Pubic hair plays a very important role in sexual health. It prevents against friction burns during sex. This the reason pubic hair is coarser and thicker than the hair on the rest of our bodies.
Marc Glashofer, a dermatologist and fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology, claims that the texture of pubic hair tends to be thicker and more coarse than hair on the rest of our body because of its origins as a buffer. “It prevents friction during intercourse that can cause skin abrasion and rashes,” he says.
Some women will naturally grow thicker or thinner hair than others, so typically there's no cause for alarm when there's slight variation. However, there are certain medical conditions that can attribute to an overgrowth or undergrowth of pubic hair.
Our findings indicate that the cuticle layer of pubic hair has a greater number of scales than that of scalp hair, resulting in a thicker cuticle layer overall.
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.
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.
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.
Pubic hair is thicker and more coarse than the hair on other parts of your body, making it noticeably itchier when it begins to grow back.
Weiss speculates that one of the main reasons that human beings uniquely evolved a “thick bush of wiry hair” around their genital regions is its visual signaling of sexual maturation. (It also likely serves as a primitive odor trap and aids in the wafting of human pheromones.)
Pubic hair is naturally thicker and more coarse than hair that grows on other parts of your body. But like other hair, your pubic hair requires natural oils to stay healthy.
Yes, everyone has butt hair. Once puberty hits, hair begins to grow in all kinds of ~specific~ places (like on your underarms, legs, pubic area, face, and, yes, butt). It's 100 percent normal (and expected) and we promise that you, your crush, and your besties all have butt hair.
It can be very enjoyable when your partner touches your pubic hair, or blows some warm air across it. Pubic also eases friction during sexual intercourse. Pubic hair helps in reducing friction when parts of the body rub together, or rub against clothing.
Plucking your pubic hair can be painful and takes a long time. Plucking can cause redness, swelling, itching, irritation, and damage to the skin. It can also result in ingrown hairs (where the hair curls backward or sideways under the skin) and infection.
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.
Shaving, whether it's your legs, armpits, or pubic area, is a personal choice. You certainly don't have to shave before sex if you don't want to. Shaving pubic hair (or not) is a cosmetic preference, and it does not mean you are "cleaner" if you shave. If you do prefer to shave, try not to do it right before sex.
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.
After menopause, when estrogen levels decline, pubic hair - along with the hair on the head - stops growing. Not everyone will experience pubic hair loss after menopause, it may simply turn grey or simply thin.
Pubic hair and hair on the body doesn't usually grow back after the menopause, this is due to levels of estrogen and progesterone remaining low as we continue to age. Not everyone will lose their pubic hair.
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 board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. Felice Gersh, MD, there is a “basic normal amount” of female pubic hair. She explains, "Typically it should cover all of the labia majora to the inner surface of the thighs and up to the pubic bone-roughly shaped like a triangle."
Does pubic hair cease growing once it's reached a certain length? All hair grows at a contstant rate, but eventually falls out. With body hair, which typically does not grow as long as head hair, the rate at which it falls out is greater. This results in hair that appears to reach a certain length then stops growing.