I became sexually active in the early 1990s when the Brazilian look was big in porn, but most women still had full pubes, or if they were fancy, went for the French runway.
So my brain associated the shaved look with porn, and bush with IRL, which messed with my head on the occasion I had a partner who waxed herself clean.
My experience is that bush is easier to maintain and is easier on the skin. Shaving is fun for a single date, but results in a scratchy period and runs the risk of ingrown hairs.
I get ingrown hairs on my legs that I have to manually inspect and release or it will become a pimple like bubble with a mangled hair in it that and sometimes it is painful.
Every time I’ve tried shaving my junk (even tried Nair once) I’ve ended up with a minefield of ingrown hairs.
It’s 24 hours of “woah, this feels kinda neat” followed by weeks of agony and waiting for the redness to go away. I sometimes get them when I shave my face too, but that’s less common. Had one on the top of my head once that made a bald spot about the size of a quarter that took a couple months to grow back in. I had one next to my balls once that became the worst infection I’ve ever had. Hurt like hell to walk. Had to go to the doctor to get antibiotics because I felt the infection creeping upward toward my midsection. Then once the infection went down enough, I cut it open with a razor blade and dug all the gunk out and it was unbelievably painful and probably the grossest body thing I’ve ever had to deal with. Had this gaping hole left over afterwards. Still have a scar 20 years later.
Ingrown hairs are a plague upon the body. Consider yourself very lucky.
You know, I decided to look some stuff up after reading this, and there is a fantastic chance it’s only because I have relatively thin, straight hair.
I shampoo, I exfoliate. I imagine it would be insane to hear that the razor I use for my face, junk, and limbs is getting a bit scratchy, I probably needed to swap the blade out like a week ago. Getting one ingrown hair, let alone a minefield is just unthinkable to me.
If I had to deal with half of what you do, I either just wouldn’t shave or I’d be looking for more permanent methods.
The message of the OP is one I agree with anyway, so it’s not like it’s a big deal. I hope after 20 years you’ve settled on a look you like. :p
I became sexually active in the early 1990s when the Brazilian look was big in porn, but most women still had full pubes, or if they were fancy, went for the French runway.
So my brain associated the shaved look with porn, and bush with IRL, which messed with my head on the occasion I had a partner who waxed herself clean.
My experience is that bush is easier to maintain and is easier on the skin. Shaving is fun for a single date, but results in a scratchy period and runs the risk of ingrown hairs.
I have never had an ingrown hair in my life.
I’m sure people get them, but I can’t imagine it’s that common.
I get ingrown where I don’t even remove hair. It’s like my hair just wants to get inside again all warm and cosy.
In my case, it’s just like my skin doesn’t really like having hair save for on my head,
I get ingrown hairs on my legs that I have to manually inspect and release or it will become a pimple like bubble with a mangled hair in it that and sometimes it is painful.
It depends on how your hair grows. Mine is almost flat against my skin, so it gets ingrown frequently if I don’t take precautions.
In the aughts, I had a girlfriend who was conflicted, as she loved the feeling of bare skin but would get ingrown hairs in the week or two to follow.
That sucks :p
I wish I knew what I was doing differently. Maybe I just have an X-men outer carapace for skin.
You are blessed.
Every time I’ve tried shaving my junk (even tried Nair once) I’ve ended up with a minefield of ingrown hairs.
It’s 24 hours of “woah, this feels kinda neat” followed by weeks of agony and waiting for the redness to go away. I sometimes get them when I shave my face too, but that’s less common. Had one on the top of my head once that made a bald spot about the size of a quarter that took a couple months to grow back in. I had one next to my balls once that became the worst infection I’ve ever had. Hurt like hell to walk. Had to go to the doctor to get antibiotics because I felt the infection creeping upward toward my midsection. Then once the infection went down enough, I cut it open with a razor blade and dug all the gunk out and it was unbelievably painful and probably the grossest body thing I’ve ever had to deal with. Had this gaping hole left over afterwards. Still have a scar 20 years later.
Ingrown hairs are a plague upon the body. Consider yourself very lucky.
You know, I decided to look some stuff up after reading this, and there is a fantastic chance it’s only because I have relatively thin, straight hair.
I shampoo, I exfoliate. I imagine it would be insane to hear that the razor I use for my face, junk, and limbs is getting a bit scratchy, I probably needed to swap the blade out like a week ago. Getting one ingrown hair, let alone a minefield is just unthinkable to me.
If I had to deal with half of what you do, I either just wouldn’t shave or I’d be looking for more permanent methods.
The message of the OP is one I agree with anyway, so it’s not like it’s a big deal. I hope after 20 years you’ve settled on a look you like. :p