If you don't get regular Brazilian waxes, you probably at least shave or trim, according to a new study published by JAMA Dermatology. The study confirms that 62 percent of American women remove all of their pubic hair and 84 percent of them groom it. The results didn't surprise me. But what did shock me, were the reasons for why women groom.
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There's a reason why surgeons have stopped recommending that patients shave body parts prior to surgery and that's because hair removal can actually increase their chances of contracting an infection.
"Pubic hair removal naturally irritates and inflames the hair follicles left behind, leaving microscopic open wounds," family physician, Emily Gibson wrote in a piece for The Guardian."Frequent hair removal is necessary to stay smooth, causing regular irritation of the shaved or waxed area. When that irritation is combined with 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 aureaus (MRSA)."
In other words, when you remove hair from your body, it winds up irritating the skin making it more vulnerable to bacterial infections. Yikes — that's scary!
"Additionally, 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," Gibson adds. "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."
As hard as it is for me to accept, I get it. Pubic hair is there for a reason. It's the same reason why we have eyelashes, eyebrows, and noise hair. It's all to prevent bacteria from going into those parts of the body. Regardless, I can't say I'd ever stop waxing down there. Sure, it's not technically more hygienic but it does make me feel clean and polished. At the end of the day, it's your body. So whatever you chose to do with it, is your choice and your choice only.
Image via iStock
