Penis Hair Removal: The Down-Low On Manscaping

Manscaping – removal of the penis hair –has been going on for millennia. However, it has become more prevalent in recent years. As long as he is careful with the razor, there’s no reason why a guy who wants to manscape shouldn’t do so. But how many men do manscape? And when they do, how do they do it, and why?

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Who Removes Their Penis Hair – Stats on Manscaping
There have been few peer-reviewed surveys about pubic hair removal, but a couple are worth looking at. A 2014 study entitled “Pubic Hair Preferences, Reasons for Removal, and Associated Genital Symptoms: Comparisons Between Men and Women” [i] looked at 1,110 men and women of college age – 671 women, 439 men. It focused on whether participants had groomed their pubic hair within the last four weeks. Perhaps surprisingly, 95% of respondents had indeed done so at least once. Of the men, 397 of 439 (or 90.4%) answered that they manscaped in some fashion during that time.

By contrast, a 2016 study entitled “Prevalence and Motivation: Pubic Hair Grooming Among men in the United States” [ii] found that far fewer men manscaped. Out of the 4,198 men studied, only 2,120 (or 50.5%) said that they manscaped regularly. Why the significant discrepancy? One likely reason is that this study looked at men aged 18 to 65, whereas the earlier study had looked solely at college men. And this study did find that manscaping was much more common among younger men. Those who groomed regularly had an average age of 41.4 vs. 48 for those that did not groom. Interestingly, education may also be a factor; Almost 40% of groomers had completed college instead of non-groomers.

How Low do They Go?
But precisely what do these guys mean when they talk about manscaping? Are they talking about shaving all the hair away down to the skin? Or a trim? Or what? Again, there’s considerable variation.

In the first survey, about 19% of the men shaved it all off regularly, and about 22% sometimes did a to-the-skin shave; while 24% removed some of their pubic hair, but not all; and 22% went in for just a trim, instead of total removal of the penis hair.

The latter survey did not differentiate between how much hair was trimmed or removed, but it did offer insights as to where hair was groomed. Results showed that 87% of men groom the hair in the crotch above the penis, 66% groom the hair on the scrotum, and 57% groom the hair on the penis shaft.

Why Do Men Choose to Trim?
But what about why men choose to manscape? In both surveys, sex and hygiene were the top reasons why a guy would pubically groom. In some cases, men felt that having a hair-free pubic area would increase their likelihood of oral sex, or a partner would appreciate it.

Some men also felt that a groomed pubic area was more comfortable and more appealing. And some reported grooming before a trip to the doctor or to have a surgical procedure performed.

Interestingly, although many men reported that there were drawbacks –such as the possibility of a razor nick or a temporary increase in penile itching immediately following shaving – these did not seem to be a cause of great concern.

Penile itching and other minor discomforts from manscaping to different causes can often be addressed using a superior penis health crème. Keeping penis skin moisturized is highly recommended, especially for those shaving down to the skin, so select a crème with a combination of hydration, vitamin E, and natural shea butter. It also pays to find a crème with retinol (aka vitamin A), which has anti-bacterial properties that can help fight the persistent penis odor that offends so many partners.

Sources:

[i] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jsm.12763

[ii] http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1557988316661315Most men understand that maintaining penis health is the key to healthy sex life. With that in mind, men often take pains to keep their penis in good working order. But some aspects of penis health are dependent on other parts of the body – including the heart. Understanding how the gut affects penis function can help a man maintain his sexual wellbeing.