And Now, Something Completely Superficial...

[JeffreyWilliamson]

Urgh. I hate shaving. It's annoying, sweaty, time-consuming. And you know what I mean by shaving--body hair.

Every two weeks it's the same thing. Go get a haircut, shave. It takes over an hour with clippers to finish the job, and requires weekly touch-ups.

I don't know why I have such an aversion to body hair on myself, (I don't necessarily have that problem with other people). As deep a person as I am, it's so superficial. I come from hairy stock, and trust me, if I don't trim every two weeks or so, it shows. I wish there was some way to either permanently rid myself of the stuff, or just get comfortable with it.

Anyone else have this issue, or get sick of doing it? Is there any way to make the process faster? Most of my straight guy friends shave, which I've always thought was interesting...

[XemaSab]

1. You could get waxed

:shrug:

[JeffreyWilliamson]

2. Kind of scared about that one...

This isn't anything excessive though. Arms, legs, etc. Not sure that would be cost-effective.

Everyone else I know does it and they don't seem to think it's a big deal. They'll just go over themselves with a razor in the shower. I'm not up for the kind of pain that follows, personally, which means it takes forever to do.

Nair isn't much better than a straight razor either.

[ronnykmarshall]

36. Been there, done that ...

HATED IT!!!

[Chulanowa]

3. I've learned to live with it...

Of course, if I ever got waxed, you could use the strips to make a gorilla suit. Goddamned Welshmen genes. Pan cymrucinus, that's me...

[SacredCow]

12. Another from Welsh lineage here....

:hi:

I used to try to do the shaving thing. But like the OP, I don't mind it on other people at all so I finally just accepted it, and became a card-carrying bear! But hey- at least I can eat carbs and not live my entire life at the gym!

[Bear down under]

4. On the other hand

There are plenty of people -- both gay men and straight women -- who find body hair virile and attractive. If you're blessed with it, wear it with pride!

[Jamastiene]

5. I hate shaving too.

I don't mind shaving under my arms and I keep them clean shaven, but the legs get shaved when I damn well feel like it. I'd never shave them again if I had my way about it. I'd be a lesbian bear and damn proud of it. That's how much I hate shaving my legs.

[Eryemil]

6. I personally can't understand this aversion to body hair

But as a Cuban male, I wouldn't. We're still old-fashioned in the sense that we see it as virile and powerful. Very much part of the masculine ideal.

[ronnykmarshall]

37. I just released an egg!

PAPI!!!

[dsc]

7. embrace the hair

I am as hairy as get out and just live with it.

[meegbear]

8. Grow a beard and go with the flow

[JeffreyWilliamson]

18. I actually have a beard right now...

I usually alternate between it and a goatee. It's the body hair that I don't care for. It's not so much that it's in the wrong places because it's not. It's just that it can get a bit long after a while, and doesn't fit the body form well. I also find that it feels uncomfortable. I realize that it's just me.

[TechBear_Seattle]

9. It doesn't look like you will get much sympathy here

I've never been fond of the all-over shaved look myself: I am attracted to men, not pre-pubescent boys.

I think it would be far easier to learn to live with your natural hirsuitness.

[JeffreyWilliamson]

17. I figured I'd be in the minority...

It would definitely be easier to just learn to live with it, but no matter how many times I try to, it just gets too much after a while. Summer in Houston, TX, 98 degrees, 90% humidity--let's just say it's no walk in the park under those conditions.

The strange thing is, like I said, I don't mind it on other people--in fact I find it quite attactive. Just not so much on me...

[Vanje]

10. A professional shearer could complete the job in less than....

....4 minutes.

AND bag the sell the wool and sell it!

[bluedawg12]

11. I am a hairless breed, I could use a thick coat about this time of year.

[JeffreyWilliamson]

19. Too bad we can't trade...

I was a late bloomer though so I got some time off compared to others I know. It didn't really start showing up too badly until mid-20's. Not a hair on the chest until 25 - 26. Then it was everywhere...

This was in the mid-90's. It seemed like everyone I knew shaved back then, even the straight guys I worked with. What I've found really interesting over the last few years is, it seems that now ONLY the straight guys, (and apparently me), are doing it...

[bluedawg12]

21. Yeah, if you live long enough those hairs sprout, men and women are not spared

guys get those ear hairs, women get chin hairs and many people get sort of a schnauzer look to the eyebrows.

wow, we are spending a lot of time on hair/fur, this is what comes of snow days. :P

[JeffreyWilliamson]

22. I've taken to using tweezers on those eyebrow hairs...

Nasty things, those...

I can announce that my long national nighthair is finally over as of last night. It's nice to be back, for the next 13 days or so anyway. Then I get to complain all over again.

Until then, well, let me check...

Yep, smooth as a baby's bottom. If the baby used clipper cutters recently, that is.

And speaking of babies I almost cried like one by the end of the ordeal. I think it's time for new clippers as this set's blades are getting painfully dull. They chaffed in places my partner doesn't even know about.

[HillbillyBob]

23. If those are Wahl or Oster clippers you can get new blades for about 10$

Instead of replacing the whole thing. Not to mention that throwing away all that metal in the body of the things.
I like body hair myself and my beard recently has turned into too much of a chore to shave(ingrowns and 2x a day shaves) so I just clip with a #2 guide every 2 weeks or so, I can grow a mountainman beard down my chest in a few months.

[JeffreyWilliamson]

24. HillbillyBob...

Where do you hail from? I come from hillbilly stock myself, in the Ozarks in NW Arkansas. I have to keep the beard in check myself or I'll frighten the neighbors. I had a very nice trip this past Memorial Day weekend back home to visit my brother and his family. We drank Bud Light and shot the cans off a log from his front yard the next morning. We took the kids up to Silver Dollar City.

I'm betting no one else here will get anything I've just said, but it was:

The. Best. Vacation. Ever.

[bluedawg12]

32. I own a pair of "Lucky Dog Oster" clippers

and style my hair with the #1 attachment and trim with scissors. It's not a bad look. Really.

The only question about the vacation, was it a BB or 22cal.? :evilgrin: Oh yeah, is Silver Dollar City like our Dollar General?

[JeffreyWilliamson]

34. The gun wasn't for kids, to say the least...

Not sure what caliber it was, it was a handgun, and we had to use earplugs. He told me we could try it out and no one would care--I didn't believe him. Firing a handgun where I live would bring no less than 10 police cars to your house. That's apparently not the case where he lives, (Lonoke, AR), in fact they not only don't frown upon it, they endorse it.

We went outside and he put in his earplugs and told me to watch. He put a beer can on a log across the street from his house and walked back into the yard next to the mailbox where I waited. Holding up the gun, he squeezed in the safety bar on the back of the handle and applied pressure to the trigger--and missed the can. He tried to explain it away but I couldn't really hear any of what he was saying at that point because my ears were ringing so loudly.

We went inside the house and he gave me a pair of earplugs, showed me how to pull back on the gun to load the next round, how to use my palm to press in on the handle to release the safety, and gave me the "tv cop show" speech about how not to pull the trigger but just apply pressure to it. I did.

The thing jerked my elbow back into my stomach as I watched dirt blow into the air from a ditch behind and above the beer can I had aimed for. I went totally white and handed the gun back to him. He told me to "Watch this!", reset the gun, and held it forward. Then he lowered the gun and waved to a neighbor as they drove past us down the street. When they were past, he raised, fired, and hit the can.

Suffice it to say, this wasn't a BB gun...

As for Silver Dollar City, It's not quite like our Dollar General or even Family Dollar. I didn't so much enjoy the gun episode as much as I did the SDC episode, and Branson in particular. I'm quite the city boy, if the gun story above wasn't evidence enough. But, waiting in line for Fire In The Hole, (that's an amusement park ride, by the way), with my 2 nephews and niece, was far more exciting than waiting in line with friends to get into South Beach, (a dance club in Houston), a few months ago.

We're going back this Memorial Day Weekend because we had so much fun last year. I'm really looking forward to it, and I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities to up my hillbilly credentials then as well. Strangely, as much as that makes me cringe, I'm looking forward to it. Maybe this year we can stop at a souvenir shop and get that corn-cob pipe I wanted to bring home to freak out the partner. The name of the shop I wanted to go to--Booger Hollow.

Funny how family can change our view of things, isn't it?

[LostinVA]

30. I wonder uf the OP is hair or wool???

[SacredCow]

13. The cost of laser hair removal is coming down.....

but not everybody is a good candidate, IIRC.

[donco6]

14. Woof!

I gladly display it with pride.

Within legal limits of course.

[beaglelover]

15. Do you have a boyfriend or partner?

My partner is very hairy (which I love). He trims his front body hair every two weeks as well. I take care of shaving his nether regions and back hair. It's foreplay for us.....a lot of fun. May make your chore a lot more enjoyable!!

[Toasterlad]

16. I Think I Have Just the Right Amount

I dig my furry chest. The only hair I'd like to ditch is the spattering on my back...but since I never see it, I just pretend it doesn't exist!

[mitchtv]

25. Er, you left your wallet over my place

Call me

[ronnykmarshall]

38. Tramp!!!

:silly:

[JeffreyWilliamson]

20. Argh...

I put it off after I started this thread last night. I decided to relax a little with a glass of wine and a movie first. One glass of wine lead to another and I never got around to it. On a completely unrelated note, the most recent version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy seems much more entertaining on DVD than when I saw it in the theater, and seems much funnier after a bottle of wine.

I've been running the heat all day and it's kind of warm in here. It's getting uncomfortable. This will have to be done tonite.

[xchrom]

26. i go to the spa and get waxed.

it hurts -- but it's clean.

and i LOVE superficial!

[JeffreyWilliamson]

27. Superficial's nice when it gives you that clean feeling...

The shaving wasn't that comfortable in the end, but I was comfortable. And today, no sweating my armpits off!

Nice, clean, dry, smooth feeling.

Nice all around. Except for a few cuts.

[DarkTirade]

28. I might start shaving my chest if I ever get the tattoo I want there.

An egyptian scarab beetle with a sun disc and outspread wings would look really cool... but might look a bit silly if it's a little fuzzy. :)

Although for me that wouldn't take much work. I've got some native american ancestry, and it's pretty obvious that I got my hair growth genes from that side. Because it takes me about a week to get a 5 o'clock shadow. And my body hair is pretty minimal. It wasn't until about the age of 23 or so that I had enough on my chest to even worry about whether the tattoo I want would work or not. :P

[LostinVA]

29. I do, too

A bit of an aversion. Trust me, it's more delicate with women. And, we do it more often.

[xchrom]

33. we should spa together.

the conversation alone would be brilliant!

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

31. I discovered Coochie Cream from a male DUer and the stuff rocks

Nothing gets a closer shave (with little to no ingrown hairs) than Coochie Cream with a Mach 3 razor. Follow it up with some Gillette sensitive skin after-shave. Just make sure to trim as close as possible before you shave. If you leave the coochie cream on for a few minutes, after being in a hot shower for a few minutes, it will condition and soften the hair to make it easier.

Amazon.com has the best price on it.

[The Brethren]

35. I wish I could offer you more sympathy,

but I'm too envious that you only have to shave once every 2 weeks. LOL Try everyday!! I know, it's different type of thing between men vs. women. But still......

And personally, I don't recommend waxing. I've tried it and it's the most masochistic form of torture I can think of. :-(