Let’s face it; it probably isn’t something you openly discuss over your morning coffee. But while it’s still a fairly secretive practice, it is something that millions of women are doing on a monthly basis.
I’m talking about pubic hair removal, or as gynaecologists call it, ‘personal grooming’.
It might be ever so slightly taboo, but according to a recent study from the US, eighty-four per cent of women do it. More surprisingly, as many as sixty two per cent of the women surveyed said they opt for total pubic hair removal.
While other research in this area has concluded that the rise in personal grooming is linked to sex (and the rise of porn culture), the JAMA study tells a different story – women are removing their pubic hair because they think it is more hygienic.
“Many women think they are dirty and unclean if they haven’t groomed,” said lead author Dr. Tami S. Rowen.
But is personal grooming really more hygienic than pubic hair? Dr Jennifer Gunter doesn’t think so. She told The New York Times that pubic hair has a function – it traps bacteria and prevents it from entering the vagina.
“Prepubertal girls have a higher incidence of irritation because they don’t have that protection,” Dr Gunter notes.
Experts are also concerned about the negative health impacts of some hair removal methods. Grooming-related health issues include cases of folliculitis, abscesses, lacerations, allergic reactions to waxing burns, as well as vulvar and vaginal infections.
On the other hand, studies do show that the incidence of pubic lice has fallen dramatically since personal grooming became the norm.
Of course, while a huge majority of women say they engage in personal grooming for hygienic reasons, there are lots of other reasons why women are choosing to go bare.
34-year-old Laura McCarthy* tells me that she has been opting for total hair removal since her late teens.
“I started shaving off my pubic hair around time I became sexually active. My boyfriend asked me if I’d try it and I thought it would be sexy.
“We both liked how I looked without it – but the re-growth was anything but sexy,” she recalls.
Now older and wiser, McCarthy leaves the hair removal to the professionals and hot wax. But her reasons for keeping “things neat” remain the same: she likes the way it looks.
Deborah Robinson has taken her personal grooming to the next level – she has had her pubic hair removed by laser.
“I prefer the feel of my [genitals] without pubic hair. But I was fed up with the pain and indignity of waxing,” she says.
For experts such as Dr Gunter this rational is perfectly fine. “If it is something you do for you and makes you feel better, awesome,” she tells the New York Times.
“But don’t tell yourself it’s healthy or better from a medical standpoint.”
