The world’s hairiest cultures – part two
So we’ve already looked at the cultures of the world that grow the longest head, face and chest hair – but what about the rest of the body? Moving swiftly on…
It’s a common stereotype that French women like to show off their hairy pits but most of Europe has adopted the idea over the last 60 or so years. It’s actually only vanity that leads us to shave our underarms as this particular body hair is rather useful; it prevents bacteria from forming and reduces friction (although it is a shame about the smell). There are some women who still go au naturel, though; in Brazil, Spain, the Czech Republic and Southeast Asia. Men mostly keep their underarm hair, except for in Muslim cultures where it’s considered unclean.
Now it wasn’t too long ago that having the full whack of hair down there was the norm but nowadays, things are a little difference. The spread of pornography, for example, meant the idea of being ‘bare down there’ was suddenly a lot more mainstream and saw a huge rise in women running off to the beauty salon to have it all whipped off. Interestingly, the cultures that are the hairiest elsewhere are often the barest down there – Muslim cultures consider pubic hair to be dirty, whereas East Asian people (usually thought of as relatively hairless) are into letting their pubes grow long and free.
Across the world leg shaving is almost strictly for ladies – unless you’re a swimmer, wrestler, bodybuilder or such like. The main difference here is hair colour; cultures where people are mainly light haired tend to shave their legs less, where women who are darker have to break the razor out a little more often. In the Middle East and India however, many women don’t bother as they’re covered from head to toe for most of the time.
