Manscaping: A pretty hairy situation
Ashley Cravillion
Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: Life
Melissa Carter, a senior psychology major, said the idea of manscaping does not bother her. She knows a few men who manscape their bodies. One man she knows manscapes because he does not like hair everywhere, so he removes it to be more attractive.
"I think that manscaping is more common now than it was years ago," Carter said.
Men have their own opinions on manscaping.
According to Alex Kolpack, a sophomore geology major, men should definitely keep hair in certain regions trimmed and clean looking. Kolpack knows many men who engage in manscaping, ranging from shaving chest hair all the way to genital hair.
"Many men engage in manscaping because hair can seem vile, unattractive and disgusting at points," Kolpack said.
Kolpack agrees with Carter that manscaping is becoming more common.
As previously mentioned, one reason that men manscape is tattoos. Men that have an arm or chest full of tattoos usually keep these areas well shaved.
Moe Metternich, owner of Mayhem Ink, a local tattoo shop in Green Bay, has a sleeve of tattoos and shaves his arms. He originally shaved his arm when he got his tattoos to prevent the hair from being pushed into the skin and causing infection. After he got his tattoos, he kept shaving his arm hair because it was itchy when it grew back.
Metternich also knows many other guys who shave because of tattoos, and he believes that women prefer a manscaped guy.
Other men engage in manscaping for hygienic reasons, as well as physical appearance reasons. Tyler Dorner, a senior civil engineering major at UW-Platteville, engages in manscaping for these two reasons.
Dorner manscapes his genital region for aesthetic purposes and because many other men at his age level do it. He said having an untrimmed and hairy pubic region is uncomfortable and itchy.
"I manscape for hygienic purposes and it helps when I sweat so I don't smell," Dorner said. "It is disgusting when you go into a bathroom and find pubic hair on the urinals, so I assume there are still many guys who do not manscape."
According to Web site nationmaster.com, until the late 70s, it was considered a secret for American males to shave or otherwise remove hair below the neck. Some exceptions were swimmers and wrestlers who shave their body hair to improve athletic performance.
Now more than 75 percent of men claim that they manscape. The same poll found 87 percent of women preferred men that engage in manscaping.
"I think that manscaping is more common now than it was years ago," Carter said.
Men have their own opinions on manscaping.
According to Alex Kolpack, a sophomore geology major, men should definitely keep hair in certain regions trimmed and clean looking. Kolpack knows many men who engage in manscaping, ranging from shaving chest hair all the way to genital hair.
"Many men engage in manscaping because hair can seem vile, unattractive and disgusting at points," Kolpack said.
Kolpack agrees with Carter that manscaping is becoming more common.
As previously mentioned, one reason that men manscape is tattoos. Men that have an arm or chest full of tattoos usually keep these areas well shaved.
Moe Metternich, owner of Mayhem Ink, a local tattoo shop in Green Bay, has a sleeve of tattoos and shaves his arms. He originally shaved his arm when he got his tattoos to prevent the hair from being pushed into the skin and causing infection. After he got his tattoos, he kept shaving his arm hair because it was itchy when it grew back.
Metternich also knows many other guys who shave because of tattoos, and he believes that women prefer a manscaped guy.
Other men engage in manscaping for hygienic reasons, as well as physical appearance reasons. Tyler Dorner, a senior civil engineering major at UW-Platteville, engages in manscaping for these two reasons.
Dorner manscapes his genital region for aesthetic purposes and because many other men at his age level do it. He said having an untrimmed and hairy pubic region is uncomfortable and itchy.
"I manscape for hygienic purposes and it helps when I sweat so I don't smell," Dorner said. "It is disgusting when you go into a bathroom and find pubic hair on the urinals, so I assume there are still many guys who do not manscape."
According to Web site nationmaster.com, until the late 70s, it was considered a secret for American males to shave or otherwise remove hair below the neck. Some exceptions were swimmers and wrestlers who shave their body hair to improve athletic performance.
Now more than 75 percent of men claim that they manscape. The same poll found 87 percent of women preferred men that engage in manscaping.
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