Most women who remove their pubic hair say they do it because it feels cleaner. In a national survey of nearly 3,000 women published in JAMA Dermatology, 59% cited hygiene as their primary motivation, making it the most common reason by a wide margin. But the full picture is more layered, involving cultural shifts, partner dynamics, beauty standards, and some persistent misconceptions about what “clean” actually means.
The Most Common Reasons Women Give
That same large survey broke down motivations in detail. After hygiene (59%), the next most common reason was routine: 45.5% of women said grooming was simply something they do regularly, like shaving their legs. About 31.5% said they groom because they think it makes their genitals look more attractive, and 21.1% said their partner prefers it. Roughly one in five women (19.6%) said it makes oral sex easier.
When researchers asked women to rate how strongly they agreed with various statements, the highest-scoring responses were “I look sexier when I groom” and “my vagina looks better when I groom.” Women also reported moderate agreement with feeling embarrassed if others saw them ungroomed. Partner expectation ranked lower as a direct motivator, but partner preference still had a measurable pull. Women whose partners didn’t prefer grooming were significantly less likely to do it themselves, and women whose partners also groomed were more likely to groom.
In short, the reasons cluster into a few categories: perceived cleanliness, appearance and self-image, sexual confidence, partner influence, and sheer habit.
How Culture Got Us Here
Pubic hair removal isn’t new. Ancient Greek and Roman women removed body hair, often for religious or health-related reasons. But the modern Western norm traces a clear path through the 20th century. Between 1915 and 1945, ads in women’s magazines began pushing underarm hair removal to match sleeveless dress styles. By the 1930s, the focus shifted from instruction (“here’s how to shave”) to product marketing (“buy this to shave”), signaling that hairlessness had become an expectation rather than a suggestion. Leg hair removal followed, driven partly by chorus girls and shorter hemlines in the 1920s.
Pubic hair, though, stayed mostly untouched until much later. Through the 1970s and into the 1980s, a natural look was the norm, with trimming around the bikini line emerging as swimsuits got smaller. The real turning point came in the early 1990s, when Brazilian waxing spread across the United States. By the early 2000s, celebrities were openly discussing the practice. A widely cited 2000 episode of Sex and the City, in which a character gets a Brazilian wax and declares she feels “like walking sex,” is often credited with pushing the trend into mainstream culture.
The rise of internet pornography played a parallel role. As hairless bodies became the visual default in adult media, that aesthetic filtered into broader beauty expectations. The result is a generation of women for whom pubic hair removal feels less like a choice and more like a baseline.
The Hygiene Question Is More Complicated Than It Seems
The most popular reason for grooming, “hygiene,” deserves a closer look, because the biology doesn’t support it. Pubic hair exists specifically to protect the vulva. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, it keeps the vulvar skin warm and moisturized, reduces friction during sex, and acts as a barrier against dust, dirt, and bacteria that could reach the vagina and cause infection.
If you notice a slight odor, that’s actually the hair doing its job: trapping sweat, oil, and bacteria on the skin’s surface rather than letting them migrate. Removing the hair doesn’t make the area cleaner in a medical sense. It removes a layer of protection.
Even in surgical settings, the evidence is clear. Guidelines for vulvar and vaginal surgery published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology state that routine pubic hair removal does not decrease infection rates. When hair must be removed for visibility during a procedure, clipping is recommended over shaving because shaving increases the risk of surgical site infections. If hospitals don’t consider shaving “cleaner,” the hygiene argument for everyday grooming doesn’t hold up well either.
What Pubic Hair Actually Does
Beyond the hygiene misconception, pubic hair serves several biological functions. It reduces friction during sexual activity, protecting the delicate genital skin from irritation and tiny tears (microtrauma) that can become entry points for infection. It also retains pheromones, naturally produced chemical signals that play a role in sexual attraction and communication between partners. And it provides a basic thermal buffer, helping regulate temperature in a sensitive area.
None of this means you need to keep your pubic hair for health reasons. It means the decision is genuinely cosmetic and personal, not a hygiene imperative in either direction.
Risks and Complications of Removal
Pubic hair removal carries real, well-documented risks. In one study, 60% of women who groomed had experienced at least one complication. The most common were skin abrasion and ingrown hairs. Other frequent issues include folliculitis (inflamed hair follicles), vulvar irritation, and contact dermatitis from products used during or after shaving. More serious but less common complications include genital burns from waxing, infections, post-inflammatory darkening of the skin, and even the spread of sexually transmitted infections through broken skin.
Emergency room visits for grooming-related genital injuries increased fivefold in the United States between 2002 and 2010, according to data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. That spike tracks almost exactly with the normalization of full pubic hair removal during the same period.
Reducing Irritation if You Do Shave
If you choose to shave, a few techniques can lower your risk of problems. Always use a shaving gel or cream to reduce friction. Shave in the direction your hair grows, not against it. Use a fresh, clean razor every time, since used razors harbor bacteria. Avoid tight clothing immediately after shaving, as friction from fabric against freshly shaved skin is a common trigger for ingrown hairs.
If you develop an ingrown hair, stop shaving or waxing the area until it resolves. Gentle exfoliation can help speed up skin cell turnover and encourage the trapped hair to surface. Products containing glycolic acid or benzoyl peroxide can calm inflammation. If the area becomes red, swollen, or painful in a way that suggests infection, a healthcare provider can prescribe a topical or oral antibiotic.
Who Grooms and Who Doesn’t
Grooming is widespread across demographics, but not evenly distributed. A study of nearly 1,700 women aged 16 to 40 found that being a current groomer was associated with being younger, being white, having a lower body weight, having a household income above $30,000, and having more lifetime sexual partners. That said, the researchers emphasized that grooming was “extremely common among women of varying demographics,” meaning it cuts across racial, economic, and age lines even if some groups do it at higher rates.
The age factor is particularly notable. Younger women are more likely to groom, which aligns with the cultural timeline: women who came of age after the Brazilian wax boom and the rise of internet pornography treat hair removal as a default in ways that older generations may not. Whether that norm persists, shifts, or loosens as beauty standards continue to evolve is an open question, but the trend over the past two decades has been unmistakably toward more removal, not less.