by Pubic grooming behaviors can differ based on gender, nationality, religion, relationship status, and more. Additionally, like many other forms of aesthetics and hygiene, trends in public hair care can change significantly over time. A study published in display jog examines the reasons why members of both sexes use pubic hair care.
Pubic hair care is a very personal decision that can be influenced by many factors such as trends, gender, age, time period and more. Additionally, pubic hair can affect a person’s self-esteem, with previous evidence suggesting that involvement in this grooming is linked to higher genital satisfaction for women.
Another relevant factor is that the removal of pubic hair can have health effects, e.g. B. removing hair to prevent pubic lice or skin irritation associated with waxing or shaving. Most research on pubic hair grooming habits has focused on women, and this study seeks to expand the literature by including men.
For their study, Rebecca Deans and colleagues used 1,560 young adult participants as a sample. All participants were between 18 and 25 years old. Data were collected for two age-matched cohorts, occurring in 2014 and again in 2021. Participants were recruited through the university and social media platforms.
Participants were measured using demographic information, lifetime sexual partner, history of STDs, current techniques for removing genital hair, preferences for genital hair appearance, history of cosmetic procedures, specifics of sexual activity, and attitudes and behaviors toward pubic hair care over the past year. In 2021, male participants only completed measures on their own caregiving behavior in cohort 2.
Results showed that a majority of both male and female participants groomed their public hair, with 69.4% of the overall sample reporting engagement in grooming behaviors. “Traditionally, men have not engaged in depilatory behavior as the presence of body hair was considered masculine, attractive, and masculine. More recently, however, it appears that hairless physicality has been embraced by men, perhaps because exposure to pornography has increased, with greater opportunities to engage in sex using dating software applications,” the researchers wrote.
Female pubic hair grooming differed drastically between the 2014 and 2021 samples, with 70.3% of the former reporting involvement in pubic hair grooming compared to just 29.3% of the latter. Additionally, the 2014 female participants reported being much more satisfied with their genital appearance than the 2021 sample.
The most common reasons for grooming pubic hair were religion, visiting the doctor, preferring to look neater or cleaner, and to relieve discomfort. Both sexes reported greater comfort during oral sex when there was less or no pubic hair. Women who reported grooming their pubic hair were more likely to view pornography and were more likely to consider cosmetic surgery or botox.
“We also found a connection between [pubic hair grooming] and participants feel confident about the appearance of their genitals as a result [pubic hair grooming] behavior and improved sexual activity. Therefore, there can be a positive correlation between a groomer’s attitude towards the appearance of his genitals and his [pubic hair grooming] behaviors,” the researchers wrote.
This study took interesting steps to better understand how pubic hair care habits are influenced by a variety of factors. Nevertheless, there are restrictions to be observed. First, there is no data on men’s grooming habits in 2014, so we cannot know whether the trends observed among women were gender specific or not. Also, this study only included 18- to 25-year-olds who spoke English; Future research could use a more diverse sample.
The study, Attitudes and Practices Related to Pubic Hair Grooming Behaviors: A Cross-Sectional Study, was authored by Rebecca Deans, Cathy Kexin Cui, Catherine Tam, Ana Beatrice L. Coronel, Gabriela Rosa, and Brigitte Gerstl.
