Why Do We Have Pubic Hair?

I was writing a blog regarding double-ringing (wearing a cock ring and a ball weight at the same time) about a week ago. One tip I shared was regarding trimming pubic hair (manscaping) to avoid pulling hair when wearing multiple rings. Then it struck me, "Why do we have pubic hair? What's the point?"

I should share that I am a manscaper (so I'm biased). I've tried shaving but hated the burn when it grows back. (Plus I like looking like a grown-up.) I don't have the guts for waxing (and it still grows back). So I regularly trim with clippers. It keeps the hair short enough to avoid getting caught in my gear essentials' gear, doesn't hurt when it grows (or cause ingrown hairs) and bonus: it makes my dick look bigger!

So I did some research.

I discovered that humans have as many hair follicles as apes do. Although their hair is thick and ours is fine (or even barely visible). However, pubic hair as well as the hair beneath our arms is more course and pronounced.

Cushion & Protection

Emily Gibson wrote in The Guardian, that there is a purpose for pubic hair:  It provides a cushion "against friction that can cause skin abrasion and injury, protection from bacteria and other unwanted pathogens, and is the visible result of long-awaited adolescent hormones, certainly nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed about."  (We'll be reading more about this.)

Finding Our Optimum Procreating Partner

Christophe Soligo from University College London also weighs in. He states that pubic hair (as well as armpit hair) is distributed along with a type of sweat gland known as apocrine glands. These glands are in addition to the eccrine glands which are spread through the human body. This is how we keep our bodies cool. Soligo adds that "the secretion from apocrine glands also contains small parts of cellular material. The cellular material gets broken down by bacteria and that’s what creates to a large extent our personal body odour. So the secretion from sweat glands together with the location and the hair creates a nice damp substrate for growth for bacteria."

But there's more. According to Soligo there is "Some research that’s been done where men were made to wear the same t-shirt for several nights running, and women were made to smell the t-shirts after and to rank them according to how attractive they found the smell."

What is amazing is that the women tested were "able to detect genetic differences in the men, specifically in a genetic complex we call the Major Histocompatability Complex (MHC). What’s interesting there is that women were actually going for the men whose MHC composition was the most different to their own. That makes sense in the context of fighting disease because if you have offspring with a very variable MHC it increases their ability to fight off disease."

So pubic hair and sweat glands create the body aroma that attracts the best mate for optimum genetics for your offspring?

Pheromones

The courser hair under our arms and surrounding our genitals release scents containing pheromones (part of the glands discussed above) that probably act as erotic stimulants.

The scent of these lovely pheromones lingers in the pubes when the apocrine glands release their secretion on the surface of the skin and mingles with bacteria decomposed by the secretions of the sebaceous glands. The aroma created by this blend is unique to each of us (see MHC above). For some people, scents from these areas are noticeable and consciously increase sexual arousal. For others, pheromones might not be obvious but may be detected subconsciously.

Warmth

Some speculate that pubes were meant to keep us warm back in the Stone Age. However, if this was the case men would have more hair on their shafts (some do) and a thick pelt on their nads. (Maybe that's why togas and kilts were workable in cold weather!)

Filter for the Vagina?

Could pubes on women act like nose hair (cilia) for the vagina? Did it prevent dirt from entering the secret garden? If so, why don't men have cilia-like hair around their urethra? Or perhaps it was there thousands of years ago and during the process of evolution it left the picture?

Pubes can be prettified

In the past two decades, pubic hair has become a form of personal expression. We manscape, cut, trim and shave so it the patch above and around are genitals looks sexier. I'm a believer. As mentioned above, short pubes can make your cock look longer. (And when is that a bad thing?)

Should We Shave?

Emily Gibson wrote in The Guardian, "Stop shaving and leave it alone!" According to Gibson, when we shave pubic hair it removes a cushion against friction and the act of shaving leaves "microscopic open wounds and exposes you to infections."

Shaving and waxing saw a resurgence as a result of micro bikinis and thongs for women. This 'clean and mean' expression soon crossed the gender gap.

But Gibson strongly advises against shaving your pubes: "Long ago, surgeons figured out that shaving a body part prior to surgery actually increased, rather than decreased, surgical site infections. No matter what expensive and complex weapons are used – razor blades, electric shavers, tweezers, waxing, depilatories, electrolysis – hair, like crab grass, always grows back and eventually wins. In the meantime, the skin suffers the effects of the scorched battlefield."

This scorched battlefield approach irritates and inflames the hair follicles and leaves wounds behind. This isn't necessarily bad on an openly exposed area like your face (or legs) but when it's done in "the warm moist environment of the genitals, it becomes a happy culture medium for some of the nastiest of bacterial pathogens, namely Group A Streptococcus, Staphylococcus aureus and its recently mutated cousin methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). There is an increase in staph boils and abscesses, necessitating incisions to drain the infection, resulting in scarring that can be significant. It is not at all unusual to find pustules and other hair-follicle inflammation papules on shaved genitals."

Any way you cut it, this could be an ugly deal. But amazingly, it can get worse.

Gibson adds, "I've seen cellulitis (soft-tissue bacterial infection without abscess) of the scrotum, labia and penis as a result of spread of bacteria from shaving or from sexual contact with strep or staph bacteria from a partner's skin. Some clinicians are finding that freshly shaved pubic areas and genitals are also more vulnerable to herpes infections due to the microscopic wounds being exposed to viruses carried by mouth or genitals. It follows that there may be vulnerability to spread of other STIs as well."

I guess I'll stick to my clippers thank-you-very-much!

gear essentials…Sex is Better (and safer) here! ENJOY!

(Photos re-blogged from Tumblr.)