Thread: Why do we shave?

Years ago, one of my favorite kink bloggers (who has since found domestic bliss and shut down her blog) posed the question: why do women shave? Is it for comfort? Is it to make us feel sexy? Is it to please/arouse our partners? Is it because society says we should? Is it to suit the clothing we wear?

I shave for all of those reasons, but I think fashion and comfort top the list. I don't feel right wearing shorts or stockings if I haven't shaved my legs. If I have armpit stubble, I have to wear a top with sleeves. Before I started shaving my girly bits, I hated that coarse-fuzzy feeling... and getting hair caught in elastic. To me, there's something inherently feminine in being smooth and hairless in certain areas.

What do you think, ladies? How do you feel about body hair and its removal?

Lilith, I see you are up early today! Good grooming is always in fashion. Women appreciate it and men don't do enough of it. I, myself, want a woman to smell fresh and clean and have a smile. Shaving is secondary. But hey, thats just me.

I would definitely say vanity is up there on the list. I don't feel sexy and pretty with a toupe under my arms while wearing something sleeveless. However, that's all society based. If we had never started, we wouldn't think anything of it. I'd also go with hygiene on the list. Excess hair traps moisture and oils that create odors that aren't really comparable to a nice body spray. Gotta keep that attractive clean, fresh smell so I don't smell like I just came out of the gym. The girl parts? I'm going to have to go with sex and hygiene there, but I won't elaborate.

Sometimes I just want to move to a mountain top where I don't see anyone and stop shaving completely... but that's not going to happen because I like the warm weather and the beach too much. When I lived in the cold climate, I'd let my legs go for about 3 months in the winter just to see what it was like. It was hairy... not sleek, didn't feel sexy, so it had to go.

All this talk... I'm going for a walk on the beach now!

Well... good thing there's this ladies bit of the forum. We gentlemen, in a gentlemanly fashion just might learn something, right? There's not much to learn concerning the face shaving bit, but on other topics. Ok... didn't come out right... sorry.

Hair removal is a thing of fashion, mostly, a social imposition of what is right and wrong. And we tend to go with the flow. For instance, before WWI facial hair was in style; in the 70's, if you didn't have facial hair of some kind, you were still in the 50's...

But for us gentlemen of all nations and creeds, knowing hair-stuff on our faces is ok, it's part of the business. But concerning ladies... that's different. And this just might be the right place to ask the questions we are affraid to ask...

So... I was talking about this same subject (the cultural relationship between women and hair that's not on their heads...) with my girlfriend and one question appeared: today women, by all methods know to (Wo)Men remove hair from their legs, armpits and other much debated areas; but... how was it in the 19th century and even in earlier periods, for instance?! What did Queen Victoria's legs looked like? And how about Martha Washington's armpits?

Just a thought...

Originally Posted by fpessanha

So... I was talking about this same subject (the cultural relationship between women and hair that's not on their heads...) with my girlfriend and one question appeared: today women, by all methods know to (Wo)Men remove hair from their legs, armpits and other much debated areas; but... how was it in the 19th century and even in earlier periods, for instance?! What did Queen Victoria's legs looked like? And how about Martha Washington's armpits?

I have a feeling that, because fashion didn't permit bare legs or upper arms in public, they wouldn't have shaved.

I just spent a few minutes on Google and found this:

http://www.quikshave.com/timeline.htm

It says that as early as 4000 B.C. women were making depilatory creams to remove their body hair. By 400 B.C. Roman, Indian, and Greek women were shaving, plucking, using creams, and/or burning off their leg hair.

From quikshave.com:

"Another marketing campaign around [World War I] convinced the women of North America to shave their body hair. Notably, women in the other parts of the world do not engage on masse in this ritual. Even in French Canada, the habit is not largely undertaken.


"It all began with the May, 1915 edition of Harper's Bazaar magazine that featured a model sporting the latest fashion. She wore a sleeveless evening gown that exposed, for the first time in fashion, her bare shoulders, and her armpits.


"A young marketing executive with the Wilkinson Sword Company, who also made razor blades for men, designed a campaign to convince the women of North America that:
(a) Underarm hair was unhygienic (b) It was unfeminine.


"In two years, the sales of razor blades doubled as our grandmothers and great grandmothers made themselves conform to this socially constructed gender stereotype. This norm for North American women has been reinforced by several generations of daughters who role-modeled their mothers."

There you have it. We've been removing hair for thousands of years.

Hey Lilith! I read your profile, it seems we have alot in common. I Love chainmail and also live in CT and I always wanted to be a welder. I wanna be you when I grow up!

About the shaving tho, mostly I feel cleaner when I shave. Although its nice to get all scruffy sometimes haha.

Originally Posted by LilithParker

Years ago, one of my favorite kink bloggers (who has since found domestic bliss and shut down her blog) posed the question: why do women shave? Is it for comfort? Is it to make us feel sexy? Is it to please/arouse our partners? Is it because society says we should? Is it to suit the clothing we wear?

I shave for all of those reasons, but I think fashion and comfort top the list. I don't feel right wearing shorts or stockings if I haven't shaved my legs. If I have armpit stubble, I have to wear a top with sleeves. Before I started shaving my girly bits, I hated that coarse-fuzzy feeling... and getting hair caught in elastic. To me, there's something inherently feminine in being smooth and hairless in certain areas.

What do you think, ladies? How do you feel about body hair and its removal?

Amen, sister! I'm not female but as a guy who loves women, there's nothing better than a woman's smooth skin. I know everyone wants to be their own person but I feel that there are some socially-accepted norms that have merit. Female shaving is one of them.