rather than being presented as a normal or desirable look.

@Random789 I too would feel very sad if I didn’t have a choice - most of us have the luxury of making our own decision about how we style our bush, which is worth acknowledging. There’s strong social pressure to conform to having smooth legs and smooth armpits, but what we do with our pubic hair is up to us. I would say pressure to conform to someone else’s notions of what your pubes should look like would be a relationship red flag.

And yes, spreading your legs and exposing your vulva and anus is pretty embarrassing the first few times. Personally I couldn’t pick my vag out of a lineup but I would imagine my waxer could draw it in her sleep. It is a bit weird. But after a couple of babies, smears, pelvic physio etc etc I’m over it.

And what about western society deciding most men should shave their facial hair.

Or western society deciding most women should go to the hairdressers for their head hair?

l’m not sure whether ancient Greece and ancient Rome were what you now refer to as”western society”? Where does this “western society” start and finish?

Don't bother, it's painful and you look like a turkey on Christmas morning down there.

There are plenty of women in porn with pubic hair.

Pre around 1975ish or thereabouts, most western women had pubic hair. There was a campaign at the time in the UK to stop the routine shaving of women in labour. Now we have young women posting on Mumsnet worried that their midwife or doctor will be disgusted if they arrive in the labour ward with pubic hair.

I prefer to trim, shave or use hair removal cream for the following reasons;

Money
Time
In grown hairs/ follicular is
Pain
post waxing breakouts - very unsightly!
the indignity of paying someone to fiddle about with my vagina and anus
The re -growth; several weeks with a lot of hair waiting for it to grow long enough to wax again.

*folliculitis that should say!