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Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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I've travelled a lot through Asia, and i've noticed that often the women don't shave any body hair off. They don't even shave their legs, including the ones with hairy legs (yes plenty of Asian women are quite hairy). I saw some older women in Sri Lanka with longer leg hair than most guys . I'm not saying they HAVE to, or should be pressured, but it got me wondering about culture/geography and shaving.
It goes from one extreme: epilating everything except head hair, which is probably commonest in North America and northern Europe (I'm wondering if Oz and the UK are on par or slightly behind the US). To doing nothing, which is probably typical of Africa, much of Asia...Southern European, Latin America and more modern parts of Asia seem in between. Like while say, 40% of American women trim, wax or shave their pubic hair, the percent in Japan seems much lower. It seems higher in Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand though. The Brazilian wax is from Brazil yet I hear a lot of Latinas aren't really into removing much body hair either.
The historical perspective is interesting. While removal of underarm hair was almost ubiquitous among women in the US by the 1950s, it wasn't mainstream in say France or China until say the 1970s or 1980s. I saw a middle aged Chinese women with hairy armpits recently.
Places I've been to in western / eastern / southern europe were mostly shaved. I never saw a woman with a hairy 'underbrush' armpit. Though on occasion would see wisps (not that I'm particularly looking either, it's just I travelled in summer months when women wear less clothing and invariably at times you notice, public transportation etc...) and when in Italy at beaches noticed a few.
Clinically speaking, I think hair in some places, is actually better hygiene as long as it is trimmed / groomed. Generalization being there are evolutionary reasons hair grows where it does on human body and for the most part, is better left as is as soft furry down, say 1/4 inch.
As a youth whenever I'd be in a museum or someplace where sculptures / paintings of women were, I never could understand why they were all 'shaved', then learned later the 'hair' was considered 'dirty' and artists would display the female form sans pubic hair.
Why say "as long as it is trimmed / groomed"? If such a thing were necessary, we'd find men suffering as a result of not doing it.
Good point. I think I mixed preference in there, so whatever a woman prefers on man I'd have to be subject too, to stay in good stead. What's good for goose is good for the other gender, haha.
I'm associating long hair in non cranial areas as also corresponding to the area is not cleaned as often and that longer hairs in those regions get matted and may accumulate sweat / bacteria without proper hygiene.
Good point. I think I mixed preference in there, so whatever a woman prefers on man I'd have to be subject too, to stay in good stead. What's good for goose is good for the other gender, haha.
There was a period in the US during the early women's liberation movement and the start of the natural health movement in the early 70's when shaving legs and underarms was considered a passe sexist grooming ritual that was contrary to cultivating naturalness of the body.
I think the idea had a point. Of course, the pendulum has swung the other way completely with pubic shaving. Maybe it will swing back.
As a youth whenever I'd be in a museum or someplace where sculptures / paintings of women were, I never could understand why they were all 'shaved', then learned later the 'hair' was considered 'dirty' and artists would display the female form sans pubic hair.
Never thought about it, but now that you've mentioned it the Greeks and Romans did the same with their male statues.
I had a friend who has worked in South Korea a while. He says Koreans (and Japanese) associate hair with sexual "power" and thus keep it.
I have a roommate who is Taiwanese and raised in the States. She says she doesn't shave her leg hair because she doesn't have much leg hair because she's Asian. She showed me her leg and she has as much hair as I do if I don't shave. For some reason she thinks that's not enough to shave. Oh well.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,060,466 times
Reputation: 11862
Quote:
Originally Posted by xxbabeechick
I have a roommate who is Taiwanese and raised in the States. She says she doesn't shave her leg hair because she doesn't have much leg hair because she's Asian. She showed me her leg and she has as much hair as I do if I don't shave. For some reason she thinks that's not enough to shave. Oh well.
Yeah I've been to Taiwan and some women there have enough leg hair that would make someone in the West shave. I think the most fashionable girls tend to though, but it hasn't become ubiquitous there.
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. I'm not saying they HAVE to, or should be pressured, but it got me wondering about culture/geography and shaving.
