'down below' styles for 40+

[NumptyNu]

Out if interest, what do my 40+ peers doe with their hairy bush these days? I have 3 young kids, and so haven't been groomed in that department for yonks. Do you bother any more? Is it vital to groom there at this age? Mutton dressed as lamb? Etc etc? What do YOU do?

I have a grade 4 all over.

I am 73.

Strim the edges if swimming other than that leave it to it's own devices, until I get too fed up with the salt and pepper highlights that are appearing and then use the ladyshave to give it a close trim

If I have to bare (swimming) then clear the sides, otherwise, nothing unless DH deserves a treat.

I trim mine occasionally with a lady shaver or with scissors (I dont shave it all off or wax or anything though).

I sport a jaunty fedora over mine. It looks weird in trousers but is otherwise practical and stylish.

Sombrero during the summer.

I am in my mid-forties and I got it lasered (not entirely!) last year. One of the best things I ever did. The beautician I went to previously was a butcher and made the waxing so painful that I was only going occasionally, when I really needed to before a holiday.

At least, my bikini line is now permanently tidy.

Butcher to beautician is quite a leap, career-changing-wise.

I dinnae bother unless going swimming in which case quick schzzzzzz round the spidey leg sticky out hairs.

to Anne. Sorry, I don't think she was a butcher in a previous life but she certainly treated my bikini line like a slab of meat.

Ouch!

I just trim the sides if the spiders threaten to crawl out of my swimsuit, but apart from that I'm au naturel.

I'm 39. I trim all over when I can be bothered, and shave strays. I am not very hirsute though, so it's not something I feel overly obliged to tend to.

Trim mine with a bikini trimmer all over, because once I ripped out a handful of hair while taking a tampon out by accident. I find it much easier to locate the string when one is not having to rake through the bush to find it.

Charming, aren't I?

I tidy up the edges when I'm going to be wearing a swimming suit, and occasionally give the rest a trim. That's pretty much it.

I tried waxing once; I found it painful and embarrassing, and ended up looking plucked for days. Never again. I am old, hairy and proud!

Phew, glad I'm not the only one with a natural woo woo.

Seems to be that late 30s / early 40s is the big divide. Below 30 is everything off, above 45 and most people just do a quick trim when swimming.

A friend with teenage DDs told me they all remove their hair or end up being ridiculed

Seriously SuperiorCat ? Everything off? I hope that changes before DD reaches her teens. What a pain that would be for her, and how odd looking I would have thought? Permanently child-like.

Mind you, how do their friends know? Mine would have had no clue what my lady garden was up to. There again, I was at a convent school I guess...

It gets pruned a bit in summer for swimming, otherwise it can run wild.

It's been there since I was 10, so it must be a national monument by now.

I'm 40 and I trim. My friend is a beautician and she said that they hate doing brazilian and Hollywood waxes.

I did a DIY Brazilian once it wasn't quite a Brazilian more of a Mexican (think Mexican guy in a Sombrero hat with dodgy moustache). The regrowth was itchy, I'm not putting myself through discomfort for the sake of porn-inspired fashion.

As above, mine all lasered off.

Sadly not MummyPig - I guess they see each other in the changing rooms after PE - they all seem to wear thongs as soon as they reach Secondary school.

When talking to friend about it I said it was sad and probably led by the porn culture and she just dismissed it as a TOWIE trend, and that all teen girls remove all their body hair. I have a nearly 10yo DD and I really hope she doesn't feel the peer pressure to do that.

I am more circumspect about general crop spraying and deforestation if I am going to be wearing swim wear or visiting the gynae (not that that happens very often) but on the whole I work the 1970's Penthouse look.

I am not hirsuite though so I can get away w/ mimimal maintenance.

Itwaslight How in Gods name did you manage to rip out your pubes whilst removing a tampon?

It's not like bell ringing you know ..............

I do a bit of plucking down the sides for swimming cossie purposes, trim the rest with scissors or sometimes use the trimmer attachment on my epilator (except once I forgot to put on the guard and shaved a strip down the middle - a sort of reverse Brazilian if you will).

I'm in my 50s and am also horrified by the apparent trend of the young to get rid of it all - don't know (or want to really) what DD does (she's 25).

Laughing out very loud. Thanks for those cheery replies you nutters.

Reverse Brazilian

I think I'll use a bit of conditioner on my wookie tonight in honour of this thread and Caitlin Moran! I'd say it's so I can fluff my wookie but I'm pretty sure that's a euphemism...

Ah im so dull. I trim and shape in the summer for swimwear purposes and let it be in winter. Its not normally poking out the sides anyway but just become part of my summer routine along to with swapping to a gradual tan moisturiser.
Im 37.

My eldest dd is 7 I hope the trend to take it all off has gone by the time shes old enough to even think about upkeep.