(hell, yeah) Scarleteen

Whether people go for the neatly trimmed looked, the landing strip, or the full on Brazilian it seems that how they get there may take to them to the ER as often as it takes them to the beach. It seems almost comical, until you read the report by scientist at the University of California, San Francisco about the cuts, scrapes, and burns to the urogenital area that have been rising in recent years. Pubic hair grooming injuries increased five-fold between 2002 and 2010 with an estimated 2,500 injuries in 2010. The majority of these injuries (57 percent were in women) but no small number (43 percent) occurred among men. And these figures are likely an underestimate given how many people may not seek help.  

Our increasing fascination with barely there or not there pubic hair has been well documented as a beauty trend in everything from fashion magazines to pop culture (I’m thinking of a certain episode of Sex and the City) to surveys to academic research. The current report points to surveys which suggest that a majority of young women (70 to 88 percent) partially or fully remove their pubic hair as do 58 to 78 percent of men (both gay and heterosexual). This changing cultural norm was documented by researchers at the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University in a 2011 study in which they looked at Playboy centerfolds from 1953 to 2007. They say that pubic hair began disappearing from the pictures in the seventies and was completely gone by the late 2000s.

I have been part of numerous debates among colleagues about what it means that society has now convinced women (and men too) that a natural part of puberty is problematic. Many argue that pubic hair exists for a reason—to protect sensitive skin and that we should be encouraging young people to leave it alone. Others say that it’s a harmless beauty fad. Which side one is on is most often a result of age with older colleagues (those who came of age when pubic hair was still thought of as fashionable or sexy) arguing in favor of the natural state and younger ones in favor of a little man- or –woman-scaping now and then. 

Though this study by no means settles the sociological argument, it does suggest that we should warn young people about the potential for injuries that come with various methods of grooming pubic hair. The study found that 83 percent of injuries were from razors, 22 percent from scissors, and 1.4 percent from hot wax. Moreover, though the mean age of those injured was 31, a good deal (29 percent) of injuries in women occurred in those under 18.

From Martha Kempner at RH Reality Check here.