So, you’re thinking about trimming off your fuzzy chest and stomach hair.
Men have various motives for removing body hair. It might be for fresh cleanliness, to stay cool in the hot summer months, or to show off your muscularity and “strut your stuff” on an upcoming holiday.
But I’m guessing you want to remove body hair to look more attractive, for enhanced sex appeal.
Well, the good news for you is that the majority of women find a hairless man more attractive than their gorilla-like counterpart.
A study – “Men’s body depilation: an exploratory study of United States college students’ preferences, attitudes, and practices.” – looked into hairy vs hairless for attractiveness.
In the study, a group of men and women were shown 6 pictures of a topless male body. Each picture had a different level of body hair, and participants were asked to choose which body they perceived to be most sexually attractive to them.
Results are in, and they’re not surprising.
74.1% of Women found the hairless, or near hairless body, more sexually attractive. And, 81.3% of men also choose a hairless body as more pleasing on the eye.
The more hair on the torso, the less pictures were chosen – conclusive proof that getting rid of body hair is going to improve your appearance, from the view of both men and women.
Of course, there’s always going be a minority of people that prefer body hair, but they’re rare.
Unlike our extinct primate ancestor – Australopithecus (meaning, Southern Ape) – we don’t need a thick shroud of body hair covering our chest, stomach, back, and arms to keep us warm. I’m sure evolution will catch up and do away with all unnecessary body hair, eventually. Until that time comes, modern man will need to use grooming tools.
Tools You’ll Need to Trim Chest and Stomach Hair
According to the study I mentioned before, researchers discovered that the most common tools for manscaping were as follows:
- Scissors – (56%)
- Electric Shaver – (56%)
- Regular cartridge razor – (55%)
- Body trimmers – (47%)
- Electric hair clippers – (34%)
- Plucking – (24%) – INSANE!
Now, this is interesting, because this tells me that most guys don’t know how to trim their chest and stomach hair properly, or they’re skimping out on investing in the right tools.
I’m going to break each of these methods down and give my opinion on each grooming tool, and give my take on which ones are best for manscaping the torso.
Manual Scissors
Scissors are not a good choice here, you won’t get an even or close finish, and it’ll take ages to complete.
Electric Shavers
Electric shavers are designed to shave down stubble for a close, smooth shave of the face. However, they’re not good for tackling long, thick chest hairs (unless they have a clipper/trimmer attachment). I’d imagine that guys who use an electric shaver on their face are simply using the same shaver for their body hair.
Again, an electric shaver is not an efficient tool for manscaping. It is only good for finishing the job off after trimming, for a smooth finish.
Disposable Wet Razors
Don’t even think about taking a disposable cartridge or safety razor to your chest and stomach hair, it won’t work well. It’ll be like trying to cut grass with a butter knife. The hairs will clump in mass, blocking the blades, and rendering the razor useless.
Of course, you could rinse the hairs off the blades after every short stroke, but you’d be there for hours trying to shave your upper body, and the blades will blunt quickly.
Body Hair Trimmers
In the study, body hair trimmers were used 47% of the time – which is good – as this is the best tool for male abdomen and chest hair removal. They are specially designed for this very purpose. Some will come with extensions for back hair removal and attachments to control cutting lengths.
It’s surprising to see that scissors and regular cartridge razors are a more commonly used tool than actual body hair trimmers as a method for removing body hair.
Again, maybe guys are just cutting corners (10/10 for that pun) and not willing to buy the right tools, or maybe they’re just not educated on the best methods – lets fix that!
Electric Hair Clippers
Hair clippers are a great tool for removing body hair, particularly if you have a lot to trim off.
If you’ve got long, dense chest and belly hair, you’ll need a good pair of hair clippers to strip down the bulk of the hair. The metal rake and cutting teeth will sheer straight through dense hair growth, making this an ideal tool.
Plucking
Who are the 24% of guys plucking their chest and stomach hairs?
Lord help them!
I’m not sure if they’re plucking hairs individually, with an epilator machine, or via waxing. I hope, they’re talking about waxing, because that’s the only “plucking” method you’d ever entertain on removing men’s body hair.
Now, I only recommend you as a candidate for waxing if your chest and stomach hairs are fine and not covering a large surface area, otherwise it’s going to be messy and painful.
Sure, waxing is going to last the longest before regrowth needs attended to. You’re looking at around 4 weeks between sessions, where as trimming might need done weekly. I’d always opt for the quick trim every week or two over an aggressive waxing.
Hair Removal Creams
Hair removal creams are also an option if you don’t like trimmers. No, depilatory creams aren’t just for girls – there are formulas for men’s hair and skin types, too.
Bottom Line
Use a body hair trimmer or a set of hair clippers to remove chest and stomach hair. Hair clippers will easily cut your hair down to about 0.5mm in length, which means there will be some short stubble left over.
I often use hair clippers and don’t mind a little stubble, it’s hardly noticeable. If you want to take it a step further, jump in the shower and wet shave the remaining stubble away with a disposable razor or electric shaver for the smoothest finish possible.
Good body trimmers and groomers will have a cutting element for long hair and a shaver to finish close. Body hair trimmers offer the most efficient and complete option for overall hair removal.
I usually use just clippers on body hair, and don’t shave down any closer because for me, shaving close to the skin causes razor burn, ingrown hairs, and red itching spots.
That’s not to say this will happen to you, trim down first with clippers, then shave. I find that you’re getting red spots and irritating ingrown hairs then skip the close shave next time, and leave the hairs at the trimmer 0.5mm.
How to Rid Your Unwanted Torso Hair
Start with the Chest and work your way down to your stomach – stopping just above the pubic region. It’s important that you don’t just pick a random spot on your body to trim then move somewhere else, be strategic about you trimming or you’ll end up missing areas.
More Than Just Chest and Abdomen Hair
Body hair removal should cover more than just your chest and stomach hair. You’ll want to trim down your armpit hair slightly with a long guard comb to neaten things up.
Remove any hair from your upper arms, shoulders, and back. Consider trimming down your forearm hair using a 10mm guard comb.
You don’t want abrupt or bold lines where your body is clean shaven and joins other hair growth.
For example, can you imagine shaving off all of your chest hair and leaving your hairy belly untouched?
Or how about you shave all of your chest and back hair off and leave bushy hair all over your shoulders.
That would look pretty ridiculous, right?
What I like to do is trim off my chest hair first, working my way from the neck down (take care around the nipple, the clipper can cut skin if you’re not careful).
Then I’ll trim all of my stomach hairs, stopping at my pubic hair.
Next, shoulders, upper arms and back get trimmed completely.
Finally, I’ll use a 10mm guard comb and trim down some of my pubic hair and forearm hair, this means that the areas where hair remains are thinned down, leaving my upper body almost, but not entirely hairless, to maintain some masculine features.
Always trim against the grain of hair growth, this allows the hairs to slide into the clipper or trimmer teeth for even cutting.
So there you have it, a scientific reason you should shave your chest and stomach hair. Complete with the recommended tools and direction you need to look and feel more attractive.
