For those of you who have filled out the survey (and if you didn’t, you still can here), you know that one of the reasons I ran the survey was because someone made the comment:
[My wife] claims that NO ONE does that every week, month or more than once or twice a year…
regarding grooming, and I just can’t stand it when people make huge sweeping claims like that without having any data to back it up. So, here’s the data for anyone who wants to try and pull that stunt:
In total we had 549 people fill out the survey. 190 women (35%), 353 men (64%), and 6 (1%) declined to share their gender.
So, let’s look at the simple stuff first:
How often do you groom your ‘private area’?
- 10% said daily
- 24% said at least once a week
- 15% said at least once every two weeks
- 20% said at least once a month
- 7% said at least every other month
- 8% said at least every quarter
- 5% said at least every year
Leaving us with 11% saying they never do.
So, do Christians groom their pubic hair? Yeah, almost 9 out of every 10.
Now, of course, the stereotype is that this is a ‘women only’ activity, and I can understand why. I mean, they do seem to groom this area more often:
- 16% said daily
- 23% said at least once a week
- 14% said at least once every two weeks
- 20% said at least once a month
- 7% said at least every other month
- 9% said at least every quarter
- 4% said at least every year
Leaving only about 6% that don’t groom themselves. That’s a staggering 94%!
But, they aren’t alone. There’s a lot of “manscaping” going on as well:
- 6% said daily
- 25% said at least once a week
- 16% said at least once every two weeks
- 20% said at least once a month
- 8% said at least every other month
- 8% said at least every quarter
- 5% said at least every year
Leaving only 14% who don’t.
And these 14% tend to be fairly vocal. Quite a few of them said they don’t because it’s not “manly”. Now, I find this particularly funny, because these supposedly “manly” men who don’t want to groom their pubic hair, have, statistically, the least amount of sex.
What is your preferred grooming method?
- 46% – Disposable razor
- 40% – Electric Razor / Trimmer
- 9% – Scissors
- 3% – Waxing / Sugaring
- 1% – Laser Hair Removal
- 1% – Chemical Products
Now, there was some variation between men and women, but not much.
Men preferred the disposable or electric razor (combined 91%), or scissors for another 8%. 1% used waxing/sugaring or chemical products. Not a single guy listed laser hair removal.
For the women though, 51% said disposable razor, 27% said electric razor/trimmer, 10% scissors, 8% waxing/sugaring, 3% laser hair removal and 1% chemical products.
What is your preferred grooming style?
- 33% said they like to just trim (shorten hair)
- 33% said they shape (shave some, trim some)
- 22% said they keep it bare
Leaving our 11% who go prefer the “natural” look.
Again, usually you’d assume it’s the women going bare, but, while it’s more common, it’s not always the case:
- 29% of wives and 18% of husbands opt to go “bare”
- 40% of wives and 30% of husbands opt to “shape”
- 25% of wives and 38% of husbands opt to just “trim”
And of course, that leaves our 6% of women and 14% of men who choose to abstain from grooming.
Why do you groom?
I got a lot of comments, emails, etc. from those who don’t groom, saying it’s obviously the men’s choice that their wives shave, and many blamed porn for the reason. So, let’s see:
Looking at the wives’ responses:
- 34% said it’s for both their spouse’s and their own enjoyment equally
- 26% said that it was mostly for their spouse, but they enjoy it as well
- 17% said it was mostly for themselves, but their spouse enjoys it too
- 10% said it was for hygiene reasons
- 4% said it was for their pleasure alone
Only 9% said it was only for their husband’s enjoyment. So, let’s call that accusation debunked.
What about the men?
- 32% said it’s for both their spouse’s and their own enjoyment equally
- 30% said it was mostly for themselves, but their spouse enjoys it too
- 16% said it was for their pleasure alone
- 11% said that it was mostly for their spouse, but they enjoy it as well
- 5% said it was for hygiene reasons
Only 4% said it was for their wife’s pleasure. What I didn’t ask, but I’d be interested to see a stat on, is how many of them do so in order to get more oral sex. I bet that stat’s fairly high up there. Perhaps next time around.
Why don’t you groom?
So, what about those who don’t groom? I mean, the most vocal say that it’s because of porn, or because they don’t want to look “like a child”. But, I have a feeling these are the vocal minority. Let’s see:
According to the wives:
- 45% said they just prefer the natural look
- 18% said their spouse prefers the natural look
- 18% said they never thought of it
- 18% said they can’t be bothered to groom
- Not one wife in our survey said that they didn’t want to look like a little girl, or like a porn star
Them men answered fairly differently:
- 40% said they never thought of it
- 35% said their spouse prefers the natural look
- 18% said they preferred the natural look
- 2% said they didn’t want to look like a little girl…I’m assuming they meant little boy. My fault for phrasing the question wrong.
- 2% said they didn’t want to look like a porn star
- 2% said they just couldn’t be bothered
It is interesting to note that those who said they didn’t want to “look like a porn star” averaged having sex only once every 10 weeks. Maybe they threw the baby out with the bathwater on this one. I mean, if you’re not having sex because you don’t want to be like a porn star either … then you have an issue.
Does grooming lead to more sex?
I know everyone’s curious about this one. So, let’s see. Does grooming yourself lead to more sex? Well, I hinted at it above, but, let’s break it down more. What grooming style leads to the most sex?
Let’s check out the women first:
- Bare – 3.3 times per week
- Shaping – 2.9 times per week
- Trimming – 2.3 times per week
- Natural (no grooming) – 1.2 times per week
What about the men?
- Bare or Trimming – 2.0 times per week
- Shaping – 1.7 times per week
- Natural (no grooming) – 1.6 times per week
So, if you ever have someone make fun of you in the shower at the gym for shaving…well, you’re statistically safe saying “Well, I have more sex than you do, so go ahead and laugh.”
Grooming and age
There does seem to be a correlation between grooming (or not) and age. Here are some highlights:
- Not a single respondent under the age of 29 said they choose not to groom (38 people fall into this category, 7% of our respondents)
- The choice not to groom increases with age – however, we had a three respondents age 70+ say they shape (1) or trim (2), and none who said they abstain
- Shaving bare seems to slow down with age until by age 70+ there are none in our data set who do
- Trimming and shaping seem to hold about steady, if you discount those under the age of 29, because they’re very pro grooming and it skews the rest of the trend – I’m curious if, in 10 years, this will increase with them (which would indicate it’s cultural) or if it will continue to drop off, which would mean it’s age related
It will be awesome to be able to do these surveys again in 10 years and start to see longitudinal data.
Causative or Correlative?
Now, does grooming lead to sex, or does sex lead to grooming or neither? Who knows. We can’t tell from this. I mean, it makes sense that if you groom you might think about sex more, and thus have sex more often. It also makes sense that if you have sex more often, you might want to groom to make it better. Or, if you aren’t having sex, why bother grooming, because it doesn’t make a difference.
One interesting tidbit: those who listed “Can’t be bothered to” when asked why they don’t groom only average sex once a week. I guess if you can’t be bothered to groom, then you might not be bothered to have sex more often either.
Whatever your decision, I think your best bet is balancing your preferences with your spouse’s and with what works best for you. Whatever you decide, you’re not “weird” for grooming, or not.
