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WOMEN and ARMPIT HAIR

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Original post by Axiomasher
Assuming you are a hetero male, would you refrain from dating a woman until or unless you knew they shaved their pits? If you took a chance and dated without knowing and found you really liked them would the subsequent discover of their preference not to shave armpits cause you to leave them?


Not at all. I wouldn’t really mind tbf but I’d prefer it shaven
Original post by Death and Taxes
Armpit hair on women is unpleasant and strongly implies they are feminists.


Unpleasant how?
Original post by Andymh
Then why aren't we born with it?...


Maybe we don't sweat so much pre-puberty.
@NinjaSquirrelninjasqu pubic hair prevents infection/spread of STIs but only to an extent I believe
Original post by AperfectBalance
Yes capitalism that helped bring you such things as affordable washing and incredibly cheap soaps and cleaning fluid, funny how you put the blame on capitalism for everything, many people in the former soviet union did not even have running water whilst the capitalist world was mostly doing better in terms of water and cleanliness


From a Marxist perspective capitalism is a significant technological and distributive advance on that which has come before, just as, say, mercantilism was an advance on feudalism, this doesn't mean that capitalism hasn't generated plenty of its own 'internal contradictions' to use the associated terminology.
Original post by Andymh
I am Western - I can only comment on the Western world, I guess what I'm saying is that even if the practice did not continue uninterrupted there's a convergent evolution like quality to it. Also Roman sources talked of common folk very rarely so although your right we only know about the elite that's usually all we ever know about. As for latter in Europe it turns out Queen Elizabeth did it - https://www.elle.com/beauty/makeup-skin-care/tips/g8155/history-of-hair-removal/

Although if I remember correctly I think in the Islamic sunnah Muslims are told to shave pubic hair but would nee dot check that, there's some multiculturalism for you :biggrin:

I was right - https://islamqa.info/en/202827


That's fair enough though unless we actually have good evidence of practices taking place outside of elites then we should probably be cautious.
Not sure how true this is, but I read somewhere that companies around the 1930s started marketing razors to women as they wanted to make more money.

Probably likely to do with marketing products towards women for profit causing an overall cultural change in society for more recent times. However it could well have been in practice for thousands of years

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having body hair. It's natural and supposed to be there. Maybe over millions of years we'll evolve to no longer have body hair other than on our heads but that's a long way off it ever actually happens. It makes no difference to your health to keep it or shave it (other then potentially having allergic reactions or getting small cuts).

Personal preference should take most away in whether you want it shave or not.
Reply 47
Original post by Stanspam
It does seem slightly strange though how armpit hair and leg hair is considered to be unattractive, but no one really seems to care as much about arm hair?

Why do certain parts of the body get more attention than others?


I think it's more just that arm hair on girls is usually fine enough it's not particularly noticeable. I have known a surprising number of girls who feel the need to get rid of their arm hair though. Same with leg hair tbh. Even through uni, when the people in question had clearly gone through puberty, I knew a fair number who didn't shave their legs simply because they didn't need to. You couldn't visually tell unless you were inches away, and it didn't feel at all rough. Probably felt smoother than a lot of people who shave tbh.

Some girls are just lucky.
Reply 48
Original post by JustACoincidence
Maybe over millions of years we'll evolve to no longer have body hair other than on our heads but that's a long way off it ever actually happens.


It's a favourite joke of one of my bald friends that he's simply more evolved than the rest of us :biggrin:
This thread got me thinking, it’s really sad the way girls feel about body hair. If I haven’t shaved my legs I get anxious if my trousers ride up at my ankles incase someone sees hair, I won’t wear certain outfits if I haven’t shaved. I won’t even go to my all women’s gym incase someone sees I haven’t had time to shave. God forbid I hook up with a guy as anything less than bald from the neck down. I remember in PE girls picked on hairy legged girls and called them yeti when we were in middle school.

It’s just so sad that we are made to feel ashamed of what naturally grows on our bodies. I wonder how much money we spend on hair removal in our lives that we could be spending on fun things.
Reply 50
Original post by cat_mac
It’s just so sad that we are made to feel ashamed of what naturally grows on our bodies. I wonder how much money we spend on hair removal in our lives that we could be spending on fun things.


Yea, but let's be fair, it's not just hair removal. Both guys and girls would have so much more money if we all wore plain, undyed, unbranded clothes, never shaved any part of our body and didn't bother about hair cuts, hair styling etc. I know I've spent well into the hundreds of pounds trying to find a shaving technique that works, not to mention all the other things mentioned.

But people are expected to look a certain way. It's perfectly natural and tbh not just restricted to humans. There's plenty of species that would have a lot more time for important things like food if they didn't spend so long collecting and making things to impress the opposite sex, but that's just biology for you. We need to reproduce and have an ingrained selfish notion that it should be our genes that are carried on, so we put on displays and make ourselves look attractive to ensure that's the case.
Original post by Dheorl
Yea, but let's be fair, it's not just hair removal. Both guys and girls would have so much more money if we all wore plain, undyed, unbranded clothes, never shaved any part of our body and didn't bother about hair cuts, hair styling etc. I know I've spent well into the hundreds of pounds trying to find a shaving technique that works, not to mention all the other things mentioned.

But people are expected to look a certain way. It's perfectly natural and tbh not just restricted to humans. There's plenty of species that would have a lot more time for important things like food if they didn't spend so long collecting and making things to impress the opposite sex, but that's just biology for you. We need to reproduce and have an ingrained selfish notion that it should be our genes that are carried on, so we put on displays and make ourselves look attractive to ensure that's the case.


Never said it was just hair removal, I just think its sad that it feels necessary to literally rip the hair from your skin. (Waxing, tweezing, epilating, hair removal cream) a friend of a friend tweezes her pubes because she gets too bad a rash from everything else, it’s that important to some people to not have hair.

But ofc there are pressures on everyone to look a certain way and have certain things to be considered a valuable person. It’s not a competition to who has it worst.
Reply 52
Original post by cat_mac
Never said it was just hair removal, I just think its sad that it feels necessary to literally rip the hair from your skin. (Waxing, tweezing, epilating, hair removal cream) a friend of a friend tweezes her pubes because she gets too bad a rash from everything else, it’s that important to some people to not have hair.

But ofc there are pressures on everyone to look a certain way and have certain things to be considered a valuable person. It’s not a competition to who has it worst.


I was never claiming it was a competition, merely saying trying to look good in any way we think we can get an advantage is just years of natural evolution. I don't personally see hair removal from wherever on whomever any less sad than anything else we do to look good.
Never had any problem with armpit hair myself, be it on men or women.
I don't like armpit hair on myself. What other women choose to do, idc.
Body hair we associate with rugged masculinity and scruffiness. Some people see it as barbaric and dirty. Men have more body hair, women have less. To have less body hair is therefore seen as feminine and more as masculine. Ergo it has become popular for women to remove their body hair, particularly in recent decades when it has become more acceptable for women to show their bare legs and arms.
Original post by Dandaman1
Body hair we associate with rugged masculinity and scruffiness. Some people see it as barbaric and dirty. Men have more body hair, women have less. To have less body hair is therefore seen as feminine and more as masculine. Ergo it has become popular for women to remove their body hair, particularly in recent decades when it has become more acceptable for women to show their bare legs and arms.


I think that's a reasonable hypothesis but women don't generally shave the hair on their heads and often instead go to the effort to have long hair or hair of a 'full' appearance.
Reply 57
Original post by Axiomasher
Maybe we don't sweat so much pre-puberty.


Ignoring the scent glands that kick in during puberty?
Reply 58
Original post by Axiomasher
That's fair enough though unless we actually have good evidence of practices taking place outside of elites then we should probably be cautious.


Well Islam was founded around 1400 years ago and prescribed the removal of public hair for all so there's one place.
Original post by Andymh
Ignoring the scent glands that kick in during puberty?


It could be a combo reason. It's interesting that in modern society we are generally obsessed with masking the potential scent from our armpits, whether we have shaved them or not. Most people seem to dislike the smell of BO even though it is a natural smell.

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