Pubic hair
From Wikinfo
Pubic hair is hair in the frontal genital area and in the crotch, and sometimes at the top of the inside of the legs; these areas form the pubic region. Pubic hair starts to grow during puberty (for boys it starts to grow earlier than facial hair). Patterns of pubic hair vary widely. On some people, it is thick and/or coarse, while on others it may be sparse and/or fine. Pubic hair and axillary (armpit) hair is much darker than the hair of the scalp, and is accurately comparable to the colour of the eyebrows, if not darker (in both sexes, with the exclusion of albino people). This is due to the lack of "sun bleaching" that the hair experiences. On most women, the pubic patch is triangular and lies over the mons veneris, or mound of Venus. On many men, the pubic patch tapers upwards to a line of hair pointing towards the navel. As with axillary (armpit) hair, pubic hair is associated with a concentration of sebaceous glands in the area.
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Function of pubic hair
It is believed that the functions of pubic hair include the dissemination of pheromones, and protection from the friction of sexual intercourse.
Culture
Attitudes
In Japanese drawings pubic hair is often omitted for legal reasons, see hentai, as the display of pubic hair is not legal.
Modification
The following paragraphs are about females. For males, please see further down.
Trimming or completely removing pubic hair is a common practice in the Arab world. Since the 1960s it has become popular to trim or completely remove pubic hair in the western world (Europe and North America). In some regions of India and surrounding countries, this practice has been popular since before the 1960s.
Different cultures have different shaving habits as well as different reasons for why they modify or remove pubic hair, which include:
- hygiene, especially during menstruation
- aesthetic
- avoid unpleasantness during oral sex (hair in your mouth)
- tradition
- culture, e.g., India and BDSM cultures
- possibly Religion
For methods of how to remove hair, please see depilation.
Styles
As you can imagine, just about any style is possible, e.g., heart-shaped (to name just one). But these styles are very popular:
- trim the sides of the triangle (bikini line), so that pubic hair cannot be seen while wearing swimwear
- remove hair from both sides of labia majora, often seen with above trimming
- remove all, but a small patch, line or triangle over the clitoris
- remove all pubic hair
Today, social trends seems to lead to the removal of pubic hair.
Regions
Females between 15 and 40 years of age keep their pubic hair according to this table:
| Region | not modified [%] | trimmed [%] |
fully shaved [%] |
|---|---|---|---|
| USA/Canada | <10 | 60 | 30 |
| Europe | > 75 | < 15 | < 10 |
| South/Latin America | no information | ||
| Africa (w/o Arab countries) | no information | ||
| Arab world | <20 | 80 | |
| Australia | no information | ||
| South-East Asia | 85 | 5 | 10 |
| Indian subcontinent | 20 | 10 | 70 |
| Chinas/Koreas | 85 | 5 | 10 |
| Japan | 85 | 5 | 10 |
| Nudists | 25 | 10 | 65 |
| BDSM cultures | 15 | 5 | >80 |
The above table is a rough approximation by few Wikipedians. If you know solid statistics, please feel free to edit this page or post your comments at the talk page
- In Germany, almost 50% of the sauna-visiting females under the age 40 fully shave their pubic hairs. This seems to be the recent trend as in 2004. Anyway, the sauna-visiting population is not representative.
- With regard to the people of the Amazon basin, such as the Yanomami, who are predominantly naked in their daily life: Most adults pluck out all body hair. This may be to discourage parasites, or because body hair is considered unsightly. Adults and children groom one anothers head hair for lice and ticks, but such attention paid to the rest of the body may be problematic. Children often have their heads shaved during illness.
Men
Since the 1990s more and more men also trim or remove their pubic hair. Altogether it is seen much more rarely than in females. It is fashionable in BDSM cultures (approx. 30% shaved) or nudist cultures (approx. 10% shaved).
Like other hair, pubic hair may be infested by lice: see pubic lice.
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Pubic_hair" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pubic_hair, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
