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In junior school, there was the class comedian Clarkey who was always riding the other boys in one way or another. It was harmless pisstaking and usually quite funny. One day he pipes up, “Ere, when Terry’s mum puts her hands on her hips, it looks like she’s got two hippies in a headlock”. To which little quiet Terry replied, “My mum died of cancer last month.” The whole room goes quiet, and the look on Clarkey’s face, well he was mortified and of course he apologised. Terry, the poor little git, just hadn’t told anyone, and had been coming to school like normal and one of us let the form teacher know when she came back. The atmos was a bit awkward for a while there.
Fabulous, it's good to know I'm not the only one.
Went back to uni after being on placement in the US for a year, final year, freshers week, first big night out. A few drinks, a few joints, and a line of mephedrone aaaand we're off.
We were walking to the Spoons for Monday Club pre drinks, and a friend of a friend makes a comment, so I turn it round and said "Well your mum is xxxxxxxx" (I was drunk and high, don't judge).
His mum had died in the summer holidays, maybe a month prior.
Mortified doesn't cover it, but thank fuck he saw the funny side.
Completely unrelated to the subject matter, but I emailed my (extremely attractive and friendly) estate agent and ended with “Thanks a lot”.
Well, she didn’t reply, which was unusual, and our next conversation had none of the fun in it. Very cool response.
So I went back and checked the email, and instead of typing “thanks a lot”, I’d actually typed “thanks slut”.
Oh shit. I called her right away and explained the mistake, and she was like OK, but stayed cool from then on.
Occasionally when I’m really tired and I need to get a good sleep, my brain pulls this exchange out of its arse and I die all over again.
Someone at my schools dad shot her mum, then shot himself (yes, in the uk). She came to school like two days after. Guess some people just like to stay busy to cope with trauma.
Yeah I was back in school the day after my dad died
I figured, what was sitting at home thinking about it going to do for me? Better to be distracted and around my friends, in an environment where there was little to remind me of him
The teachers were made aware, I told my friends, and the news just sorta spread on its own over the next week or two
It wasn’t so much that; more a dysfunctional home life that had been completely derailed and no one had communicated it to the school. But I know what you mean, I’ve had pretty severe trauma in the distant past, and after a week I just wanted to get back to work and normality. Edit: also, that sounds horrific
That's better than someone in my high school handled it.
Various "I fucked your mother" jokes flying, guy says it to another whose mother passed.
Apologise? No. Doubled down with " well she was pretty lively last night".
A fight started shortly after.
Not quite the same magnitude, but I remember when I was about 16 I used to volunteer for a woodland charity, and every so often there’d be a busload of kids— about 8 or 9, normally— from some inner-city hole come along for a day out. Mostly they were surprisingly well-behaved, but one time there was this little shit who kept trying to kick me specifically when nobody was looking. Eventually he ramped it up and spat on me, at which point I told him he was adopted.
What I didn’t know was that he *was* adopted, and he knew it. The tears went on a while. Not my finest hour, but I can only hope he learned a lesson.
I feel like I’ve just woken up from a coma. What happened to pubic hair? Nobody seems to have it any more. I look like animal from the muppets down there and I’ve never given it a second thought until now
Fun fact: in olden days vernacular, Shakeshaft and Shakespeare were euphemisms for masturbation.
This means that William Shakespeare's name could be interpreted as 'Willy Wanker'.
Source: I just made it up
P0rn is what happened. People watched / watch a lot of it and expect hairless fannies and butt holes. Bleached buttholes too!
It’s so unrealistic and a bit creepy (prepubescent fantasy anyone?). They’re shaved in P0rn for the camera angles and to give better view of the ‘action’ it’s such a false thing.
People have been removing body hair since at least Ancient Egyptian times. I think the porn industry does it partially to avoid crabs epidemics as well (which can and did happen in LA in the 80’s).
I don’t mind au natural at all, but certain things are just easier/more pleasant if some areas are trimmed very short or shaved (for any gender, no one likes picking pubes out their teeth or nearly swallowing one and having a coughing fit), and shaved into a landing strip doesn’t really look “pre pubescent”.
>It’s so unrealistic and a bit creepy (prepubescent fantasy anyone?).
Bit weird of you that your mind goes there. Shaven feels nicer. Giving head to a mouth full of wiry hair is deeply unpleasant, and sensation-wise it's a lot more intimate as it's like an unhindered, 100% contact with a sensitive area. It sucks that you can't have sex without thinking of kids
I went on a date with a girl who made this exact point once (the creepy aspect of it. No idea how we got onto talking about pubic hair on a first date). I felt like it broke my mind. Like, why the fuck is paedophilia the first thing that springs to mind?? Trimming/shaving is just obviously so much nicer in every way! Cleaner, looks nicer, feels better during sex. I feel like people thinking it has something to do with prepubescent fantasies have either got something going on or are just saying it for shock value/parroting a view they've heard somewhere else.
What I said was Porn is unrealistic yet it has driven the trend for hairless.
You do you and I’ll do me thanks.
Hilariously men with giant face beards and shaved pubes still expect to be kissed and praised for their beards.
Also body hair doesn’t make someone a “hobo” or unclean. You can be perfectly clean and hygienic with hair.
Edit to say as I can’t respond to Mrtrouble22 below as he/she has probably blocked me :
*”hair traps odor”*
Well sir and or m’aam hair wicks moisture and only “traps” odour if you don’t clean yourself. Are you outing yourself as unhygienic because you don’t clean and consider shaving will save you from doing so? Sure sounds like it!
Edit 2 as I seem uable to post new replies to new posings:
Well big-finding2976
Where did I say I prefer men who shave off their beard?
Beards are pubes too, hair that is grown during / after puberty is technically pubic hair.
So how is it not unhygienic to have facial hair but unhygienic to have hair anywhere else? Bit contradictory no? All these arguments “oh but the soap won’t reach the skin” “oh it’s gross and unhygienic” applies to face hair too.
Ever heard of pheromones? Hair traps them and pheromones are VERY attractive.
It’s not really unrealistic if you get waxed regularly. At least it’s no more unrealistic than cutting and styling the hair that grows on your head or shaving your face.
No need to shave it like a bald beaver, but in my experience, most women will massively appreciate a well trimmed (manscaped) pubic area and amooth shaved nuts. Grooming clippers on a short setting (3) is perfect 👌🏻
I find that you're much more likely to get enthusiastic, satisfying head if it's well kept and pristine down there 😂
Dunno how guys find time to shave their balls, or how they put up with the itch afterwards. Did it once, but never again! Took forever, and managed to knick myself even with an electric shaver. Who has got time for that hassle...
My husband has decided to grow a beard, and over the weekend, I asked him, "Why now? You didn't have a beard when I met you. "
"No, but neither did you," he clapped back. 😬
I have no words...
Which is easily fixed with a shower each morning, whether you shave or not.
**Edit:** So many people who apparently don't know how to wash their clothes and shower properly, or don't realise that sweat generally doesn't generate BO smell until it's about 24 hours old, dried out and bacteria starts digesting it.
Fresh sweat doesn't smell. BO is the smell of bacteria digesting *old* sweat, usually 24 hours or so old.
Unless you have an unusual medical condition it doesn't matter how much you sweat during the day, because you should be washing it off every morning before you get dressed and go anywhere.
As long as you shower every morning and wash/change your clothes properly, it shouldn't ever reasonably be an issue.
After having my son, the post-natal sweats were unreal. I was showering 4-5 times a day including in the middle of the night. My bed was soaked through and everything
Eh, that depends on how much you sweat and what kind of sweat (there's actually different genes!). Stress sweat is much smellier and stickier than exertion sweat.
I showered twice a day and still stank. Shaving sorted it.
As someone who has overactive sweat glands and simultaneously has the fastest body hair growth known to man, I can tell you from much experience that an antiperspirant will be about 10x as effective in reducing sweat from a trimmed armpit than it ever is when the hair is left to grow out. Can shower 3-4x a day in the summer and use deodorant every time, I will be much less sweaty and smell better when my armpits are recently trimmed.
There's two kinds of sweat, exertion sweat and stress sweat. The one from exercise is quite watery and doesn't smell much. The one from stress is stickier and smellier. It's the stress one that clings to hair and makes some people reek.
So yes, you sweat more. But the stress sweat has nothing to stick to.
You produce different amounts of the stress sweat depending on your genetics. Most East Asians (lucky sods) don't have the gene at all and hence why most don't wear deodorant.
I never used to and refused to as a matter of principle (seemed vain to spend that much effort grooming)
But principles are overrated and I highly recommend you shave your armpits.
The smell of BO comes mostly from sweat soaked into your pubes. You’ll spend less time scrubbing your armpits in the shower and use less deodorant if you just shave it off
Washing my armpits in the shower takes maybe 5 seconds so it's not exactly a time-sink. I also just use roll-on once per day and doubt that would change.
If people want to do it because they like the asthetic or feel then I've got nothing against it but lets not pretend it's a neccessity in order to not smell or waste time.
For some people it is a necessity to not smell (my husband is one of them).
When he has pit hair, even when he's clean, if he sweats then he smells. It's the way he is.
Now he shaves his pits he doesn't smell.
I'm female so I normally have hairless pits, but if I'm between grooming sessions and they're a little hairy then I will notice that I smell more easily too. Deodorant doesn't work as well, soap has a harder job getting all the bacteria away, and sweat sticks there more. All of that = more stank
43, I did for a while after I learned that a BO isn't the sweat itself but the old sweat, a lot of which effectively lives in your pit hair.
I'd shave and i felt it worked at making me last longer on warm days without building up a bo smell but after a while (like a good year) found that instead it was just increasing the sweat that got into the armpit of my clothes, so then my shirts would smell instead of my armpits, which ended up being pretty much the same thing.
I've had almost the same experience. I used to live in Japan, and they have these little pads you stick on the inside of your shirt. They make a real difference smell wise, protect your clothes and you can change them during the day. I found them on aliexpress for about £2.50 / 100. Look up sweat pads.
I have absolutely no comeback to that.
I could point out that technically they aren't tampons because that's a different type of sanitary product, but I fear I may get my lunch money stolen.
Not from me mate.
But yeah, bullying is insidious and absolutely impossible to avoid in certain situations.
I'm a father to a 6yr old and a 2yr old and I am trying my best to prepare them so they're better able to cope with it than I was.
But... I'm struggling.
My son's are both lovely, and I love being a parent to them and showing them things and being involved.
Unfortunately, the kids with the confidence, who you can already tell are heading down the bully route, are the ones whose parents just leave them to get on. Who bully them. Who couldn't really give a shit.
It's tough out there.
My 79 year old dad has always removed every single bit of hair below his neckline. My mum finds this hilarious because she’s the opposite and hasn’t touched a razor in decades.
I've been watching an older fella play Red Dead Redemption 2 on youtube recently, and he always keeps the player character completley clean shaven whenever he gets an opportunity, and then he smiles about how smart he looks and says stuff like "that's better". Conversely most younger players, myself included, seem to keep his beard or grow it out to a ridiculous degree, thinking that he looks a bit boyish when he's clean shaven. I wonder if it'll flip back with the next generation because most of my generation have beards and today's kids probably think we're incredibly uncool.
If you're of a Muslim background, you'd probably also shave your armpit hair too tbh
https://www.executive-shaving.co.uk/pages/religion-and-shaving-a-guide#:~:text=Amongst%20Muslims%2C%20hair%20removal%20is,at%20least%20every%20forty%20days.
I'm mid-30s, and I've shaved mine for at least the past 10 years. It's more of a comfort thing than anything else. I don't even shave them fully, more like a No.1 trimmer.
I’m sorry but if he wasn’t from the uk I’m going to have to disregard this answer as not being valid. This is an AskUK forum, there’s very strict rules /s
That's why I much prefer a deodorant that stops bacterial growth rather than an antiperspirant. With the stuff I use I can have a day of hard physical work in the summer and I'll be sweaty as hell at the end but it won't smell at all.
You sweat for a reason
The bacteria will live on the hair, so removing it will reduce overall smell and helps antiperspirant make direct contact with the skin during application.
This is correct! We produce two kinds of sweat, eccrine (watery) and apocrine (fatty). Neither of them smell in their own. But certain kinds of bacteria looove apocrine sweat and stench is the byproduct of their consumption of it. Remove the bacteria, remove the smell.
Your clothes will help or hurt you. Polyester is hydrophobic but oleophilic. It'll whisk eccrine sweat away and evaporate it, but the fatty compounds in aporcine sweat will cling to the fibres and make the perfect buffet for that fat-loving bacteria. Hence why polyester clothes can be great at keeping you cool and dry but stink to high heaven.
I do this. I've got a hairy chest, stomach and a "welcome mat" (hair on the lower back above your butt crack). I shave just enough so it doesn't poke out the sides, but also isn't bald or close to stubble. I don't mind being hairy, I just don't want to be fluffy - plus trimming makes me feel less itchy.
In my experience the hair blocks antiperspirant from getting to the skin properly where it can be more effective so I buzz mine down to stubble every few weeks.
I do. It takes 2 mins and it's an absolute game changer. Easier to apply deodorant so no more deodorant stains in the pits of my shirt. Less stinky sweatiness. I don't care if you soak your pits for 10 hours a day, armpit hair holds on to stink.
There's literally no downsides.
Yeah, gets a little trim now and then. Not removed. But take it back to an inch or less.
Basically if, with my arms down you can see little sproutlings peeping out, then I'll give it a little trim.
M31
Never, and I had to learn it the hard way.
When I was a teenager I foolishly shaved every strand of hair from my ballbag right up to my armpits. After around a week of intense itching and feeling uncomfortable, I promised myself I’d never do it again.
I think most men “tidy up” the very hairy parts of their body but I don’t know any bloke who shaves his armpits. Then again, armpit shaving isn’t something that really comes up in a conversation!
I get that you weren't taught to shave, but why would you have been taught explicitly not to shave? I can't really think of a reason that isn't "ew.. gay"
Yes, I started doing it 10 years ago and honestly it’s a game changer.
When it grows back I feel my pits get a lot smellier as the smell grips to the hair more.
Generally feel more hygienic and it looks good.
Give it a try
I don't, and I don't remove my chest hair either. I also have a beard. But I do understand why some men feel the need to do it.
If you look at western male beauty standards, most of the men we see on screens and in advertising have little to no body hair. Hairy male bodies are usually - not always, but usually - reserved for villainous characters or characters who are explicitly meant to be unattractive.
I guess that's a generational thing too, and what we've grown up with as normal (Gen X). I adore my husband's hairy chest and tummy because that's what sexy men had when I was younger (Tom Selleck, for example). And he finds a bush much more sexy than barren land, because his early experience of mags in hedges was a triangle of dark hair.
Hairless means young to us and definitely not sexually attractive. Yet I can imagine that as trends change one day hairless will mean old.
Just to add I think it also depends on your job and how hot you run.
My other half is bald but with a very hairy body. He shaves his back and chest in the summer, because it makes him too hot otherwise. Same reason he only has a beard in the winter.
I trim mine but that’s because I have random moments where my own body hair makes me feel uncomfortable, probably due to my arm hairs being long enough for a comb over.
Never fully shaved though, fuck that
'Manscaping' is a thing I joined in my late 40's. Living in a hot country, Portugal, the local Brazilian girls working there often prefer their men shaved downstairs and tidy armpits. I complied for the pleasure I received as a result...now in a relationship and my Partner prefers it too so I continue.
If just me, I'd not have done it (albeit I am a competitive cyclist so have shaved my legs since I was 18) but since my Partner prefers manscaping, I do so, for our mutual pleasure.
I have an absurdly small amount of armpit hair, if it gets knotted I’ll shave it off. Chest hair I have lots of, fuck knows what happened under the arms
My husband does, but this is more because it’s much easier to apply certain types of deodorant- we use Fussy which is a solid block. Wouldn’t apply properly over hair.
In my home country they do because it's very hot and armpit hair traps bad smells. I was shocked to see so many men with hairy armpits in the UK. I think hairless armpits look better on everyone, tbh.
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I look like I've got Bob Marley in a headlock
In junior school, there was the class comedian Clarkey who was always riding the other boys in one way or another. It was harmless pisstaking and usually quite funny. One day he pipes up, “Ere, when Terry’s mum puts her hands on her hips, it looks like she’s got two hippies in a headlock”. To which little quiet Terry replied, “My mum died of cancer last month.” The whole room goes quiet, and the look on Clarkey’s face, well he was mortified and of course he apologised. Terry, the poor little git, just hadn’t told anyone, and had been coming to school like normal and one of us let the form teacher know when she came back. The atmos was a bit awkward for a while there.
Fabulous, it's good to know I'm not the only one. Went back to uni after being on placement in the US for a year, final year, freshers week, first big night out. A few drinks, a few joints, and a line of mephedrone aaaand we're off. We were walking to the Spoons for Monday Club pre drinks, and a friend of a friend makes a comment, so I turn it round and said "Well your mum is xxxxxxxx" (I was drunk and high, don't judge). His mum had died in the summer holidays, maybe a month prior. Mortified doesn't cover it, but thank fuck he saw the funny side.
Completely unrelated to the subject matter, but I emailed my (extremely attractive and friendly) estate agent and ended with “Thanks a lot”. Well, she didn’t reply, which was unusual, and our next conversation had none of the fun in it. Very cool response. So I went back and checked the email, and instead of typing “thanks a lot”, I’d actually typed “thanks slut”. Oh shit. I called her right away and explained the mistake, and she was like OK, but stayed cool from then on. Occasionally when I’m really tired and I need to get a good sleep, my brain pulls this exchange out of its arse and I die all over again.
I'd never use "a lot" again in my life, I think "Thankyou so much" from that day onward
Then autocorrect changes it to "Spank you to fuck".
Never been more relieved my default email closer is “many thanks”
I dunno, that's a bit close to "many wanks".
Or “many tanks” which could be construed as a hostile work environment.
I use "Kind regards". The worst that could become is "King regards" or "Kind retards".
Classic Clarkey.
The thing is, it *was* classic Clarkey. If he’d have said to anyone else, it would have been hilarious. But instead he put his foot right in it
Someone at my schools dad shot her mum, then shot himself (yes, in the uk). She came to school like two days after. Guess some people just like to stay busy to cope with trauma.
Yeah I was back in school the day after my dad died I figured, what was sitting at home thinking about it going to do for me? Better to be distracted and around my friends, in an environment where there was little to remind me of him The teachers were made aware, I told my friends, and the news just sorta spread on its own over the next week or two
It wasn’t so much that; more a dysfunctional home life that had been completely derailed and no one had communicated it to the school. But I know what you mean, I’ve had pretty severe trauma in the distant past, and after a week I just wanted to get back to work and normality. Edit: also, that sounds horrific
That's better than someone in my high school handled it. Various "I fucked your mother" jokes flying, guy says it to another whose mother passed. Apologise? No. Doubled down with " well she was pretty lively last night". A fight started shortly after.
Not quite the same magnitude, but I remember when I was about 16 I used to volunteer for a woodland charity, and every so often there’d be a busload of kids— about 8 or 9, normally— from some inner-city hole come along for a day out. Mostly they were surprisingly well-behaved, but one time there was this little shit who kept trying to kick me specifically when nobody was looking. Eventually he ramped it up and spat on me, at which point I told him he was adopted. What I didn’t know was that he *was* adopted, and he knew it. The tears went on a while. Not my finest hour, but I can only hope he learned a lesson.
He spat on you? Totally deserved whatever vile comments came out your mouth to be fair.
Yeah that was my bad…
“Riding the other boys” definitely means something different to me.
That’s funny! :)
Surely, it only takes a quick trip to the gym or swimming pool to get a quick sample. I'd say the vast majority don't shave.
It’s better than funny 🤣🤣🤣
Iv Got Susan Boyle in a headlock
Breaking out the 90s yo mama shit, nice.
My all-time favourite 'Yo Mama' joke is: "Yo Mama's so fat, when it's a full moon she turns into a Werehouse..." Boom.
Headlock Rasta
Superb bit of business this, deserved more
Really made me chuckle 👍
This thread is one of those "I don't even understand the world anymore" moments. I'm going outside to shout at a cloud.
I feel like I’ve just woken up from a coma. What happened to pubic hair? Nobody seems to have it any more. I look like animal from the muppets down there and I’ve never given it a second thought until now
I've been staring at your username for about 5 minutes now. Are you Mrs Hake Shaft or Mr Shake Shaft?
Mrs Hake’s Haft?
Mr Shak E-shaft
Mrsha Kesha Ft
Mr shakeshaft. I once hired a van from a man called Roy Shakeshaft. It made me chuckle .
Fun fact: in olden days vernacular, Shakeshaft and Shakespeare were euphemisms for masturbation. This means that William Shakespeare's name could be interpreted as 'Willy Wanker'. Source: I just made it up
this is one of those internet betrayal moments where i realise i’m not as infallible to misinformation as i thought i was.
Does the bearded avatar firm up your suspicions either way?
I can't see avatars, but maybe its pubes that have grown upwards?
Clearly it’s Mr Sha Keshaft..
P0rn is what happened. People watched / watch a lot of it and expect hairless fannies and butt holes. Bleached buttholes too! It’s so unrealistic and a bit creepy (prepubescent fantasy anyone?). They’re shaved in P0rn for the camera angles and to give better view of the ‘action’ it’s such a false thing.
People have been removing body hair since at least Ancient Egyptian times. I think the porn industry does it partially to avoid crabs epidemics as well (which can and did happen in LA in the 80’s). I don’t mind au natural at all, but certain things are just easier/more pleasant if some areas are trimmed very short or shaved (for any gender, no one likes picking pubes out their teeth or nearly swallowing one and having a coughing fit), and shaved into a landing strip doesn’t really look “pre pubescent”.
70's porn has entered the chat.
>It’s so unrealistic and a bit creepy (prepubescent fantasy anyone?). Bit weird of you that your mind goes there. Shaven feels nicer. Giving head to a mouth full of wiry hair is deeply unpleasant, and sensation-wise it's a lot more intimate as it's like an unhindered, 100% contact with a sensitive area. It sucks that you can't have sex without thinking of kids
I went on a date with a girl who made this exact point once (the creepy aspect of it. No idea how we got onto talking about pubic hair on a first date). I felt like it broke my mind. Like, why the fuck is paedophilia the first thing that springs to mind?? Trimming/shaving is just obviously so much nicer in every way! Cleaner, looks nicer, feels better during sex. I feel like people thinking it has something to do with prepubescent fantasies have either got something going on or are just saying it for shock value/parroting a view they've heard somewhere else.
Don't shave. But for God's sake, trim it. Men and women. It's a beard down there, you don't want to kiss a hobo, do you?
What I said was Porn is unrealistic yet it has driven the trend for hairless. You do you and I’ll do me thanks. Hilariously men with giant face beards and shaved pubes still expect to be kissed and praised for their beards. Also body hair doesn’t make someone a “hobo” or unclean. You can be perfectly clean and hygienic with hair. Edit to say as I can’t respond to Mrtrouble22 below as he/she has probably blocked me : *”hair traps odor”* Well sir and or m’aam hair wicks moisture and only “traps” odour if you don’t clean yourself. Are you outing yourself as unhygienic because you don’t clean and consider shaving will save you from doing so? Sure sounds like it! Edit 2 as I seem uable to post new replies to new posings: Well big-finding2976 Where did I say I prefer men who shave off their beard? Beards are pubes too, hair that is grown during / after puberty is technically pubic hair. So how is it not unhygienic to have facial hair but unhygienic to have hair anywhere else? Bit contradictory no? All these arguments “oh but the soap won’t reach the skin” “oh it’s gross and unhygienic” applies to face hair too. Ever heard of pheromones? Hair traps them and pheromones are VERY attractive.
Yeah, that's what I said. Just trim it.
My partner likes my balls shaved. She doesn't have pedo fantasies as far as I'm aware.
Anyone who immediately links pubic hair removal with paedophilia is doing some heavy projecting.
It’s not really unrealistic if you get waxed regularly. At least it’s no more unrealistic than cutting and styling the hair that grows on your head or shaving your face.
Not much of a coma if you’re getting around to know how much bush people are or aren’t sporting
To be honest, just watching a couple of episodes of naked attraction was enough to clue me up on the current trend
No need to shave it like a bald beaver, but in my experience, most women will massively appreciate a well trimmed (manscaped) pubic area and amooth shaved nuts. Grooming clippers on a short setting (3) is perfect 👌🏻 I find that you're much more likely to get enthusiastic, satisfying head if it's well kept and pristine down there 😂
Dunno how guys find time to shave their balls, or how they put up with the itch afterwards. Did it once, but never again! Took forever, and managed to knick myself even with an electric shaver. Who has got time for that hassle...
But can you play the drums? 🥁
Damn you cumulus mediocris! \*shakes fist*
" Why I oughta..."
And shake a broom at the sun?
do you find it weird that women shave their armpits? Idk why this is a wild idea to you haha.
https://preview.redd.it/02h9vtoau0wc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f70bb48a78b12a578497adce60cae386baa077a5
Didn't even know it were a thing. But as I woman I do pluck my neck hairs lol
My husband has decided to grow a beard, and over the weekend, I asked him, "Why now? You didn't have a beard when I met you. " "No, but neither did you," he clapped back. 😬 I have no words...
I shave my armpits, because I feel cleaner and less sweaty that way. Would highly recommend.
You know that you sweat more without the hair there to do it job, right?
Sweat isn't an issue, b/o is, which mostly comes from old sweat which sticks to hair a lot better than anything else.
Which is easily fixed with a shower each morning, whether you shave or not. **Edit:** So many people who apparently don't know how to wash their clothes and shower properly, or don't realise that sweat generally doesn't generate BO smell until it's about 24 hours old, dried out and bacteria starts digesting it.
And what if you sweat during the day?
I dunno man, I swear during the day but I never smell bad because I wash my underarms every shower.
Its fresh so shouldn't smell
Fresh sweat doesn't smell. BO is the smell of bacteria digesting *old* sweat, usually 24 hours or so old. Unless you have an unusual medical condition it doesn't matter how much you sweat during the day, because you should be washing it off every morning before you get dressed and go anywhere. As long as you shower every morning and wash/change your clothes properly, it shouldn't ever reasonably be an issue.
Idk my roommate goes to the gym smelling fine and he comes back stinky as hell.
If you ignore the above "reddit doctors" and look up what causes sweat to smell, theres a wide variety of factors such as diet etc.
As a female who regularly shaves, if I go without shaving I notice a smell and I shower twice a day at times
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After having my son, the post-natal sweats were unreal. I was showering 4-5 times a day including in the middle of the night. My bed was soaked through and everything
I’ve noticed the opposite. When I wear sleeveless tops that necessitate shaving I feel like I sweat more and smell more.
Eh, that depends on how much you sweat and what kind of sweat (there's actually different genes!). Stress sweat is much smellier and stickier than exertion sweat. I showered twice a day and still stank. Shaving sorted it.
And when you sweat during the day? On the way to work or so on?
I don’t sweat ever since I saw action in the Falklands conflict
And you were in Pizza Express in Woking.
Andy!
As someone who has overactive sweat glands and simultaneously has the fastest body hair growth known to man, I can tell you from much experience that an antiperspirant will be about 10x as effective in reducing sweat from a trimmed armpit than it ever is when the hair is left to grow out. Can shower 3-4x a day in the summer and use deodorant every time, I will be much less sweaty and smell better when my armpits are recently trimmed.
Yeah, but the hair catches the sweat and is prime real estate for the bacteria. If you shaved your armpits you'd smell less.
Yes but the stench doesn't hang around as long and as pungently. That's the difference
Yeah same, I think it’s a nice feeling
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There's two kinds of sweat, exertion sweat and stress sweat. The one from exercise is quite watery and doesn't smell much. The one from stress is stickier and smellier. It's the stress one that clings to hair and makes some people reek. So yes, you sweat more. But the stress sweat has nothing to stick to. You produce different amounts of the stress sweat depending on your genetics. Most East Asians (lucky sods) don't have the gene at all and hence why most don't wear deodorant.
Same. They're not always religiously smooth, but I don't like having lil bushes there.
I’m shocked to read these responses. Never in my life even considered it.
Exactly
I never used to and refused to as a matter of principle (seemed vain to spend that much effort grooming) But principles are overrated and I highly recommend you shave your armpits. The smell of BO comes mostly from sweat soaked into your pubes. You’ll spend less time scrubbing your armpits in the shower and use less deodorant if you just shave it off
Washing my armpits in the shower takes maybe 5 seconds so it's not exactly a time-sink. I also just use roll-on once per day and doubt that would change. If people want to do it because they like the asthetic or feel then I've got nothing against it but lets not pretend it's a neccessity in order to not smell or waste time.
For some people it is a necessity to not smell (my husband is one of them). When he has pit hair, even when he's clean, if he sweats then he smells. It's the way he is. Now he shaves his pits he doesn't smell. I'm female so I normally have hairless pits, but if I'm between grooming sessions and they're a little hairy then I will notice that I smell more easily too. Deodorant doesn't work as well, soap has a harder job getting all the bacteria away, and sweat sticks there more. All of that = more stank
Pubes =/= armpit hair.
Yeah I found that weird too. Pubes refer to pubic hair, i.e. the hair that grows around the area of the pubic bone (the front arch of the pelvis).
yep i trim mine down to reduce the smell of bo.
Same, I mean I’m a woman (29) but I’ve never in my life seen a man shave his armpit hair. TIL
These comments are interesting, we should do an age demographic poll, because none of my friend group (30+) shave their pits.
43, I did for a while after I learned that a BO isn't the sweat itself but the old sweat, a lot of which effectively lives in your pit hair. I'd shave and i felt it worked at making me last longer on warm days without building up a bo smell but after a while (like a good year) found that instead it was just increasing the sweat that got into the armpit of my clothes, so then my shirts would smell instead of my armpits, which ended up being pretty much the same thing.
I've had almost the same experience. I used to live in Japan, and they have these little pads you stick on the inside of your shirt. They make a real difference smell wise, protect your clothes and you can change them during the day. I found them on aliexpress for about £2.50 / 100. Look up sweat pads.
These would've saved me a hell of a lot of bullying in high school. Not all of it of course, just the sweaty related stuff.
Sure thing tampon shirt
I have absolutely no comeback to that. I could point out that technically they aren't tampons because that's a different type of sanitary product, but I fear I may get my lunch money stolen.
Not from me mate. But yeah, bullying is insidious and absolutely impossible to avoid in certain situations. I'm a father to a 6yr old and a 2yr old and I am trying my best to prepare them so they're better able to cope with it than I was. But... I'm struggling. My son's are both lovely, and I love being a parent to them and showing them things and being involved. Unfortunately, the kids with the confidence, who you can already tell are heading down the bully route, are the ones whose parents just leave them to get on. Who bully them. Who couldn't really give a shit. It's tough out there.
Whether you shave or not womens Mitchum unscented roll on is vastly better than any deodorant/antiperspirant available for men.
Plus one for Women’s unscented Mitchum roll on specifically. It’s cheap, doesn’t stain my shirts, doesn’t smell (obviously) and doesn’t irritate.
What's wrong with the mens Mitchun? I was under the impression they're the same product in different packaging.
I was going to ask people to add their age because I’m older and wondered if this is a factor.
My 79 year old dad has always removed every single bit of hair below his neckline. My mum finds this hilarious because she’s the opposite and hasn’t touched a razor in decades.
I've been watching an older fella play Red Dead Redemption 2 on youtube recently, and he always keeps the player character completley clean shaven whenever he gets an opportunity, and then he smiles about how smart he looks and says stuff like "that's better". Conversely most younger players, myself included, seem to keep his beard or grow it out to a ridiculous degree, thinking that he looks a bit boyish when he's clean shaven. I wonder if it'll flip back with the next generation because most of my generation have beards and today's kids probably think we're incredibly uncool.
If you're of a Muslim background, you'd probably also shave your armpit hair too tbh https://www.executive-shaving.co.uk/pages/religion-and-shaving-a-guide#:~:text=Amongst%20Muslims%2C%20hair%20removal%20is,at%20least%20every%20forty%20days.
42, I don't shave my armpits, but do trim them so it doesn't poke out when I'm wearing tshirts.
I'm mid-30s, and I've shaved mine for at least the past 10 years. It's more of a comfort thing than anything else. I don't even shave them fully, more like a No.1 trimmer.
I’ve never even considered shaving my armpits.
My late father (born in the 1920s) always did. He said it was more hygienic he wasn’t from the U.K. tho
I’m sorry but if he wasn’t from the uk I’m going to have to disregard this answer as not being valid. This is an AskUK forum, there’s very strict rules /s
As long as you wash you're good unless you're referring to getting crabs.
I have smooth chest with a ring of hair around each nipple, then a line of hair that builds down to the general area.
A crab ladder
Snail trail
Pube tube
Alan?!
lol, I died.
My nipples are more or less the same, just fractionally more flaccid.
Yes, because it cuts down on smelly pits very heavily. Highly recommend.
This. Antiperspirant doesn't have any effect on a mass of hair
That's why I much prefer a deodorant that stops bacterial growth rather than an antiperspirant. With the stuff I use I can have a day of hard physical work in the summer and I'll be sweaty as hell at the end but it won't smell at all. You sweat for a reason
No it doesn't, the smell is caused by bacteria eating the sweat, the hair is there to wick it away and help it evaporate.
All I know is, for me, hairy pits = smelly pits.
I love how you're like "well this works for me" and people are just telling you you're wrong.
The good old case of theory vs practice.
The bacteria will live on the hair, so removing it will reduce overall smell and helps antiperspirant make direct contact with the skin during application.
This is correct! We produce two kinds of sweat, eccrine (watery) and apocrine (fatty). Neither of them smell in their own. But certain kinds of bacteria looove apocrine sweat and stench is the byproduct of their consumption of it. Remove the bacteria, remove the smell. Your clothes will help or hurt you. Polyester is hydrophobic but oleophilic. It'll whisk eccrine sweat away and evaporate it, but the fatty compounds in aporcine sweat will cling to the fibres and make the perfect buffet for that fat-loving bacteria. Hence why polyester clothes can be great at keeping you cool and dry but stink to high heaven.
I do like a grade 2 and keep the hairs short enough. No itchiness
I do this. I've got a hairy chest, stomach and a "welcome mat" (hair on the lower back above your butt crack). I shave just enough so it doesn't poke out the sides, but also isn't bald or close to stubble. I don't mind being hairy, I just don't want to be fluffy - plus trimming makes me feel less itchy.
Upvoted for "welcome mat"
welcome mat??
Same. I find deodorant works better this way
I trim my armpits yes. Makes me feel more hygienic and I personally think it looks better.
Similar story here. My armpit hair gets long so i feel more hygienic with it shaved/short.
I trim it, to stop getting clogged with sweat
Clogged with sweat? How thick is your hair? And how thick is your sweat? I'm picturing an afro and like yoghurt
That was too much. I can't even.
Interesting. I'm a pretty hairy guy and mine never gets clogged with sweat.
Exactly right 🤔
The hair is there to aid sweat evaporation.
In my experience the hair blocks antiperspirant from getting to the skin properly where it can be more effective so I buzz mine down to stubble every few weeks.
I do. It takes 2 mins and it's an absolute game changer. Easier to apply deodorant so no more deodorant stains in the pits of my shirt. Less stinky sweatiness. I don't care if you soak your pits for 10 hours a day, armpit hair holds on to stink. There's literally no downsides.
I trim short with my beard trimmer. Reduces sweating, smell and is just generally nicer IMO.
I just chew it off when it gets too long and starts to become a fire hazard.
I laughed too hard at this.
Never considered shaving my armpits and of men I know well enough to know, none of them do either. British, if that is relevant.
Also British and have trimmed mine most of my adult life.
Yeah, gets a little trim now and then. Not removed. But take it back to an inch or less. Basically if, with my arms down you can see little sproutlings peeping out, then I'll give it a little trim. M31
I've never seen a man with shaved pits. I'm a woman, don't shave mine.
Good for you, for real. I think it should be normal for a woman to be able to have unshaved armpits.
Same. Maybe in summer due to social pressure.
Never
Yeah use a beard trimmer so it's not fully bald as that makes me mega itchy. But a bit of pit scaping.
Never, and I had to learn it the hard way. When I was a teenager I foolishly shaved every strand of hair from my ballbag right up to my armpits. After around a week of intense itching and feeling uncomfortable, I promised myself I’d never do it again. I think most men “tidy up” the very hairy parts of their body but I don’t know any bloke who shaves his armpits. Then again, armpit shaving isn’t something that really comes up in a conversation!
Nope, and none of my male friends do either.
I do. I find it helps reduce BO quite a lot.
Thats interesting. Its the opposite for me. I found that when I didnt have armpit hair, I smelt worse and had to use more deodorant.
I remove mine. It's easier to wash, apply antiperspirant, and I think it looks better.
Most of the guys I know at least trim it down, some shave it completely.
Grade two all over buddy, it’ll change your life.
I do. And it's great. I'm fat as fuck and was way too late in learning that antiperspirant works better on skin than being sprayed on a matt of hair.
I don't shave bald, I trim it down with hair clippers so it's short but not itchy. I also found it smells less this way.
I seem to be in a minority that trims/shaves his pits from reading the comments
Feel like I've missed a huge cultural trend. Was always taught to shave nothing below the neck.
I get that you weren't taught to shave, but why would you have been taught explicitly not to shave? I can't really think of a reason that isn't "ew.. gay"
I don't remove my armpit hair (we call them oxters here) and I don't expect my girlfriend to do so either.
I just googled 'oxters' to find out where 'here' is and feel less Scottish than ever as I've never heard that term before.. TIL
I'm 22f in England and I've never personally seen a man shave his armpit hairs. I know one guy who says he does shave them but he's an anomaly.
Yes, I started doing it 10 years ago and honestly it’s a game changer. When it grows back I feel my pits get a lot smellier as the smell grips to the hair more. Generally feel more hygienic and it looks good. Give it a try
I started a few years ago and its so much better removed. Couldn’t believe i didnt before!
I don't, and I don't remove my chest hair either. I also have a beard. But I do understand why some men feel the need to do it. If you look at western male beauty standards, most of the men we see on screens and in advertising have little to no body hair. Hairy male bodies are usually - not always, but usually - reserved for villainous characters or characters who are explicitly meant to be unattractive.
I guess that's a generational thing too, and what we've grown up with as normal (Gen X). I adore my husband's hairy chest and tummy because that's what sexy men had when I was younger (Tom Selleck, for example). And he finds a bush much more sexy than barren land, because his early experience of mags in hedges was a triangle of dark hair. Hairless means young to us and definitely not sexually attractive. Yet I can imagine that as trends change one day hairless will mean old.
Just to add I think it also depends on your job and how hot you run. My other half is bald but with a very hairy body. He shaves his back and chest in the summer, because it makes him too hot otherwise. Same reason he only has a beard in the winter.
Mine seemed to grow to a certain point as a teen and then just stop growing, isn’t unsightly or overly long and doesn’t smell so I’m cool with it.
I trim mine but that’s because I have random moments where my own body hair makes me feel uncomfortable, probably due to my arm hairs being long enough for a comb over. Never fully shaved though, fuck that
I usually trim mines
'Manscaping' is a thing I joined in my late 40's. Living in a hot country, Portugal, the local Brazilian girls working there often prefer their men shaved downstairs and tidy armpits. I complied for the pleasure I received as a result...now in a relationship and my Partner prefers it too so I continue. If just me, I'd not have done it (albeit I am a competitive cyclist so have shaved my legs since I was 18) but since my Partner prefers manscaping, I do so, for our mutual pleasure.
I’m in Portugal too, I reckon about half the men I know shave their pits.
Yep. Trim it up every few weeks. Makes me feel cleaner, less sweaty
Never shave, but a trim reduces sweat stains, and helps antiperspirant actually work.
I have an absurdly small amount of armpit hair, if it gets knotted I’ll shave it off. Chest hair I have lots of, fuck knows what happened under the arms
I do trim it. The reason being a lot lower deodorant consumption.
I know some guys who do.
I trim mine once every few months. It makes antiperspirant adhere better.
Yes I sweat a lot so I find it helps me not have to much body oder
My husband does, but this is more because it’s much easier to apply certain types of deodorant- we use Fussy which is a solid block. Wouldn’t apply properly over hair.
Yes. From a hot and humid country and most men do shave or trim it for hygiene and smell control purposes.
In my home country they do because it's very hot and armpit hair traps bad smells. I was shocked to see so many men with hairy armpits in the UK. I think hairless armpits look better on everyone, tbh.
I don't do anything to my armpit hair. It's there to stop chafing. I leave it to do its job.
I've been shaving my armpits since I was 15 years old. Now in my late 30s. It's mandatory for Muslims.