When the phrase “please turn over and pull your cheeks apart” is spoken, you can be pretty certain that something unpleasant is about to happen.
Having booked a pre-holiday all-over body wax, I was expecting some degree of painful intimacy, but the “intergluteal cleft” part of the procedure (commonly known as the “crack” in the “back, sack and crack” combo) crossed a line and caught me by surprise. The female beautician trowelling on the hot wax took the job seriously. For £120 I received a scorched earth package where everything below the neck went, even the hair on my fingers and toes.
That was several years ago before a trip to Italy, where as far as I could see no man under the age of 35 was allowed to have body hair. But rather than fit in, my pudgy white skin stood out a mile among the bronzed torsos on the congested Portofino beach. I looked like a beluga whale swimming through creosote.
I learned my lessons. Now I always prep for holidays with a back wax and closely crop my chest hair with trimmers. Everything else gets a tidy up, but I’ve never ventured down the all-over route again.
Anyone holidaying in the Med this summer will have noticed a distinct lack of hairy men. And what remains is often skilfully manicured and tidied. The same pattern repeats itself in gym changing rooms where younger men in particular think nothing of waxing chests, legs, backs and arms, especially those with defined muscles, for whom hairlessness provides a clearer shop window for their toned physiques.
Seventies fashion may have made a comeback, but its body hair has not. Sporting a full pelt of back hair and a chest mat on the beach in Marbella is fashion suicide. You may as well wear mink. And you’d deserve the derision. There’s no excuse.
In the UK, men’s attitudes to their body hair depends on where the hair is. According to a 2021 YouGov survey, just 10 per cent of men thought armpit hair should go while just 5 per cent thought their leg hair was unattractive. Attitudes to chest hair were split, with 27 per cent of men preferring somewhat hairy chests and 24 per cent opting for the “not very hairy” look. Only 8 per cent preferred the waxed look.
Backs were a different matter, with 61 per cent of men saying hairy backs were unattractive while only 3 per cent thought they were attractive. Further south and attitudes also differed. Twenty-two per cent favoured no pubic hair at all, while 32 per cent disliked the plucked chicken look.
Meanwhile, a recent survey commissioned by online retailer Galaxus in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and Italy found that two in three men in these nations groomed their body hair and nearly 40 per cent were dissatisfied with the natural look. Italian men were more likely to wax or shave their chest hair (32 per cent), while French men were less likely (23 per cent).
Kim Lawless is Britain’s wax queen, as the leading authority on waxing in the UK she’s trained thousands of waxers from around the world – even Brazil. She is famous for having developed one of the most popular techniques for male and female intimate waxing. When I tell her about my experience, she explains that had I been depilated by one of her students, I would have been on all fours.
“More men are having their body hair removed,” she explains, “but it’s been a trend for years. It’s quite normal. There are different body parts though, so for example when men start dating, they are more likely to get an intimate wax and their backs waxed, while a lot of men in their 50s and 60s will get their nostrils and ears waxed.”
A back wax is the most common male waxing procedure, explains Lawless, who has been tearing strips off the rich and famous for over 20 years.
She offers a more subtle option to frontal male grooming whereby the sides of the torso are waxed, and the chest and abdomen hair is then shaped and blended naturally.
“The chest is the most painful part of a man to wax,” she says.
Hairless male legs and arms are rare, although there is a niche market for cyclists, swimmers and runners who, depending on who you talk to, believe smooth skin either creates less drag or is more hygienic in the event of tumbles.
“But underarms are becoming quite popular with men,” Lawless continues, “because to put it bluntly, it’s not the sweat which smells, it’s the hair it is trapped in.”
Over at Jimmy Bodur Male Grooming Clinic in London, clients can choose from a menu of 18 different wax and clipper options, ranging from a back and intimate area wax with chest and abdomen hair trim for £120, to chest and intimate area wax for £80 and a crack wax for £25.
Owner, Jimmy Bodur, explains that when he started his clinic 15 years ago, he had a handful of clients, but that now male body grooming is booming.
“It increases every year, particularly around the summer when people go on holiday. Men sometimes have the attitude that body hair is associated with masculinity and that the only option is waxing but we now have manscaping, which is trimming body hair with clippers, so you still have hair, but it is tidier,” he says.
He believes that men from hotter countries are more likely to wax or trim.
“It’s all about the weather. Where it’s too hot, men prefer waxing because it’s cooler and easier to stay clean,” he adds.
Lawless says attitudes to waxing are freer in countries where men prioritise the way they look. “Men get waxed more in countries where male grooming is taken seriously,” she says, citing Spain and Italy as examples. “Even the older men take care of themselves there and can look gorgeous.”
Attitudes to chest hair are influenced by a range of factors, including social media, fashion, and role models. One Australian study found that social pressure was associated with young men deciding to remove body hair. But eliminating body hair has a longer history. It is thought that cavemen used sharpened rocks or seashells to remove their hair to prevent insects from nesting in it. Ancient Egyptian men were understood to depilate, and Greek males shunned body hair, as illustrated by statues from the period. Indeed, perhaps the most famous male statue in the world, Michelangelo’s Renaissance masterpiece David, depicts a man so devoid of all body hair (apart from a small pubic bush), he could be a Love Island contestant.
In modern history the turning point for the current trend was the mid-Nineties and early Noughties when footballers like David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo started to adopt the hairless torso look, giving rise to the phrase “metrosexual”, to describe men who took an interest in beauty treatments and products.
For virgin waxers and trimmers who opt to take the plunge, there are a few things to weigh up. Firstly, waxing is temporary. The hair will grow back in around five weeks. Secondly, it’s really not advisable to jump in at the deep end and go for a full body wax straight away. Let’s not beat around the, ahem, bush, the process involves someone – male or female – fiddling around with your jewels.
The experience can also be uncomfortable, with the chest being the most painful part to wax. And for the first few times, waxing can cause unsightly spots and bumps – a key consideration if you are having it done for a honeymoon or a holiday.
Lawless advises men to think carefully about picking specific parts of the body for waxing. Just choosing an intimate wax, for example, can look strange if the waxed bits are surrounded by hair. She also advises that shaved hair is more painful to wax.
“If you are a guy who shaves your chest and wants to get it waxed for holiday, stop shaving a minimum of four weeks and ideally five weeks before you get waxed, that way it won’t hurt so much, and it will take longer to grow back,” she says.
Bodur meanwhile advises against drinking coffee before a waxing appointment “because the caffeine makes you more sensitive.”
If you are brave enough for the full package, however, and find yourself on all fours eyeing a spatula dripping with hot wax, console yourself with one thought: at least your beautician has been trained by the best.
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