While there are no true health benefits to shaving the arms, some people prefer the look and feel of hair-free arms and others find that having hairless armpits minimizes body odor associated with armpit sweat.
Reducing friction
Armpit hair prevents skin-to-skin contact during activities that involve arm motion, such as running and walking. The same applies to pubic hair.
Your armpit hair has nothing to do with the reason(s) you're sweating. Sweating occurs when your internal body temperature climbs too high, or when you're nervous, stressed or anxious. Your sweat glands just so happen to be located under your pits.
Armpit Hair Protects Your Skin
In the case of your underarms, it helps reduce skin-on-skin friction when you swing your arms as you walk or run. Armpit hair can save you from unnecessary chafing, irritation, or even heat rash, which can happen when sweat and abrasion mix.
Hair removal by shaving with a razor blade followed by soap washing resulted in an immediate reduction of 57.3% from baseline in axillary odor and this reduction was significantly greater than soap washing alone (P < 0.0001).
As with shaving any part of your body, shaving your armpits also opens up the possibility of getting razor burn, ingrown hairs and irritation, and the underarm area is definitely one of the more uncomfortable areas to experience this in.
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.
Protection from bacteria and other pathogens
It follows that pubic hair may protect against certain infections, including: cellulitis. sexually transmitted infections (STIs) urinary tract infections (UTIs)
Aprocrine glands have an abundance of hair follicles, which is why underarm hair can grow so thick. As for the rest of your body hair, the hair is rooted in eccrine sweat glands, which primarily control temperature. Hair follicles are more dispersed here, so it's much finer.
Culturally, the Chinese consider it bad luck to alter their physical appearance in any way. Women in the U.S. have been on quite a roller coaster ride when it comes to their armpit hair, or lack thereof, over the past century.
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.
Readers voted, and the answer was clear: Yes, men should absolutely shave their armpits. At least sometimes. Of the 4,044 men surveyed, 68 percent said they trim their armpit hair; 52 percent said they do it for aesthetics, and 16 percent said they do it for athletic reasons.
You really don't need to remove your pubic hair for any health reasons, sexual or otherwise, other than perhaps decreasing odor from sweat. When it comes down to it, pubic hair grooming is a personal preference.
“[Body hair] keeps mammals warm. It protects their skin from a lot of external influences, from abrasion, from water, from chemical attack, all sorts of things,” she says.
Bacteria can cling to hair. In the vaginal area, that is both a good thing and a bad thing. You need your good vaginal bacteria to prevent an overgrowth of yeast, but when bacteria mix with the sweat and oil on your pubic hair, it can produce a smell.
Benefits. The primary benefit of pubic hair is its ability to reduce friction during sexual intercourse. The skin in the area around the genitals is very sensitive. Pubic hair can naturally reduce friction associated with the movements during sexual intercourse and other activities wherein chafing may occur.
It's the bacteria in your armpits that causes odor—bacteria that thrive in warm, moist places (your pits) and get especially "trapped" in the hair that grows there.
So, do men shave their armpits? You might be surprised to find that a recent survey by MANSCAPED™ found that 68% of men do groom their armpits.
Not so much. A recent study that involved two groups of guys — one with shaved heads and one with hair 3 to 5 inches long — subjected to temperature experiments showed no significant difference in body temperature between both hair lengths.
ODOR AFTER A SHOWER IS DUE TO LINGERING BACTERIA
In addition to bacteria, oftentimes there is deodorant residue and other impurities that are trapped in the underarm pores and within the hair if you have armpit hair.
All body hair that sprouts during puberty—think hair on your underarms, genitals, and chest hair on guys—is controlled by hormones. Since our estrogen levels drop as we reach middle to later age, body hair growth corresponds by becoming sparser and thinner, too.
Contrary to popular belief, more hair doesn't make you sweat more. However, underarm hair can keep moisture there longer, making it feel like you're sweating more than you are. Armpit hair also traps odor-causing bacteria, so shaving can reduce unpleasant B.O.