Pubic hair, like all human body hair, is subject to trends. These trends deviate based on age, status, socio-political climates, porn, and art. Charged by both its sexual connotation and publicly taboo nature, pubes are not often used as an opportunity for self-expression or art. They are instead seen as a sexual accessory, an assertion of sexual maturity or activity. If they are making an artistic commentary, it is inherently sexualized based on the thousands of years of social-programming that relates the part to its function—the pubis to sex. 

Pubic hair is not afforded the luxury of its less coarse cousin atop the skull that can be cut, dyed, styled, and the subject of editorials. Pubic hair is a sub-category on porn-sites and hidden away or stripped off, not flaunted as flowing locks. The human experience is one heavily rooted in having a body and a great joy of the body is its tolerance for decoration. Pubic hair with intention is rife for expression and can aid in the understanding of one’s own identity and beliefs. Utilize the pube. 

Pubic, armpit, and facial hair, usually begin to grow at puberty. Not at birth like our eyebrows or head-hair. At a primal level, they represent age and the entrance into physical maturity. Pubic hair takes it one step further and attaches itself to the part of the body humans have for the longest time been ashamed of. In a Judeo-Christian world, the pubis relates to the original sin. Art depicts the pubis covered by leaves in renderings of Adam and Eve. Not only does pubic hair signify the location of a sacred part of the body, but it also implies that if visible, it is in a moment of intimacy, as well as shame. However, as humanity evolves past oppressive and short-sighted interpretations of morality and the meaning of life, pubic hair should enter the conversation as a tool to dismantle those ideas. 

After speaking with students about the way they relate to their pubic hair, many common themes of peer pressure, shame, and general disinterest are apparent. 

One female student said “I remember it being a huge deal when I shaved for the first time. I watched a thousand youtube videos and googled FAQs, it felt like such a violent thing to do to a delicate part of my body, but I assumed it was {the} normal thing you do once you’re a teen” 

Another woman echoed the sentiment. “I shaved for the first time because I just thought that’s what you were supposed to do. All of the women I saw in porn were completely bald down there, so I assumed it was for a reason.” 

With respect to pubic hair grooming as a consequence of sexual encounters, another student provided excellent insight into the evolution of her relationship to her pubic hair. “I used to feel that I had to shave for sexual partners so I did it out of habit for a long time. I still like to pull a full Brazilian, but I consciously know now that it’s just for me. I love getting into the covers with clean-shaven legs and doing a little landscaping is just another way to be my most comfortable” 

Conversely, a different student offered that “I was so bad at shaving in high school, but by my sophomore year of college I started to see my pubes more as a sign of… wisdom? I no longer felt that hairless = sexy. Hair was sexy. Being queer also offered a new perspective, when I was intimate with other women, I wasn’t bothered by hair, so other people probably aren’t either.” 

This sentiment was echoed by another student. “As we get older and encounter the right partners, we learn how little our pubes actually mean to other people, and how much they can signify for ourselves. Basically, no one cares”. 

I implore you to consider your pubes not as shameful or inconvenient but to recognize the capacity for expression in them, or the lack thereof. Fully shaven pubes can stand as a metaphorical rejection of age and the construction of time. Leaving pubes unshaven can be a rejection of the patriarchal and feminine beauty standards imposed as “normal.” Ignoring your pubic hair can stand for your refusal to spend any moment in your life concerned with matters of ego and physical form. Perhaps each month you landscape a little differently. Dye them, cut them, shave them, love them. The possibilities are boundless and the choice is always yours.