Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Everything Youve Ever Wanted to Know About Body Hair The Science of Beauty Podcast

why do we have armpit hair

But it's also an important juncture that protects important lymph nodes and soft tissue. Mental Floss spoke to microbiologist Alex Berezow, a senior fellow of biomedical science with the American Council on Science and Health, about this often overlooked spot. Cushing syndrome is a hormonal disorder that occurs when there is too much of the stress hormone cortisol in the body. It can be caused by taking steroid medications commonly prescribed for asthma or arthritis, or by problems with the glands in the body that are involved in creating cortisol. Symptoms can vary from person to person but often include easy bruising, a "hump" on the back, and stretch marks.

Keeping Your Armpit Hair May Have Health Advantages

In particular, they’re chemicals the body naturally produces and releases to act as scent signals, especially in the opposite sex. Not only are more women — including celebrities — refusing to shave, wax, and laser their underarms, but they’re going one step further by bedazzling (pitjazzling?) the area. There’s unicorn armpit hair, glitter armpit hair, braided armpit hair ... One of the biggest benefits of removing armpit hair is decreased armpit odor. One study aimed to find out if armpit hair affects body odor, and if so, to what extent. Before the study began, researchers theorized that removing armpit hair would be the best way to minimize armpit odor.

Why do people remove it?

Smooth skin isn’t the only benefit you can expect from shaving. Ultimately, a person needs to determine how they feel about the decision and do what makes them happiest. My two best friends and I stopped shaving in high school. For me, this decision was not explicitly about feminism, but about an allegiance to my idea of authenticity (not to mention my allegiance to laziness).

Is armpit hair the same as pubic hair?

why do we have armpit hair

If you’re into removing your pubic hair because it makes you feel great, go for it. “A lot of women just like how it feels and find something aesthetically pleasing about it,” says Dr. Ross. Whatever makes you feel good is awesome, as long as it’s something you actually want to do. There are various reasons why people might decide to remove their pubic hair, but a lot of them are rooted in sexual health myths.

It prevents other discomforts or diseases

Part of the reason people have armpit hair is due to hormone changes—especially surrounding puberty. While keeping or removing your armpit hair is very much a personal choice and one that shouldn't be judged either way, there's a lot of pressure for women to keep their pits smooth. Why are women expected to remove their armpit hair if it has so many uses? "There's this false association that hairlessness equals cleanliness, but that's not actually true as long as you're clean," said Gohara. While armpit hair has uses, that doesn't mean you are obligated to keep it if you don't want to. You should know, however, that shaving your armpit hair can lead to issues.

Dungeons and Dragons movie's armpit hair breaks a movie taboo - Digital Spy

Dungeons and Dragons movie's armpit hair breaks a movie taboo.

Posted: Sat, 01 Apr 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

IT'S NOT YOUR SWEAT THAT STINKS.

Maggie Rogers Shares Her Skin & Hair Routine On Tour - Refinery29

Maggie Rogers Shares Her Skin & Hair Routine On Tour.

Posted: Fri, 01 Feb 2019 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Learn more about the best ways to safely remove the pubic hair here. Pubic hair is normal, and the amount of hair in the pubic region varies from person to person. There is no standard for the amount, the thickness, or the area that pubic hair will cover. ” I cried to my husband, as though I’d unexpectedly spotted a T-shirt emblazoned with the name of my favorite obscure band. For the past couple of decades, I have seldom shaved my armpits.

It might grow in like mine, which is coarse and curly — a luscious pit Afro, if you will. Or it could crop up as sparsely as Justin Bieber’s mustache. Hair can only grow so long; it’s not like you’ll be able to fishtail your pit hair by summer’s end. Tired of sweating excessively or dealing with sweat stains on your clothes?

"When you shave, you can get irritation, folliculitis, rashes, inflammation, and even infections from dirty razors," Dr. Mona Gohara told the outlet. She added that there is no "biological reason to remove that hair." Facial hair, armpit hair, and pubic hair are all the same type of hair, called “terminal hair.” It starts growing as fine hair (vellus hair), and at puberty starts to change and progresses to a coarse hair. It sheds often and therefore the longest armpit or pubic hair would be less than 6 inches. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, it’s completely normal to shed anywhere between 50 to 100 strands of hair per day. However, if you’ve noticed more strands falling out of your head than normal, you may be experiencing alopecia, the medical term for hair loss.

Benefits of Armpit Hair Shaving

why do we have armpit hair

Merely going out in public with female body hair takes a different sort of courage. You’re less likely to hear direct insults, but more likely to get funny looks, unmediated by a screen. But she remembers thinking something was afoot when dyed armpit hair became fashionable a few years ago. One of the pioneers of that micro-trend was Roxie Jane Hunt, a hairstylist in Seattle. Since its launch in November 2017, Billie has positioned itself as explicitly feminist.

While it may seem totally useless, armpit hair does have some pretty specific uses, according to esthetician Marta Camkiran. This is called hyperhidrosis, a condition that causes people to sweat excessively from their hands, feet, and armpits. By leaving the armpit hair intact, you’re helping trap odor, since moisture (sweat) attaches to hair. This is because the armpits release an odor containing pheromones, a naturally-producing chemical that plays a role in sexual attraction. Sensitivities to androgen levels also influence where terminal hair grows on the body, for everyone.

Although there’s no definitive answer, plenty of theories abound as to why human beings have hairy armpits and pubic regions, one of which seems pretty reasonable. "Deodorants change the composition of the microbiome," Berezow says. "The secretions our armpits make don't stink. Bacteria break down the compounds, and those breakdown products stink," says Berezow. The bacteria that live in the moist crevices of your armpits interact with your sweat, which contains volatile fatty acids and odorous steroids (among other compounds). That creates a product known as thioalcohols, whose oniony, meaty scents you're likely familiar with if you've ever been stuck in a crowded elevator, subway, or gym at peak workout time.

Shaving, perhaps the most common method, can cause damage to your underarms. It can cause inflammation, itching, , folliculitis, and razor burns. Worse, if you’re not the most conscientious about your , cuts from razors could lead to infection. The biographical comedy series Naked Director discussed some pretty serious topics, from show business to politics to sex. One issue that it casts to light probably inadvertently is . The show is about the Japanese adult entertainment industry.

Trends around keeping or eliminating body hair change over time, but the habit of shaving off the hair that grows on us has been around since before any trends existed. Rumor has it we’ve been grooming away our body hair for over 100,000 years, starting by plucking it out (ouch) one by one, then later moving to actual tools. Did you know there are approximately five million hair follicles on the human body? And each one of those follicles serves a number of significant roles when it comes to the overall function of the human anatomy. So why exactly have we been removing our body hair for the last few hundreds of years? Well, you can chock that up to societal and cultural norms.

That natural inhibitor is Dickkopf 2 (DKK2) – a protein that is found in specific embryonic and adult tissues where it plays a variety of roles. Researchers tested plantar skin from mice – roughly the equivalent of the underside of the human wrist – and found that DKK2 was highly expressed. Furthermore, when they genetically removed DKK2, hair began to grow in this normally hairless skin region. Eyebrows, on the other hand, provide an entirely different purpose than that of underarm or pubic hair. “Our eyebrows allow our expressions and moods to be determined or communicated from one person to another, even at a great distance,” says Jablonski.

Then dermatologist Kavita Mariwalla stopped by to chat about what’s going on beneath the surface, and share the pros and cons of the many ways to remove body hair, if you so choose. Either way, after reading the below — and hearing even more on our episode — you’ll never look at your body hair the same way again. You should remember that hair alone isn’t responsible for the body odor that can occur in this area.

Because pubic hair appears during puberty, it is often a physical sign of sexual maturity and may once have served as a visual cue for prospective mates. Other theories as to the purpose of pubic hair include trapping pheromones. However, most well-controlled scientific studies have not shown any compelling evidence for this. As social conventions ease and expand, the armpit hair trend may be here to stay. Just seize the moment and embrace whatever makes you confident. You know that not everyone will approve, and some will let you know it.

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