Teenagers are doing it! Mums and Dads are doing it! Grandmas are even doing it!  One of the fastest growing trends to impinge on both sexes since bell bottom jeans and the permanent wave has made its way out of the triple X scene into the underpants of the masses. These days’ women and men are doing away with some, most or all of their curly bits south of the bikini border.  However, like all seemingly superfluous anatomical parts, pubic hair is more than a velvet curtain separating the audience from the main event.   Rather than bore or excite you with too many gory details, here are two points to consider before you zap your short and curlies into extinction:

1. Pubic hair reduces friction while doing the old fandango
2. Pubic hair is a protective mechanism that grows on top of delicate lymph nodes residing throughout the groin and pubic region.

This being said, it doesn’t mean that the hairs on your dickey diver have to hang down to your knees.  But, if you’re going to prune and maintain wild undergrowth, shaving is one of the easiest, least invasive ways to take care of it.  While many a Suzie has been mutilated and traumatized by wet razor shaving, I assure you this has more to do with a bad razor technique and chemically inappropriate products than the method itself. 

While waxing the bikini area can be satisfyingly clean and smooth once the swelling, redness and stinging sensation subsides, ripping the hair out from the root lowers the immunity of the pore and negatively impacts the lymph nodes.  Also, the fact that you have to grow your guitar strings back in order to wax them off is whack!

Here is the Shave Doctor’s Guide to helping you use wet shaving as a way to manage your undergrowth without compromising your health in the process.

YOU WILL NEED:

• An electric trimmer.  Invest in a professional quality brand that is cordless with a rechargeable battery stand and comes with different size guards.
• A Gillette Mach3 Razor (my top pick for a women’s razor)
• Glycerin based Shave Lather
• Aftershave Moisturizer

HOW TO GUIDE

• Use Electric Trimmer with zero guard to cut in the lines or design being sure to use short strokes moving with the lie of the hair.
• To evenly shorten the overall length of the hair you wish to keep, attach a guard (start with the largest guard if you’re unsure how close it will trim) to the trimmer and again follow the lie of the hair.  NEVER turn your clippers against the hair.
• Get in the shower or bath and bathe as usual.  Shave toward the end of the shower to give the hair plenty of opportunity to soften up and become more pliable.
• Take a small glob of lather and whisk briskly into the pubic hair and over groin area where you will be shaving.
• Turn your knee outwards causing the thigh to straighten in order to create a smooth, flat surface.
• Using short strokes (no more than 1 inch at a time) begin shaving from the outside of the groin toward the center of the pubic bone (check that this is with the lie of the hair).

NEVER, and when I say NEVER I mean NEVER, shave against the grain or lie of the hair. The pubic hair structure is like no other and will cause the pore to tear regardless of how careful you are. If you maintain the area throughout the year, you will find that it will shave closer each time and eventually become perfectly smooth.

When you get out of the shower, apply aftershave moisturizer over the area to balance the pH which will protect exposed skin from bacteria.  This product should also be used on the remaining hair to help keep it soft and silky.

If you don’t have the patience to train the hair and wait for the skin to become smoother with each shave, let the image of an itchy crotch-scratching rash and sores that look like they need a high dose of penicillin be your reminder to resist over shaving the area.  While shaving the muff down to the buff might be your cup of tea at this point in time, remember that Suzie functions best in fur and becomes easily irritated when forced to do hard labor in the raw. 

Just like the eye brow shaving generation we pooh-poohed with the Brooke Shield caterpillars we strive for today, all fads eventually cycle out and back around.   No doubt, future generations will enjoy going a- la-natural; choosing to wear their fluffy bits with unequivocal pride and distinction.