What’s thick, unwieldy and a political minefield? No, not Donald Trump (well, yes, but try again). I’ll give you a clue or two: Yoko Ono suggests smoking them, Janelle Monáe consults hers on scripts and, if the internet is anything to go by, Gwyneth Paltrow’s seem to come and go more than the trains at Paddington station. Of course, I’m talking about pubic hair, which you may or may not know as one’s bush, muff, rug, short and curlies, lettuce, thatch, and pubes — or, crucially, a lack thereof.
Rarely seen but often scrutinised, thanks to this year’s catwalks and red carpets, the fuzz that grows between our legs has become an unavoidable topic of conversation. Beginning with hand-sewn merkins worn by models at John Galliano’s Maison Margiela Artisanal 2024 show, come April Julia Fox was spotted sporting trompe l’oeil bikini bottoms with the word ‘closed’ (a reference to her Roe VWade-inspired celibacy) scrawled above a faux vulva and furry follicles. Elsewhere, Princess Nokia sang ‘It’s Time to Care (for Your Pubic Hair)’, Doja Cat’s sheer Dilara Findikoğlu dress at the Grammys championed lots of hair down there, and the aforementioned Monáe admitted to calling on her fluff for advice. So is the big, bountiful bush well and truly back? Or is it all simply chatter?
According to The Hair Historian, Rachael Gibson, it has been a debate for millennia. ‘People all over the globe have chosen to remove, groom or otherwise tend to their pubic hair for thousands of years,’ she says. ‘Those of all genders removed theirs in ancient Egypt, and most women in ancient Greece and Rome did, too. Women in many Indian and Arabic countries are also noted to have removed pubic hair for centuries.’ The reason? Apparently, not just for hygiene. ‘The ancient Greeks considered pubic hair uncivilised, and in later European societies keeping pubic hair neat was considered more refined, and therefore linked to class and status.’
Closer to living memory, Gibson says what we choose to wear has played a large role in society’s preferences — or at the very least, what is being marketed at us. ‘Historically, when more of the body is on display, there’s more of a feeling that any visible hair should be removed. So at the start of the 20th century, when hemlines rose and sleeveless garments became more popular, we see women’s razors being advertised in magazines and features warning women of how unsightly body hair is.’
Still, the past hundred years have seen trends come and go, Gibson continues. ‘Through the 1940s and 1950s bikinis evolved and women were wearing less clothes in public in general, meaning there was more desire to remove any hair on display. Then, in theory, the more liberated 1960s and 1970s placed less pressure on women to remove their pubic hair — in fact, Alex Comfort’s The Joy of Sex was very much in favour of it. During the 1980s, however, the collective obsession with keeping fit, skimpy workout clothes, music videos and supermodels pushed trends back towards the removal of hair on display.’
By the 1990s, the Brazilian wax was born. Brought to New York by the ‘J Sisters’ (Janea, Judseia, Jussara, Juracy, Jocely, Joyce and Jonice Padilha), the treatment saw stars, models and socialites such as Naomi Campbell, Cameron Diaz and Uma Thurman opt to bare very little to no hair in their nether regions, with Paltrow going to far as to claim the sisters ‘changed my life’. This, Gibson says, was the beginning of a phenomenon. Laser hair removal became an affordable option, while ‘shows like Sex and the City very much set the standard for women being hair-free’.
These days, according to an anonymous advertising executive working for one of the world’s largest hair removal brands, some sort of hair removal is still very much the norm. ‘Eighty per cent of UK adult women engage in some form of pubic hair removal, followed by around 50 per cent of men — a number increasing year-on-year, driven by more young men taking it up.’ Overall, however, the brand’s research shows that the Brazilian is out and the ‘natural’ look is increasingly popular. Mimi Gaston-Kennedy, founder of Pre-salons, agrees. ‘The full bush is making a comeback as more clients are having just the classic bikini line waxed and requesting to trim the remaining hair. Plus, we’ve seen sales of pubic hair conditioning oil increase as younger generations are taking care of what’s there, embracing their natural selves.’
Meanwhile, salons such as Sol Cosmedics are now offering treatments for those looking to bring back a fuller thatch following laser hair removal. Though research by journalist and founder of The Review of Beauty newsletter, Jessica DeFino, says that what we view as today’s so-called ‘liberating’ trend might be nothing new. ‘Of the women who responded, the large majority are keeping the large majority of their pubic hair. They’ll do a clean up on the sides, but a lot of people were proud to be sporting a nearly full bush on top, which I think is pretty different from what we see in beauty coverage. There’s a huge gap between expectations set by beauty media and what’s actually happening out there in the real world.’
So, whatever you choose to do with your pubic hair, you can sleep sound in the knowledge that you’re doing something right. Now, where did I leave my eyebrow pencil?
