Pubic hair, unlike head hair, stops growing at a certain point. So leaving your hair untrimmed won't cause a Rapunzel situation down there.
Most pubes grow between half an inch and 1.5 inches, according to Steixner.
The scant data we do have suggests that the growth rate and density of pubic hair decreases with age for both women and men. This likely means that pubic hair loss occurs with age and is not a menopause-related phenomenon.
Hormonal changes
Hormones are chemical messengers that control many functions in the body, including hair growth. During puberty, an increase in hormones called androgens triggers the growth of pubic hair . As a person ages, their body begins to produce fewer androgens. This may result in pubic hair loss.
The main role of pubic hair is to reduce friction during sex and other forms of exercise, protecting the delicate skin around the genital area. Just like eyelashes and nose hair, pubic hair helps prevent the transmission of bacteria, trapping any dirt, debris, and microorganisms that could be harmful to the body.
Laser hair removal or electrolysis
Laser hair removal and electrolysis are both considered “permanent” methods to denude pubes: both eliminate hair follicles so hair doesn't grow back.
Pubic hair may extend out to their thighs, and some boys may have a line of hair up to their belly button. Most boys finish growing by age 17, but some may continue growing through their early 20s.
"After menopause there's a decrease in regrowth of overall body hair," says Raquel Dardik, MD, gynecologist at the Joan H. Tisch Center for Women's Health at NYU Langone Medical Center. And that includes your pubic hair. It won't just thin as you age, either.
Just like the hair on the head, the hair on the rest of the body, including the pubic area, is subject to graying. As people age, their skin produces less melanin. Melanin is the pigment responsible for giving skin and hair its color.
Weiss speculates that one of the main reasons that human beings uniquely evolved a “thick bush of wiry hair” around their genital regions is its visual signaling of sexual maturation. (It also likely serves as a primitive odor trap and aids in the wafting of human pheromones.)
Removing pubic hair may therefore make a person more susceptible to common infections, such as UTIs, vaginitis, and yeast infections. Hair removal can also irritate your skin, leading to skin infections such as cellulitis and folliculitis. In other cases, grooming-related injuries, such as cuts, could become infected.
Pubic hair holds on to residual urine, vaginal discharge, blood and semen. Bacteria line up all along the hair shaft just lunching it up and creating odor. (Very appetizing, I know.) Trimming your pubic hair reduces that surface area for bacteria, thus reducing odor.
Lice eggs (nits) are often easier to see than live lice. They look like tiny yellow or white dots attached to the pubic hair, close to the skin. Nits can look like dandruff.
A fungal infection of the hair called white piedra can also give pubic hair a white appearance. An overgrowth of yeast causes the formation of white or cream-colored nodules along the hair shaft. This type of fungus is also found on the eyebrows, eyelashes, and head.
Friction and inflammation contribute to the darkening of the intimate area, and those issues come from many sources. Underwear that doesn't fit well, exercise, walking, and sex all cause friction. Anywhere that skin rubs against something else is likely to experience hyperpigmentation.
Pubic hair of infancy is due to transiently elevated androgen levels in the first few months of life and increased sensitivity of sexual hair follicles to androgens. Precocious puberty can be differentiated by the concomitant appearance of pubic hair with breast development in girls or testicular enlargement in boys.
Your hair follicles continue to grow hair underneath your skin, and shaving can cause those follicles to become irritated. It's this irritation that makes you feel itchy after you shave.
Part of the perception that your pubic hair grows much faster than the hair on your head may be due to the growth cycle it follows. With pubic hair—and other body hair—the entire process takes about 30 to 44 days, Dr. Hazen says.
Removal of dead skin and sebum by blade shaving or waxing, that otherwise trap odorants and dirt, might provide an additional odor reduction benefit over soap washing alone or hair removal by clipping with scissors followed by soap washing.
The research shows that body hair by itself is not a cause of bad body odor. But everyone is unique. Some guys report smelling better after their shave their armpits, body hair, or pubes. They feel that it makes them sweat less and smell better.
Trimming with scissors Using scissors can be a safe way to give the pubic area a well-groomed look. Since the operation does not come into contact with the skin, trimming the pubic hair with scissors has a relatively low risk of injury.
Plucking your pubic hair can be painful and takes a long time. Plucking can cause redness, swelling, itching, irritation, and damage to the skin. It can also result in ingrown hairs (where the hair curls backward or sideways under the skin) and infection.
Pubic hair removal is common — approximately 80 percent of women ages 18 to 65 report they remove some or all of their pubic hair.
Mary Jane Minkin, told us, “the most common cause of excessive pubic hair in young women is PCOS, or polycystic ovarian syndrome, which is associated with higher testosterone levels (yes, women make testosterone—and men do make estrogen, too).