 I feel like I'm going to a different place right now. To pube or not to pube, that is the question. Do I need to wax my pubes? Asking for a friend. In case you missed it on your Instagram feed, there's been a revival of women and men reclaiming their body hair. But according to Cosmo's pubic hair survey, only 10% of men and 6% of women say they leave their bush as is, going fully bare down there, ranked highest in the survey, as 57% of women and 17% of men admitted to removing all of their pubic hair. The most popular reason for all this hair removal? Well, women said it was for hygiene, but is there really any science that backs this up? Scientifically, what is the point of pubes? So we get pubes during puberty, and it's a sign of adolescence. It's a signifier that we're going to be able to reproduce as well. You can choose if you want to remove your pubic hair entirely or groom it or keep it all as is, but we can't pretend that pubes are not normal. There is pressure for men to groom their pubes and to remove their pubes, but not in quite the same way that it can be for women. Pubic hair is not dirty, it's just another part of your body, and it's completely normal. Do you think that pubes can affect the physicality of sex? Yeah, I think they can. And again, it's totally down to personal preference. So I didn't have an orgasm until I was 21 years old with another person, and that coincidentally happened at the first time that I had any form of pubic hair. I just thought that it was a completely normal thing to not have pubes and to remove them all the time. It was only at that moment when I had pubic hair that I actually started to have sex that was really enjoyable for me and pleasurable. And I think part of that was psychological, of not being ashamed about that part of my body. And then another part of it was genuinely physical, that actually it was more pleasurable because there wasn't that friction going on between my body and someone else's. And could our preconceptions about pubes be hiding something a little more political? Pubes are technically political, but they shouldn't be. Body hair is completely natural, and I don't want people to think I'm like thinking I'm this super amazing feminist because I have long armpit hair. It's just what I prefer in my body. I don't think it should be a political statement. We are conditioned to hate our own body hair, and I do, I have battled with that. Like, I don't like having long pews. I don't like, I like waxing my pews because I like having a pretty hairless vagina. And I wish I didn't, but also I'm like, but it's what I want to do. I found when I was growing up my leg hair in summer a couple of years ago, people on the tube would just stare, like honestly, as if they'd seen like, as if I was carrying like a horse's head around with me. People would be like... You'd think porn might have a lot to do with the way we think about pubes too, but new red tube data shows more and more of us are searching Bush. So is shaming on the decline? Are fashions changing? Who better to ask than a beauty therapist who comes face to face with pubes on a daily basis? Okay, I'm going to apply the streus. Okay. Ow. You okay? Yeah, I'm great. Good. Ow. I'm so great. How many guys do this? Do you get lots of guys doing this? To be honest, we're really, really busy with male waxing. I'd say about 40% of my clients are male clients. Really? So like half and half now? Pretty much, yeah. That's quite a lot. I didn't imagine it would be that many. And with women, what's the most popular style right now? It's not usually Hollywood, so I'd be everything off. It's normally kind of like high bikinis, Brazilian, I think a lot of women like to leave quite a lot more now because they feel very childlike if they take it all off. And there's a trend on social media as well for Bush to be... It's coming back. Backing back. Yeah. It's coming back into fashion. Yeah. Do you think then it's like fashion thing? Yeah. It's more of a fashion trend. Each to their own, really. I don't judge anyone on the bed at all. Are we finished now? Yes. I'm just removing the oil. So there's not oil in your skin or anything like that. Okay, cool. So what have we learned? Well, babes, it's unapologetically up to you. There are so many fair and legit reasons why you might want to remove your pubes, but it's also worth remembering we're consciously and unconsciously pressured to remove our pubes every single day. From the people around us, our relationships in pop culture, porn and the beauty industry, the message is clear. The sexual ideal is to be bare. Something that is actually fairly unnatural because even raspberries have hairs, they kind of freak me out. I look like a raspberry, don't I, in a way? You do you, honey. And if that's with or without pubes, it's absolutely about what makes you feel happy and confident.