What Do Women Think About Men and Body Hair?

I was thinking the other day…

So I published a few recent posts that talked about 7 Reasons You’ll Love Shaving Your Head Completely Bald For the First Time as well as reasons you may want to shave your beard.

Those were mostly topical to specific events in a guys life.

Like:

Should you shave your beard when attending an interview?  What about if its a funeral?

Regardless, it made me think: ‘Sure these are all topical and important events, but what if we take it another level deeper and see what women think about all of this on a guy?’

Now, first and foremost, I want to say that you shouldn’t be doing specific grooming habits just to please women.

No!

What I am saying though is that if you were ever curious what a group of women thought about body hair, well then, I got you covered.

Before diving into the results, I just want to set a few baseline things about the survey itself.

So it was asked to over 100 women (142 to be exact) on what they thought about men and body hair.  I didn’t ask them if this was before a date, or of their significant other.

In addition, 82% of the respondents in this survey were between the ages of 18 and 34 – of which 45% of women were between the ages of 18-24 and another 37% of women were between the ages of 25-34.

what do women think about men's body hair - demographics

With out further adieu, here are the results:

What Do Women Think About Bald Men?

what do women think about bald men

Sorry my balded friends – don’t worry I am bald too ????

So 46% of respondents found bald men unattractive.  If we break it down to the 18 to 34 year old demogrpahic, we found the following:

  • 9% found bald men Very Unattractive
  • 33% found bald men only Slightly Unattractive
  • 39% had No Opinion if the a guy was bald
  • 19% found bald men Slightly Attractive
  • 0% found bald men Very Attractive ????

Being the eternal optimist, the way that I see it is that 58% of women either don’t care or find bald guys attractive!

So don’t hold on to your hair and end up looking like this guy:

donald trump's hair

So let’s chat for a second about the other 42% of women that find bald men unattractive.

Sure you could definitely give something like rogaine a shot and see how it works out.  However, that is really only effective in just about less than half of guys.

In addition, you could also try out hair plugs, but then that is also extremely expensive.  According to WebMD, a hair transplant costs anywhere in the range of $4,000 to $15,000!

I don’t know about you, but I would never spend upwards to $15,000 just to satisfy 42% of the population on my hairline.

Besides there are so many awesome reasons to go bald.

What Do Women Think of Men With Long Hair?

what do women think of men with long hair

So we asked what women thought of men with longer hair (greater than 4″).  This is around the length that men can start to make a man bun.

While all women were a little unattractive towards being bald, the opposite can be said of men with longer hair.

So if we break this down to the 18 to 34 year old demographic, we see the following results:

  • 7% found men with long hair Very Unattractive
  • 26% found men with long hair only Slightly Unattractive
  • 16% had No Opinion if the a man had long hair
  • 35% found men with long hair Slightly Attractive
  • 16% found men with long hair Very Attractive

When compared to the overall survey results above 67% of women had no opinion or found men with longer hair attractive (same exact percentage breakdown).

While the man bun might be screaming through the roof as far as popularity is concerned.  Personally I think its a trend that will definitely die out a firey death within the next few years.

Perhaps I am biased since I can’t grow one, but hey so is life ????

Wearing one to a wedding is one thing (its about being yourself), but then again so was this style in the early 90s:

wedding-mullet

Lastly on the topic of hair on a guys head, what about average length of hair (less than 4″).  100% of all respondents found an average amount of hair attractive.

So guys if you have an average amount of hair, keep it that way!

What Do Women Think of Beards?

This was by and far the most shocking results that I saw for the whole survey.

I will get to that in just a minute.

So with beards, they come in so many different shapes and sizes.

They can range from a full yeard (beard for a year) to simply not having a beard at all.

In addition, you also have the mustache, a medium length beard (what I like to call a meard), to a goatee, and lastly a stubble.

It’s important to note, that in this survey I kept to the more popular beard choices for simplicity sake.  Sure there are definitely soul patches, mutton chops, and so many other ways to go with it.

But I figured if there were that many choices respondent fatigue may start to set in.

So in all here were the results for the entire population of women:

what do women think of beards

There are some really fascinating things to note here.

First:

Just the other day I wrote a post about the yeard has hit its peak and is starting to fall out of popularity.

This was further backed up by my hypothesis that the meard (month long beard) is actually really attractive for all women)!

Yes you read that right in the results above – 58% of all women survey found a medium length beard attractive.

So if you have a yeard and are looking to set a first impression on someone, you might want to take a shot at scaling it back just a little bit.

Again though, do it because you want to, not because it makes someone else happy!

So we can see that just a bit of a beard is really attractive, but even more astonishingly is the attractiveness of some stubble.  75% of all women surveyed found beard stubble attractive.

If you can grow a beard and aren’t restricted to shaving standards set by your workplace, it might be time to invest in a beard trimmer.

The results that I found tie closely in with a 2013 study by an Australian University that discovered that women find men most attractive when they have about 10 days worth of beard growth (heavy stubble).

Sorry guys of goatees and mustaches…

Overall 70% of women found the mustache unattractive and 56% found the goatee unattractive.

So if you are looking to some fresh new beard styles I highly recommend that you check out letting the stubble grow in or perhaps growing out a meard.

If you plan on going the route of growing in a medium length beard, there are a few things you definitely be aware of.

A Quick Detour to Growing Your Healthy Beard

Grow A Healthy Beard Fast

I get that it seems simple to just grow in a beard, I mean after all, you basically just do nothing and let it grow right?

No!

Actually that’s a resounding no! But why?

You see, when your growing in a beard, you want to make sure of two key factors:

First – a beard comb.  I know it sounds a bit strange at first but hear me out.

You see when your growing in a beard, your hairs shoot into all different directions.  Well a beard comb essentially helps train your hairs to grow in the proper direction.

This helps prevent some painful ingrown hairs.

So definitely check that out when you have a second.

Secondly – beard oil.  So a few years ago the whole beard trend exploded and guys started to grow them out like crazy!

Of course as companies do, they found a huge opportunity and struck gold in the beard oil market.

While its an vicious market today with so many vendors, they still are charging around $25 a bottle for this stuff (yeah and its only 1oz).  So the average markup on beard oil is around 80-90%.

However to combat these high prices, I definitely encourage you to check out the beginners guide to making your own beard oil.  It walks you through step by step on making your own for a fraction of the cost of what you pay the vendors.

Now back to the results:

What Do Women Think of Men’s Body Hair?

So for the remaining hair on a guys body, here is what women thought of the the chest, back, and below the belt (pubic hair).

Here’s What Women Thought of Chest Hair

what do women think of men's chest hair

Honestly I was floored by this result.

I would have thought just the opposite!

Personally I checked a few times to make sure I wasn’t mistaken or transposing numbers when looking at them.

Hairy chest guys you have it!

81% of all women surveyed either had no opinion or found chest hair attractive.

There are definitely plenty of guys who shave their chest, however if you were doing it strictly to look good for the member of the opposite sex, stop now!

Most women have no beef with the hair on your chest.

So not only should this give you a great boost of confidence, but also save you plenty of time on shaving your chest.

Here’s What Women Thought of Back Hair

what do women think of men's back hair

Ok, so it was great to have all of the chest hair as we saw women clearly had no qualms or were attracted to it.

But flip over and BAM, the exact opposite is true.

77% of all women found chest hair flat out unattractive.

Maybe this is why it’s so hard to get a read on what women like and don’t like.

So its ok for the front of your body to have hair but not the back!?

Ah what a society we live in eh?

So this made me think, is there an untapped market to do something about guys back hair?  I mean the results are so clearly obvious that women don’t like it.

I decided to hop over to Amazon and I found this beauty.

Yeah you saw that right…

$50 bucks, over 700 reviews, and a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars.

I couldn’t believe this existed either!

So now that we see that chest hair is the best thing ever and back hair is the worse thing ever according to all women surveyed, there is only one region left to consider…

What Do Women Think Of Pubic Hair?

what do women think of men's pubic hair

If you would have asked me 5 minutes ago, I don’t think I would have ever in the world wrote ‘What do women think of pubic hair’ as a article sub heading in all of my life.

But I guess you never say never!

So it looks like the 70s are roaring back!

Hair below the belt is apparently back in style!

Given that 82% of all the respondents were between the ages of 18 to 34, I was a bit surprised by this.

All women surveyed were fairly tolerant of pubic hair.

So guys, let’s get real here for a second.

Stop worrying about what’s going on below the belt.  As you can read above and in countless other articles online, women just simply don’t care as much as you think they do!

A Reflection on This Whole Body Hair Survey Thing

Look guys:

Overall we uncovered some pretty interesting stats.

If you are between the ages of 18 to 34 and are really looking to impress a women on the grooming side of things, here’s what you need to know:

  1. Women love guys with average hair – if you can grow a man bun, don’t.  Just keep it at an average length and the majority of women simply find that attractive (100% of them surveyed thought so).If your bald or going bald, don’t be afraid to shave it all completely off.  There are several benefits to going that route.
  2. You have one of two options when it comes to facial hair: Either go with a medium length beard, or stick right to the stubble for optimal attraction.  Remember, if you are opting for a medium length beard, don’t forget a beard comb and some beard oil.
  3. When it comes to the rest of your body, you might want to check out this thing for your back, and surprisingly leave your chest hair and the hair below your belt alone!

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me in the comments below.

Oh and before I forget, here is the full infographic in its glorious detail:

what do women think about men's body hair - tools of men

Adam Williams

As the lead editor of Tools of Men, Adam loves men's grooming products. Particularly of interest is managing facial hair and perfecting the art of the modern man's skincare routine. His work has been featured or quoted in several publications, including New York Magazine, Vice, Sharpologist, MIC, Elite Daily, and more. When Adam isn't working, he enjoys spending time with his two little kids who keep him both on his toes and young at heart.

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