It is more hygienic not to shave it (although depilation does make pubic lice homeless). In removing their pubic hair, most women will get cuts or ingrown hairs, and some will develop inflammation of the hair follicles or hyperpigmentation.
Removing pubic hair is not necessary to keep the vulva or vaginal area clean. Pubic hair can help protect the skin and prevent chafing. Hair removal is a personal preference. Some people do not remove any of their pubic hair, and others may remove only the hair that grows outside of the bikini line.
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.
Is it unhygienic? No, pubic hair is not unhygienic. However, it does trap dirt and sweat, so it can become more pungent than areas of the body that have less hair. Like other areas of the body, pubic hair does require regular cleaning.
Pubic hair removal is common — approximately 80 percent of women ages 18 to 65 report they remove some or all of their pubic hair.
Pubic Hair Trends
According to the researchers, when asked if they removed their pubic hair, 80% of women and 39% of men removed their pubic hair near the time of the survey. Also, 3% of women and 21% of men had never removed their pubic hair.
From the gynecologist's perspective, shaving regularly to eliminate pubic hair has drawbacks. Razors harbor bacteria and cause some abrasion of the skin; especially in a moist environment. This creates a setup for a bacterial skin infection.
Trimming pubic hair will prevent skin irritation: Trimming will help you keep yourself tidy. It will not cause any skin irritation if done in the right manner. It is a good idea to trim after speaking to the doctor to avoid any unwanted problems. Shaving gives you a cleaner appearance.
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.
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.
Folliculitis is typically caused by bacteria. Folliculitis causes red and white pimples to grow around the hair follicle resulting in that prickly feeling after shaving. Rest assured, mild cases of folliculitis should clear on its own within a number of days.
This practice may result in adverse health consequences, including genital burns from waxing, severe skin irritation leading to post inflammatory hyperpigmentation, vulvar and vaginal irritation and infection, and the spread or transmission of sexually transmitted infections (STI).
Yes. It's perfectly fine to carefully trim your pubic hair with small scissors along your swimsuit or underwear line. Many girls trim their pubic hair, or go to a salon to have a “bikini wax”; others prefer to shave just about every day, and many just leave it alone. Removing pubic hair is a personal preference.
Common causes of genital itching include contact dermatitis, jock itch, scabies, yeast infection, and folliculitis. Your healthcare provider can help you determine the cause and point you to the best treatment and prevention strategies.
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.
And also, it's hairless. As with swimmers, athletes, gymnasts and others who wear leotards for a living, constant depilation is part of the job. That goes for men as well as women. “I choose to shave because it gives me a sense of readiness,” says dancer and choreographer Eliot Smith.
The amount of pubic hair that women generally have is quite variable, and some women are relatively hairless. In many cultures and with different fashions, having minimal pubic and axillary hair is considered 'normal' and hair may be actively removed.
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.
Trimming or shaving your pubic hair, for instance, may increase your chances of contracting STIs like herpes, HPV, genital warts, syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia and even HIV, according to a recent study from the University of California at San Francisco.
If you want to avoid the stubbly look you can get from shaving, you can use depilatories or wax. A depilatory is a cream or liquid that removes hair from the skin's surface. Depilatories work quickly, are available at drugstores and grocery stores, and are painless.