There has been a recent phenomenon, and I wonder whether you have even
noticed it? Men have lost their body hair!
To me, it is almost as if I blinked, and the world of men changed radically.
When 'did' all the men in the world become hairless? It is as if suddenly all
over the world, evolution took a giant step in the midst of one generation, and
men lost their hair. This seems to me more apparent in the twenty-something’s.
Go to the beach and from afar one cannot make out between the sexes anymore.
Glossy smooth skin is on display everywhere, completely devoid of hair.
If you see men in adverts, music videos or movies, they are all hairless.
Their torso, legs, back, armpits and (I am sure other unmentionables) are all
devoid of follicles. Strangely enough the same applies in India, home to the
hairiest people on Earth. Walking the streets of Bombay one sees enough
evidence all-around, of men with hairy arms and legs, dense moustaches and
scraggy beards. But adverts and movies seem to ignore this lot. Movie stars
prance around bare-chested and without hair. Hairless male models preen in
front of the camera, again sending the message that to be hairless is cool ...
Gone are the days when macho men walked the earth - with their shirt open to
the waist and tufts of chest hair proudly on display. Large whiskers, beards,
and Elvis-style sideburns all have disappeared. Actually the modern macho man
is completely bald! My son, who like most boys his age, does get influenced a
lot by trends and 'lists' thinks that bald men look tough. I politely ask him
how long he thinks any of them could last in the sun, or the cold, without a hat?
As a man, this is an important question. I still seem to have the same
amount of hair all over (actually an increase on my eyebrows and ears) with the
only exception being a dramatic decrease on my head. I cannot help wondering
whether my family tree has missed a big evolutionary leap. I never considered
myself as particularly hairy, but on the beach I often feel like an Austin
Powers type throwback!
A couple of days ago I had an “aha” moment. We were watching the original
'Die Hard' movie – you know the one with Bruce Willis. There are a few scenes
where he is running around in the building without a shirt, and his chest hair
was pretty evident. There was no embarrassment, no hunching of the shoulders to
cover his chest and hide his chest-hair with his hands. (I wonder how long he would have lasted with the bad guys if he did that.) He was proudly
displaying it – proclaiming to the whole world that here is a man, and that a
man and body hair is a package deal. I will have to see the sequels to check
whether the later versions will show him as more ‘evolved’.
Anyway coming back to hairless bodies I can think of only two reasons for
this. It is either evolution or grooming. Evolution (even on steroids) cannot
work this fast and hence it has got to be grooming. I struggle to think that
men would be spending time grooming themselves to remove body hair all over to
become smooth and silky. This is metrosexualism stretched to its limits, with the
clear winners being the Philips and Braun Men Care Divisions.
I know that today’s youth put a lot of emphasis on looks – and use of
lotions, gels, face washes and creams among the teens is growing, but this is a
step too far. Growing up, we had a word for guys who indulged their looks a bit
too much, and these boys would not have lasted long on the playground. We used
to call them – PANSIES!
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