Male body depilation: prevalence and associated features of body hair removal

During ancient times Egyptian and Greek cultures placed a premium on the appearance of a hairless male body, and ancient Egyptian men often shaved their body hair with pumice and razors (Luciano, 2001). In the modern era however, body depilation (i.e., body hair reduction or removal below the neck) has typically been culturally sanctioned only for women (Basow & Braman, 1998; Hope, 1982; Tiggemann & Kenyon, 1998) and is strongly normative within contemporary Western culture (Toerien & Wilkinson, 2003, 2004). With few exceptions, men have not engaged in body depilation because the presence of body hair has traditionally been symbolic of masculinity and therefore associated with men's attractiveness and virility (Basow, 1991; Basow & Braman, 1998; Lewis, 1987; Tiggemann & Kenyon, 1998). It appears, however, that the hairless male body ideal has come back into vogue (Luciano, 2001). According to popular press accounts, this shifting ideal has influenced many men both to remove and reduce their body hair (Gomes, 2001; Smith, 2000; Stuever, 2000). In fact, Boroughs and Thompson (2002) found that appearance concerns motivate some men to shave or trim many parts of their bodies, including most notably: abdomen, chest, groin, and legs. Consequently, the aim of the current study was to investigate the prevalence and characteristics of body depilation, as well as its related social and affective features. This information will provide a greater understanding of male body depilation and also inform our understanding of the rapidly developing field of men's body image.
Although a few researchers have examined the idealization of body hair on the male body, data have not indicated that less body hair is necessarily considered ideal (Dixon, Halliwell, East, Wignarajah, & Anderson, 2003; Lewis, 1987). Results from previous studies, however, may have been due to a number of methodological limitations. For instance, Dixon et al. (2003) found that women rated male silhouette figures as more attractive if they had hair on the chest and abdomen. One shortcoming of the study conducted by Dixon et al. (2003) is that it only investigated women's attitudes toward the presence of body hair on men and did not examine men's attitudes toward hair on their own bodies. Another shortcoming of the study is that the location and amount of body hair were not examined as variables (i.e., excessive body hair and/or hair on certain parts of the body where it may not be considered appealing). Generally, the findings from previous research do not preclude the possibility that men remove body hair to approximate a hairless ideal of attractiveness. Given that anecdotal reports support an emerging hairless ideal (e.g., Luciano, 2001) and data that indicate that men are removing hair in order to increase their attractiveness (Boroughs & Thompson, 2002), there is sufficient reason to suspect that body image concerns are a critical underlying factor that influences body depil
Clearly, there is a need to confirm the numerous anecdotal accounts and preliminary data that suggest that body hair removal is indeed a new and potentially important component of body image for men. Therefore, the current study had several objectives: (1) to estimate the prevalence of body depilation in a sample of men, (2) to assess the characteristics of body depilation by examining the various body sites where hair reduction and removal take place, (3) to determine the reasons for body depilation and the methods used to reduce and remove body hair, and (4) to assess the social and affective variables related to body depilation.
METHOD
Participants
One hundred eighteen men completed questionnaires to investigate body depilation. Sixty-nine (58.5%) of the participants were European American, 17 (14.4%) were Latinos, 18 (15.3%) were African American, eight (6.8%) were Asian American, five (4.2%) were Native American, and one participant did not report his ethnicity. One hundred and seven (91.7%) of the participants indicated attraction only to the other sex, two (1.5%) identified as having exclusive same-sex attraction, and the remaining nine (6.8%) reported some level of attraction to both sexes. Participants were recruited from a university research pool and volunteered for this study; they received extra course credit for their participation. All participants were recruited from one large research university in the southeastern United States. The only inclusion criterion was being a male over the age of 18. Age of the sample ranged from 18 through 55 years (M = 22.04, SD = 4.75).
Measures
Body Depilation Questionnaire (BoDeQ)
This new instrument was created based on the results of previously conducted structured interviews (Boroughs & Thompson, 2002). The interviews yielded qualitative and quantitative information concerning the locus of depilation, removal strategies, associated emotional and behavioral components (i.e., anxiety or avoidance), as well as descriptive information about men who remove or reduce body hair via shaving, trimming, or both. In developing items for this questionnaire, the results from the prior study were considered in addition to the sparse literature in this area and the diagnostic criteria for Body Dismorphic Disorder (BDD) in the DSM-IV-Text Revision (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). The final draft instrument contained 18 questions (see appendix).