The research shows that body hair by itself is not a cause of bad body odor. But everyone is unique. Some guys report smelling better after their shave their armpits, body hair, or pubes. They feel that it makes them sweat less and smell better.
Pubic hair holds on to residual urine, vaginal discharge, blood and semen. Bacteria line up all along the hair shaft just lunching it up and creating odor. (Very appetizing, I know.) Trimming your pubic hair reduces that surface area for bacteria, thus reducing odor.
Grooming Optimizes Hygiene
When you feel good in your body, you just feel better overall. Shaving your pubic hair, or even slightly trimming it, helps keep your goods cleaner by exposing skin to soap and water that's normally covered by hair. Pretty simple.
"The hair traps the smell," Michael Cackovic, M.D., an ob/gyn at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, tells SELF. "What you can smell is bacteria mixing with the sweat and oil." But Rowen says that as long as you have good hygiene in general, your pubic hair isn't any worse off than the hair on your head.
Vaginal odor can be caused by diet, sweating, menstruation, or pregnancy. It can sometimes also be caused by infections like bacterial vaginosis or trichomoniasis.
Many of the common “ingrown hairs,” skin rashes, infected hair follicles as well as more serious abscesses and skin infections in the genital region can be traced back to shaving.
There's also a chance some hairs will become ingrown. This means that the hair that's trying to grow back gets trapped under the skin. This can lead to redness, pain, and tiny bumps in the area. Sometimes people can get skin infections from shaving.
To keep the pubic area smooth and hairless, you'll need to shave regularly, even daily. Consider if this is worth the trouble; it may become tedious after four or five weeks.
The bacteria on your skin breaks down the sweat, which creates the unpleasant smell. The bottom line is this: shaving armpits and body hair leads to fewer bacteria and less smell.
The goal was to maximize each participant's natural body odor, with the only changing factor being their armpit hair (or lack of it). By the end of the study, researchers concluded that men who removed their armpit hair by waxing it off or shaving it with a razor had the least body odor.
It is postulated that removal of axillary hair by blade shaving or waxing provides soaps and cleansing products with better access to the skin and follicular openings for more effective odor reduction in the underarm than when hairs are present or clipped with scissors.
It is not more hygienic to shave pubic hair. Some girls decide to remove it (as a personal preference) but there are no health benefits. In fact, there are risks associated with shaving your pubic hair including: razor burn (rash), redness, itching (from hair growing back), and infection in the hair root.
The issue with shaving all the time? "If you do remove hair too frequently, you can end up with something called folliculitis, which is an infection of the hair follicle," Dr. Metz says. Basically, the act of shaving poorly can damage the follicle and cause inflammation.
There are some benefits to not shaving like better sex, a reduced chance for skin infections, and a more regulated body temperature. Ultimately, you should go with whatever style makes you feel comfortable.
You're Less Likely To Get Rashes
If you don't shave, those things aren't really a possibility anymore, leaving you and your lady parts in peace. Indeed, Dweck listed infected hair follicles (folliculitis), rashes, and irritation (razor burn) as some of the most common issues she sees from patients who shave.
Pubic hair may extend out to their thighs, and some girls may have a line of hair up to their belly button. Most girls attain their peak height by age 16, but some may continue growing through age 20.
The practice of removing female body hair is not new, it can be traced back to ancient Rome and Egypt. Some of the first razors, made of copper, were used in Egypt and India around 3000 BCE. Egyptian women removed their head hair and considered pubic hair uncivilized.
According to Odors Away, baking something sweet, like cookies or the perfect dessert to complement your fish entree, can replace the fishy smell with something new—and much more pleasant.
Your genes can also play a big role in how good or bad you smell. In fact some people, no matter how much they shower, still smell bad. Callewaert has found these individuals have a larger amount of “bad” bacteria. His approach is to replace the “bad” bacteria that produce the smell with “good” bacteria.