Shirtless men with no chest hair, what's up with that?

[lilenglishninja]

Hair removal isn't a new thing. Julius Caesar used to have every hair plucked from his body, and that was 2000-odd years ago. Shaving suddenly sounds easier doesn't it? Speaking as a 29yo woman, I find that a waxed/clean shaven male chest just looks cleaner/more hygienic. Not that that's strictly true, but I reckon it's hooked into some evolutionary psychological thing. Sounds weird I know, but if you consider that it is body hair that traps the sweat that bacteria then feed on and create wicked BO, which is often associated with poor hygiene and is very off-putting.

Also, probably the more important consideration, my skin is pretty sensitive, so you can imagine that I'm none to fond of something that feels like a wire brush against my chest...

The Jacob/Edward thing makes me feel slightly nauseaus. Liking a lack of hair has nothing to do with liking boys. Eaagh!

 

[Buccura]

I myself prefer clean shaven chests.

 

[Hader]

I sport a small-ish amount of chest hair. If I let it grow unchecked, it is noticeable, but isn't a whole lot. Even that small amount looks meh to me so I sometimes shave it off or trim it or something. Because why not?

 

[iamthelizardqueen88]

Its because chest/stomach hair is icky

 

[SinisterGehe]

I don't have chest hair, neither did my father and far as I recall neither did my grandfather. Oddly enough my brother has chest hair, thats genetics for you.

But, what if they don't like chest hair. Example, I don't like to have hair on my torso or my back, I even keep my private hair trimmed, no mustache either, but I keep my beard short and trimmed.

Is there something wrong by keeping your body hair in a condition that you like it to be? If you like to be nice and tidy with it... And wait a second, Is this a problem for you? You honestly THAT shallow? So what if they want to look like that, it is not your problem! If the girls like hairless men, Well... It is up to you. I don't care for them - I'll let you even have my portion if you start to feel desperate.

 

[MasterChief892039]

The men you're seeing probably waxed. A large number of women (like me for example), think it's more attractive because hair is gross and it gets in the way of muscle-oogling.

In case you hadn't noticed, our culture hates hair - especially on women.

 

[lilenglishninja]

Just a quick question to all the guys here (especially if you are happy with your own hairy chest): would you date/have a relationship with a woman who has a hairy chest?

 

[SilentCom]

I don't really have chest hair, frankly I think that it's out of style and maybe a lot of guys can't grow chest hair.

 

[Deshin]

I had this exact conversation a couple of days ago... lemme break it down for ya

*pulls up a chair*

From 2007 - 2010 I worked in this hotel that catered for nothing but German students (13-20) during the summer. Often, being 19 at the time, I got on well with the groups and was invited with them on various trips and outtings, often to the beach. Every single one of them was shaved/waxed in some way shape or form; I felt the odd one out (being mediterranean and thus having a full chest of hair by 19).

Thanks to the above story, I began thinking about it over time, noticing different trends in the people and came to the following conclusion:

It's a fad, popularised in the current generation for 2 reasons.

First of all we have many sportsmen who shave for practical reasons (swimmers, sweat, etc) and male models/actors who shave to show off their toned muscles (protip: which do jack shit for strength, true strongmen have large torsos due to their spine being encased in muscle to prevent damage from doing strong stuff). So of course people decided it'd be nice to emulate these perceived 'alpha males' and follow suite.

Second of all, it's popular in America for black men to not have any hair. (inb4omgracist) It's a general thing, I won't go into reasons but the many (especially in any form of media spotlight) do and they make it look good. Then of course there was the whole "thug 4 lyfe" movement which was so popular in the 90s people started to emulate the look and trend in order to appear more "gangsta". This trend carried on in the mindset and now today you have people who shave off all their body hair because it's the "in" thing to do, without any regard or detailed analysation of the original context, scenario, or thought process that went into doing it at the time.

tl;dr INDOCTRINATION

 

[Deshin]

Just a quick question to all the guys here (especially if you are happy with your own hairy chest): would you date/have a relationship with a woman who has a hairy chest?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_sex_characteristic#In_humans

No, but that's because women aren't generally SUPPOSED to have hair on their chests; at least not in the same way men do. Torso hair on men is a secondary sex characteristic due to the increased levels of testosterone, women don't get it the same reason they don't grow beards; because they, by nature, are not designed to. Many girls do have *some* hair on their chests, but they're usually so tiny and fine people don't notice, that's totally alright.

 

[lilenglishninja]

Just a quick question to all the guys here (especially if you are happy with your own hairy chest): would you date/have a relationship with a woman who has a hairy chest?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_sex_characteristic#In_humans

No, but that's because women aren't generally SUPPOSED to have hair on their chests; at least not in the same way men do. Torso hair on men is a secondary sex characteristic due to the increased levels of testosterone, women don't get it the same reason they don't grow beards; because they, by nature, are not designed to. Many girls do have *some* hair on their chests, but they're usually so tiny and fine people don't notice, that's totally alright.

Yup, I'm very well aware of this. Just bear in mind that both men AND women were a lot hairier once. The point I was trying to make is that just because it's still a by-product of being a guy, in many but definitely not all guys, doesn't mean that women like it any more than men. Why should it they? If a guy can recoil from a woman with a very very slightly hairy chest (and I've talked with guys who done just that - they hated it), why can't a woman do the same when a guy has an absolute forest back and front?

Evolutionarily speaking, both men and women have been losing body hair for hundreds of thousands of years anyway, as hairlessness has obviously been either considered attractive for that long, or at some time it conveyed a characteristic (directly or indirectly) that improved the survival of the individuals without hair (remember, neutral characteristics that don't convey either advantage or disadvantage tend to stick around - so why don't we look similar to chimpanzees?).

My preference as already stated is no chest hair. Still, I don't have a problem with guys who are happy with their hairy chests, but I do dislike bare-chest/torso bashing, or men complaining that their girlfriends don't like it.

 

[Apollo45]

Unfortunately, I'm mostly Russian, and a significant part of my heritage is Scottish. My family has a tradition of being hairy. Unfortunately, that also means that my finely sculpted man-chest has more hair than average. Admittedly, not as much as some - it's not a forest. And it comes with added benefits - I've been able to grow a pretty awesome beard since sophomore year of high school. Typically I make sure it's trimmed, but when I get old and don't care about how I look, I'll be able to grow that Gandalf beard that I've always wanted, and that fact alone makes up for the rest of the hair.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

Some people just...don't grow chest hair. The ones of us who don't are fucking lucky, given chest hair is fucking disgusting in every way.

 

[roysourboy]

Some people in this world have a different body to me and I find that truly terrifying?
That's all I see this thread as.

 

[Scorched_Cascade]

For the swimming advantage?

Its because chest hair is not sexy. It used to be in films all the time that a playboy like James Bond would have chest hair but its way, way out of fashion now. There are girls who like it but the majority do not. You can thank mainstream media for indoctrination if you like but its just gross.

 

[Popido]

I consider it as CP.

 

[s0m3th1ng]

In case you hadn't noticed, our culture hates hair - especially on women.

This is why I carefully keep my body as hairless as possible. I've only ever waxed once...and that was at the behest of a girl...but I shave my crotch, armpits, and chest every week. It's only fair. Females go through a ton of effort keeping themselves hairless/clean for the males...why not the other way around?

 

[Freechoice]

I'm a 20 year old Russian guy. I have really hairy legs, fairly hairy arms, and very little hair on my chest. I'm not quite sure why it worked out that way.

I am not a Russian guy. I have some German, some French and varying shades of brown and am in the exact same boat as you.

 

[Nickolai77]

I'm pretty hairy, i have black hair over my chest, torso and some on my back as well. I would rather be a bit less hairy, mainly because i worry that there is some sort of correlation between hairy chests and baldness, but i'm not very concerned with the fact that currently being hairy isn't fashionable- it's not like i walk around the street with no top on.