Manscaping: A pretty hairy situation

Some men like to give themselves a little trim to avoid looking like a caveman from the prehistoric era. Others go all out and wax eyebrows, trim armpits and shave their legs. Manscaping is a popular term that describes the trend of men who trim or remove their body hair. This idea became popular for many different reasons. Some men remove hair for athletic purposes such as swimming or wrestling. Many men that have tattoo sleeves shave their arms. Other men prefer having no hair in some regions to improve their physical appearance. However, there are men who refuse to engage in manscaping because they believe it's a feminine practice. Statistics show that most women prefer a man who manscapes his body. According to the Web site fitbuff.com, 73 percent of women prefer a man with a bare chest because it seems more sexy and sculpted. When it comes to back hair, 85 percent of women believe that men should take the lawn mower to their hairy backs. Finally, 67 percent of women prefer a man who trims his genitals. These women don't want to navigate through an unkempt rosebush when they are in bed with their man. They also believe that trimming can make the penis appear bigger. Men have several options when it comes to trimming and removing unwanted hair while manscaping. Men who just want to trim hair usually use a shaver. If a man wants to completely remove hair, he looks to wax. This is a form of hair removal that usually will keep hair from growing back for a few weeks. Some men that know they will never want to have hair in certain regions are turning to laser hair removal. This form of hair removal is costly and takes several laser sessions per year, but hair will be gone for longer periods of time. Many women have their own opinions on the increasing trend of manscaping. Amanda Larson, a junior German major, believes manscaping is very hygienic. She also believes since women have been doing it for years, it's perfectly normal for men to pick up the trend. Larson thinks that manscaping makes men feel more comfortable and can give them a self-esteem boost if they are uncomfortable with unwanted hair. Melissa Carter, a senior psychology major, said the idea of manscaping does not bother her. She knows a few men who manscape their bodies. One man she knows manscapes because he does not like hair everywhere, so he removes it to be more attractive. "I think that manscaping is more common now than it was years ago," Carter said. Men have their own opinions on manscaping. According to Alex Kolpack, a sophomore geology major, men should definitely keep hair in certain regions trimmed and clean looking. Kolpack knows many men who engage in manscaping, ranging from shaving chest hair all the way to genital hair. "Many men engage in manscaping because hair can seem vile, unattractive and disgusting at points," Kolpack said. Kolpack agrees with Carter that manscaping is becoming more common. As previously mentioned, one reason that men manscape is tattoos. Men that have an arm or chest full of tattoos usually keep these areas well shaved. Moe Metternich, owner of Mayhem Ink, a local tattoo shop in Green Bay, has a sleeve of tattoos and shaves his arms. He originally shaved his arm when he got his tattoos to prevent the hair from being pushed into the skin and causing infection. After he got his tattoos, he kept shaving his arm hair because it was itchy when it grew back. Metternich also knows many other guys who shave because of tattoos, and he believes that women prefer a manscaped guy. Other men engage in manscaping for hygienic reasons, as well as physical appearance reasons. Tyler Dorner, a senior civil engineering major at UW-Platteville, engages in manscaping for these two reasons. Dorner manscapes his genital region for aesthetic purposes and because many other men at his age level do it. He said having an untrimmed and hairy pubic region is uncomfortable and itchy. "I manscape for hygienic purposes and it helps when I sweat so I don't smell," Dorner said. "It is disgusting when you go into a bathroom and find pubic hair on the urinals, so I assume there are still many guys who do not manscape." According to Web site nationmaster.com, until the late 70s, it was considered a secret for American males to shave or otherwise remove hair below the neck. Some exceptions were swimmers and wrestlers who shave their body hair to improve athletic performance. Now more than 75 percent of men claim that they manscape. The same poll found 87 percent of women preferred men that engage in manscaping.