Should you manscape? Most men do. Here’s my opinion, as well as what women think about it.
Everyone has different grooming habits and standards, and at the end of the day, whatever decision you take is ultimately up to you.
However, if you are looking for a little guidance, you’ve come to the right place, because I’ve done quite a bit of reading on this subject, and I think these statistics mostly speak for themselves.
Should You Manscape? The Answer:
To answer the question as quickly as possible:
If you want don’t want to be left behind, you’ll need to do at least a little bit of manscaping, as well as overall body grooming, as the vast majority of young men now do this.
Moreover, an overwhelming majority of women prefer men who take good care of their bodies, and in particular, men who have good grooming habits.
If you are basing this decision at least partly on the fairer better things, suffice to say, you aren’t going to be hurting your chances by keeping your body groomed, trimmed (or shaved), and clean.
Benefits of Manscaping
Personally, I think there are quite a few benefits to having good body grooming, including regular manscaping. Those being:
- Increased confidence.
- It can improve your hygiene.
- It can improve your relationship with your partner.
- Less chance to acquire certain STDs.
I’ll quickly dive into each of these and explain my reasoning.
Increased Confidence
When you go to the gym regularly, how do you feel? When you diet, how do you feel? How about when you’re productive and getting things done, how do you feel?
Being in shape as well as on top of your game has a huge effect on your confidence level. This also applies to your physical appearance.
Dare I say, that for most guys, knowing that they are groomed, clean, and physically appealing certainly gives at least something of an ego boost. I’ll admit that it does for me.
Moreover, regularly manscaping your lower body region just makes everything down there bigger, cleaner and nicer to look at.
That, in turn, can increase your confidence level, which definitely has a positive effect on your overall attractiveness as well.
It Can Improve Your Hygiene
Ever notice how clean and fresh you feel after going to the barber? Or how great you feel after a fresh shave (if you haven’t nicked yourself to death).
Ditto for the dong.
A freshly trimmed and shaved (carefully) dong will not only make you look 1% more like Mandingo, but it will just feel cool as hell.
In addition to that, manscaping will also improve your hygiene. Remember that hair collects and traps all kinds of substances down there; dead skin cells, sweat, and urine just to name a few.
If not removed, these can start to fester and become the ideal breeding ground for bacteria and yeast, including STDs, especially on very hot days and for men who don’t shower regularly.
It doesn’t take a genius to know that bacteria mixed with sweat will cause a very unpleasant odor. But, with less hair down there due to proper manscaping, your whole area will be cleaner, smell better, and be much more inviting too, which leads me to my next point.
It Can Improve Your Relationship with Your Partner
I want to just go ahead and put a huge asterisk next to this one. And no, that isn’t a Barry Bonds asterisk, that is an asterisk that says *important*!
Ask yourself this.
When you’re going down on a woman, would you prefer a thick jungle o’ bush or an area clean, prim, and proper?
Now, what do you think she is going to enjoy more? Getting hair in your own mouth or a slick, shaved pole?
Exactly.
But if you’re still not convinced, then you should know that according to studies, men who regularly groom down there report receiving more attention from their partners. Not only that, another study shows that a vast majority of women prefer their men to trim or shave their private areas.
Manscaping can mean that you are attentive to the needs of your partner, which will make her even more attracted to you and improve your overall partner relationship. You can thank me later.
Less Chance for Certain STDs
Namely, crabs.
If you are trying to stay safe (and you should be), keeping the down there trimmed will drastically reduce your chances of contracting crabs.
After all, if private area lice have nowhere to cling to, they will simply die out. Now that that is out of the way, we would also advise you to be careful with who you lay!
Since I’m on the topic of men and women, I think now would be a good time to share some statistics I have found on this topic.
How Women Feel About Manscaping
More people than ever are doing at least some sort of lower body hair management according to a recent Cosmopolitan survey, for instance:
- Among 18-35 aged respondents, some 69% of men stated that they are either shave or trim their nether hair.
- 57% of women aged 18-35 stated that they shave off all of their nether hair.
Since majorities of you are engaged in better grooming, you would expect that both would have certain expectations and likes when it comes to what they want in their partner.
And that’s exactly what we find with women. For instance:
- According to that same survey, some 70% of women aged 18 to 35 want their male partner’s lower body hair to be at least trimmed.
- 23% of the survey’s women respondents claimed that they have asked their partners to shave, trim or change their partner’s lower body hair.
- 19% of the survey’s women respondents also stated that they would reconsider dating someone if their lower body hygiene wasn’t to their liking.
Completely Shaved or Trimmed?
The survey also broke down exactly WHAT type of grooming men and women liked and looked for in their partners. Here were some of the results for the women (aged 18-35):
- 10% of women like their partners to perform NO manscaping
- 12% of women prefer their men’s private area to be completely hairless
- 70% of women wanted it to be trimmed
Other surveys echo similar results, such as this recent Fashion Beans survey, which found:
- 88% of the women respondents stated that they preferred men to be trimmed and groomed downstairs
- 1% of the women respondents stated they preferred their male partner’s to be hairless down there
- 11% preferred the all-natural look
And yet another online survey, this time with female respondents aged between 18 and 34:
- 10% of female respondents stated it was unattractive for men to have any hair below the belt.
- 34% of the respondents stated that at least some hair was attractive.
Interestingly, this same study found that chest hair was INCREDIBLY attractive to women, as:
- 48% of women stated that some chest hair is attractive on men
Basically, anywhere you look a pattern seems to emerge:
- The vast majority of women prefer their male partners to do at least SOME type of male grooming or manscaping.
In fact, manscaping is such a big deal that some married women even think this is an indication that their husbands might be cheating on them.
Thus, if you are asking yourself this question, and you are basing the decision at least partly on whether you believe it can influence the opposite person’s perception of you positively, you would be hard-pressed to claim that not doing at least some form of manscaping would not be beneficial for you.
Wrapping Up
To summarize everything:
- If you want to avoid being left behind, particularly as a young man, opt to do at least some sort of nether hair grooming regularly.
- Women overwhelmingly prefer men’s nether region to be at least neatly trimmed and groomed.
- Roughly comparable minorities of women (around 10% for both) prefer men to either go all-natural with respect to their lower body hair or go completely hairless.
- In my opinion, doing at least some form of regular lower body hair grooming will increase your confidence, keep you cleaner and will improve your hygiene, increase the frequency of certain bedroom activities as well as possibly lower the chance of getting certain STDs. Essentially, little to no downsides!
Ready to get started? Make sure you’re using the right tools by reading our guide to the best groomers and trimmers for manscaping.