I’ve been thinking a lot about Bush lately, and I don’t mean the guy who lives in the White House. At a recent sex party, I saw a lot of pussy. They all had hair—most finely trimmed. A week later I heard that full bush was making a comeback. Where is the proof? I’ve only encountered a few untamed pussies in my life, and they were on overweight middle-aged women who shared the platform with me during my art modeling days. By untamed, I mean overgrowth extending several inches down the thighs and poking through the butt crack. This may be common in some cultures, but it’s an anomaly in North America where the Brazilian still reigns.
I’ve never been a fan of either extreme. The unkempt pussy may be natural, but it’s cumbersome. The bare pussy looks nice in Renaissance paintings, but in reality it’s infantile. I’m a woman, not a 10-year-old girl. Most men don’t want to fuck little girls. And yet hairless pussies grace the pages of Playboy and dominate the porn industry. What possesses a woman to whittle her natural vegetation down to the popular landing strip or nothing at all? Is it the juxtaposition of girl and woman that drives men wild? Maybe the prepubescent look is a turn-on because (straight and bi) men like to imagine that they’re the first ones to snatch the snatch.
Well, it turns out that bald beavers aren’t as desirable as Britney and Paris want us to believe. According to my research, most men agree: A hairless pussy is too pre-pubescent to be attractive. “Since becoming a parent and an uncle, I’ve been around a few hairless vaginas that are too young to need shaving,” says Ted. “This has completely turned me off the fully hairless. I don’t want to be reminded of changing diapers in a moment of passion ... So I have to say trim away, but leave enough fur to let me know that you are a grown up capable of making the grown up choice to fuck my brains out. It feels more comfortable that way.” Justin concurs: “When I see a fully shaven pussy, I just get confused. Now a luscious bush around those beautiful pink lips … now that’s a woman.” And Eric sums it up perfectly, “It’s like Goldilocks.One’s too hairy, one’s not hairy enough, but a nicely trimmed quim is juuust right.”
If you can overlook the juvenile associations, you may face the wrath of the tamed beast when nature takes over. “When shaved pubes just begin to return, they look particularly unattractive, until it no longer looks like wino stubble,” says Peter. Ronny agrees: “I don’t think shaved is a good idea, once even a little stubble comes back, it’s very prickly ... pimply and rashy, another thing a guy can see and feel.” If the stubble is unappealing to men, imagine how women must feel. Valerie, who has occasionally shaved herself completely, says “[It] feels great for exactly 24 hours and utter hell every minute after that as it finally grows back in.” You’re not alone, Valerie. Once I had most of my pubic hair shaved for the benefit of a fetish photographer. I kind of liked it at first just because it was something I had never done before. But the next day it started itching like crazy, and my lover hated it because the stubble irritated him during sex.
So what about the full bush? The other extreme loses points for practicality as well. Too much hair down there interferes with sex. During intercourse, hair may be pulled inside the woman along with the penis, which can be painful. The other problem is, of course, hair in the mouth. An occasional stray hair is to be expected, but a mouthful of pubes leads to a serious case of cunnilingus interruptus. Ronny says, “My preference is at least partially cut so my tongue is unencumbered, so I am not choking, and trying to force my way through a jungle, clearing my way with my hands … but I still like a little cushion, and a cute lily pad to land on.”
Enough hair to confirm womanhood, but not too much to be inconvenient: that seems to be the consensus for both men and women. However, there will always be full bush lovers and hairless pussy fans. If they were all alike, sex wouldn’t be as interesting. Reed has some wisdom that we could all learn from: “For the bush spectator, we can have opinions and preferences, but it all boils down, for me, to who that pussy is attached to: Is she confident? Is she healthy? Is she empowered? I think you can tell some of these things or get a definite sense or clue about a person from how they treat their genitalia.” In other words, if a woman shaves her pussy in response to a trend, or just to please her partner, it’s not as attractive as the woman who does it because that’s what she truly wants, and she owns it, like the chick at the party with a fire engine red landing strip. It was the cutest pube job I’ve ever seen.
