Pubic hair styles - pubic hair styles for women, how to shape and style womens pubic hair, pubic hair styles for men, bikini wax information for a first time bikini wax, guide to shaving pubic hair and how to trim pubic hair, pubic trimming styles
Pubic Hair Cuts
A Short Back and Sides for
your Short and Curlies, Madam?
Christine Zaratak gives the low-down on pubic hair styles ...
This Healthzest article first published November 2004, updated November 2004
What could possibly be more alluring than that triangular dusting of hair between the legs? Pubic hair I like. I get pubes in a big way. As you can probably already tell.
But, as a girl who questions everything, I have questions. Here's a sampling:
- Why are my pubes curlier than a sheep?
- What's it all for? Does my pubic hair have a role - or is truly as useless as a chocolate teapot?
- Why, indeed, does pubic hair receive so much public (I promise faithfully not to use that as even a hint of pun) attention nowadays?
- Why do girls shave their pubic hair? What's the process for a pubic hair shave? And what are the pros and cons of living with a shaved pubic area?
- If pubic styling is so important, how do I go about improving (in lieu of losing) what nature has so kindly bestowed upon me 'down there'?
Well, with significantly more research than 'pubic sporran' under my belt, I'm pleased, for anyone who's interested, to answer these and other questions in this overview of pubic hair and the wonderful new world of pubic hair art.
Pubic Hair? What? And why?
Pubic hair is most likely nothing more than a hangover from our much hairier (and presumably less fashion-conscious) ancestors. Hair, like the fur and feathers on our cousins in the animal kingdom, kept homo habilis and his predecessors warm, in those oh-so dark days before synthetic fur coats and Gucci underpants.
Warmth clearly has very little to do with it nowadays, unless of course you're unlucky enough to be caught in the altogether on a windswept stretch of Alaskan tundra, when you can relax with the knowledge that your privates are warmly insulated. Or not. Pubic hair plays a largely sexual role for us today. We're born pube-free as an indication of infancy and sexual immaturity. Ascension into puberty is clearly delineated by the arrival of pubic hair - pubic maturity indicates we're ready for the fun stuff (well, if the procreation and upbringing of children can truly be called fun). Pubic hair acts as nature's signpost when two naked people get together, telegraphing the way to the closest adult entertainment centers. And, so they tell me, pubic hair also acts to gather your erogenous scents, the oft-eulogized pheromones. Well, every little helps.

So why do my pubes look like they need ironing?
Fuzzy pubes were here well before you got addicted to corn curly snacks. The untamed look is driven by our hair follicles. Each follicle provides an individual launching pad under your skin for each individual hair to push through your epidermis to the outside world. At the outset of puberty, our bodies release androgens, sex hormones which, among other things, let the follicles in your pubic area know that it's time to grow a nice neat triangle of pubic hair. Or, in my case, perhaps not so neat. Your pubic hair follicles are very, very sensitive to androgens, and because they are specially kinky (I mean that in the curly sense, of course), they tend to push out pubic hair that's typically kinkier and coarser than the material that covers your head.
OK, so what on earth has brought pubic hair (or the lack of it) and pubic fashion so much into the public eye, so to speak?
A quick gallop through the recent mainstream history of all things pubic begins on the shoreline of the French Riviera. Unlike less trendy 'naturist' beaches in many parts of the world, the seafronts of Cannes and St Tropez have been consistently patronized by the young and the rakish, who are now well accustomed to at least partial exposure of their erogenous zones to the casual inspection of all and sundry.
How did it all start? Well, the French Riviera claims the first appearances of bikinis on an actual beach rather than a photo studio, and Brigitte Bardot's subsequent topless appearance (the first of many, so I am assured) with some of her more adventurous friends on a St Tropez beach in 1967.
Only a few years later, in 1970, the role of exposing pubic hair "albeit modest to the point of invisibility" fell, for the first time in a pornographic magazine, to Britain's Penthouse.
Back on the beaches of the Mediterranean, public displays of pubic hair became commonplace on the long, happening reaches of the Plage de Pampelonne, a stone's throw from St Tropez. Today, of course, there are 'clothes optional' beaches throughout Europe, dotting the Caribbean, and elsewhere.

For the slightly more bush-blush-prone, the beaches of Rio de Janeiro gave birth in the mid 70's to the tanga - otherwise known as the string bikini or 'dental floss' - which provides suitable coverup for the pubic area, but none at all for the exalted Brazilian derriere. However, pubic fashion really came into its own, of course, with the invention of the diminutive Brazilian bikini, so small that pubic hair is typically removed altogether - or trimmed to leave only a small 'landing strip' which nestles behind these impossibly small garments. And so the celebrated Brazilian bikini wax was born, a process I am given to understand involves hot wax, ice, latex gloves and a large bottle of good Scotch. You may gather from this that I haven't yet subjected my own delicate pubes to such ministrations.
Which of course leads us more or less neatly on to the broader topic of ...
Pubic Hair Styles
Pubic grooming, as you are gathering, is all the rage nowadays. Particularly, of course, among the ranks of the chic and the well-heeled. And you don't have even to have a hankering to reveal your carefully-landscaped privates on the beaches of southern Europe. Nope, just to be remotely in-vogue nowadays, you need to invest in your bush as a fashion accessory no less important than your next Prada handbag.
You may remember how Sex In The City's Carrie Bradshaw took her pubes in for a service and a trim during a visit to Los Angeles, and inadvertently left with a full on bikini wax - without, we are given to understand, the merest hint of a 'landing strip'. A burgeoning collection of posh beauty salons in LA, Manhattan and London will willingly relieve you of a princely sum in exchange for removing most, if not all, of what you have 'down there'. To top it off, some will then make use of the pubic hair-free area as a blank canvas for the crafting of a tastefully sexy tattoo, stylishly airbrushed perilously close to your most precious assets.
But, heavens (and ex-Playboy Playmate Deborah Driggs, who knows a thing or two about these matters) be warmly thanked, there's now a guide to pubic fashion for the rest of us. Not for me the 5th Avenue spa or strips of molten wax - although Deborah's guide covers in some detail how you go about finding them. For my education in pubic hair designs, I turned, admittedly not without some trepidation, to the self-declared "girl's guide to 'primping, passion and pubic fashion" by Deborah Driggs and Karen Risch.

To my happy relief, this terrific e-Book manages to be both sensual and sensitive, liberally laced with fabulous pubic hair grooming photos, gorgeous pictures of different pubic hair styles, and excerpts from erotic literature. I learned about shaving without razor burn, waxing, grooming, bathing, sensuous massage, and, by no means an afterthought, how to use all this to achieve more intensely satisfying lovemaking.
Click here if you'd like to find out more. The book comes with details on pubic hair coloring (this, I had some fun with!), male pubic hair grooming (you bet), step-by-step pubic hair shaving tips for women - how to decorate your pubes so magnificently that you'll be equally proud (if your partner will let you ...) to display them in your bedroom or on a busy beach in Greece. When you do, be sure to email me your photos!
Christine Zaratak
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