Is It Good to Shave Your Private Area as a Male?

Shaving your pubic area is neither medically recommended nor medically discouraged. About half of men in the United States report grooming their pubic hair regularly, and the practice carries both minor benefits and real risks, particularly when a razor is involved. Whether it makes sense for you depends on how you do it, how your skin reacts, and what you’re hoping to achieve.

How Common Is Male Pubic Grooming?

In a large U.S. survey of over 4,000 men, roughly half reported regular pubic hair grooming, with the practice peaking among younger men. About three-quarters of men aged 25 to 34 said they groomed, and the rate dropped steadily with each decade of age after that.¹ A cross-sectional study from Australia and New Zealand found a broadly similar pattern, with about 65% of males reporting some form of pubic hair grooming.² So if you’re doing it, you’re in very large company. If you’re not, you’re in equally large company. There’s no normal here.

Why Men Do It

The most commonly reported reason is preparation for sexual activity. In the U.S. survey, the majority of men said they groomed before sex, with hygiene and routine care following behind.¹ The Australian study found a similar mix of motivations, with comfort in clothing, a neater appearance, and a sense of cleanliness all ranking high. Younger men in particular reported that grooming enhanced their perception of their own physical appearance and muscularity.²

It’s worth noting that while many men describe pubic grooming as a “hygiene” practice, pubic hair is not inherently unhygienic. Hair in the groin does trap moisture and warmth, and some men feel fresher after trimming. But the hair itself serves real functions: it reduces friction against clothing and during physical activity, and it acts as a barrier protecting the delicate skin underneath. Calling hair removal a hygiene measure is more about how it feels than any medical reality.

Where Men Groom and Why Anatomy Matters

The areas men groom most are the area above the penis, followed by the scrotum and the penile shaft.¹ Each of those areas presents different challenges. The skin above the pubic bone is relatively flat and taut, making it the easiest to shave safely. The penile shaft has thin, loose skin that’s easy to nick. And the scrotum is the trickiest of all: the skin is heavily wrinkled, elastic, and dotted with hair follicles growing at odd angles. That uneven terrain is why scrotal shaving accounts for a disproportionate share of grooming injuries.

A study of pubic grooming injuries presenting to U.S. emergency departments between 2002 and 2010 estimated roughly 11,700 genital-area grooming injuries over that period, with the number climbing fivefold across the decade. Razors were involved in about 83% of those injuries, and lacerations were the most common type, accounting for about 37% of cases.³ Those are the injuries serious enough to send someone to the ER. The everyday nicks, irritation, and ingrown hairs that people deal with at home are far more common and don’t show up in those statistics.

Razor Bumps, Ingrown Hairs, and Skin Irritation

The most common complaint after shaving the pubic area isn’t a cut but what comes in the days afterward: itching, red bumps, and ingrown hairs. Pseudofolliculitis barbae, better known as “razor bumps,” is an inflammatory reaction that happens when shaved hair curls back into the skin or when a sharp hair tip grows into an adjacent follicle. Although it’s most commonly discussed in the context of facial shaving, it occurs on any shaved area, including the groin. People with coarser or curlier hair are more prone to it because their hair is more likely to curve back and re-enter the skin after being cut.

In the pubic region, the problem is amplified. The hair there is typically coarser than elsewhere on the body, and the warm, moist environment of the groin encourages bacterial growth in irritated follicles. What starts as a simple razor bump can progress to folliculitis, where the follicle itself becomes infected and fills with pus. For most people this resolves on its own, but in some cases it leads to painful abscesses that require medical attention.

The severity of these reactions varies hugely from person to person. Some men shave regularly and never experience more than mild itching. Others develop significant irritation after every session. If you consistently get painful bumps or ingrown hairs after shaving, that’s your skin telling you that particular method isn’t working for you, and switching to a trimmer (which cuts hair short without cutting below the skin surface) is usually the simplest fix.

Does Pubic Hair Removal Affect STI Risk?

This is where the evidence gets complicated and where popular claims run ahead of the science. You may have seen headlines suggesting that pubic hair removal increases your risk of sexually transmitted infections. The reasoning sounds plausible: shaving creates tiny breaks in the skin, and those micro-wounds could serve as entry points for bacteria or viruses. The reality, though, is that the research is inconsistent and almost entirely observational.

A large nationally representative U.S. survey found that men and women who had ever groomed their pubic hair were more likely to report a history of STIs than those who hadn’t groomed. The association was strongest for skin-to-skin transmitted infections like herpes and HPV, and for people who groomed most aggressively or most frequently.⁴ That pattern persisted even after accounting for age and number of sexual partners.

But a study that actually tested women for chlamydia and gonorrhea at the time of the survey, rather than relying on self-reported STI history, found no association between extreme grooming and current infection.⁵ That’s a meaningful difference. Self-reported STI history captures everything a person has ever had and is influenced by how often they get tested. People who groom may simply be more sexually active, more likely to get tested, or more attentive to genital health, all of which increase the chance of a diagnosis on record without grooming itself being the cause.

The honest summary is that no high-quality trial has ever randomly assigned people to shave or not shave and then tracked STI outcomes. The observational data raise a possibility but don’t establish cause and effect. There’s no medical consensus that pubic shaving meaningfully raises your STI risk, and no medical guideline advises against it on those grounds. Practicing safe sex matters vastly more than what you do with your grooming routine.

The One Clear Winner for Grooming and Parasites

While the STI question remains muddy, there’s one area where pubic hair removal has produced a fairly clear benefit: it appears to have helped drive pubic lice toward near-irrelevance. Pubic lice (commonly called “crabs”) need coarse body hair to cling to and lay eggs on. A retrospective review of sexual health clinic data found that the rising popularity of pubic hair removal coincided with a sharp drop in pubic lice diagnoses. Among the patients surveyed, there was a statistically significant negative correlation between the frequency of pubic hair removal and the diagnosis of pubic lice.⁶

The nationally representative STI survey found a twist on this, however: groomers were actually more likely to report a history of pubic lice than non-groomers.⁴ That probably reflects the fact that people who have had lice are more likely to start grooming afterward as a preventive measure, rather than grooming itself causing lice. At a population level, widespread pubic hair removal has likely made it harder for the parasite to spread, and clinicians have observed the decline firsthand over the past two decades.

Razors Versus Clippers Versus Depilatory Creams

The method you choose matters more than whether you groom at all. The research on this comes largely from the surgical world, where preoperative hair removal has been studied for decades to figure out what method causes the fewest wound infections. Those findings translate well to everyday grooming because the underlying biology is the same: a razor blade running across skin creates micro-abrasions that invite bacteria in.

A Cochrane review found moderate-certainty evidence that shaving with a razor before surgery roughly doubled the risk of surgical site infection compared with leaving the hair alone.⁷ Clipping hair short with an electric trimmer, by contrast, showed no meaningful increase in infection risk compared with no removal at all.⁸ A clinical trial comparing the three main methods found that razor shaving produced significantly higher wound infection rates than either clipping or depilatory gel.⁹

Depilatory creams dissolve hair at the surface using chemical agents, avoiding blade contact with skin entirely. In the surgical literature, they performed as well as or better than clipping and were significantly better than razors for reducing skin damage.⁸ For home use, the main downside of depilatories is that the chemicals can be harsh on sensitive genital skin, so a patch test on a small area before going all-in is sensible.

Here’s how the common methods stack up in practice:

Electric trimmer or clipper: Cuts hair to a short stubble without touching the skin surface. Lowest risk of cuts, razor bumps, and ingrown hairs. Leaves some visible hair. This is the safest option for most men and the one dermatologists tend to recommend for the genital area.
Manual razor: Provides the smoothest result but causes the most skin trauma. Micro-abrasions, ingrown hairs, and folliculitis are common, especially on the scrotum. If you prefer a razor, shaving with the grain of hair growth (not against it), using a fresh blade, and moisturizing afterward all reduce complications.
Depilatory cream: Dissolves hair chemically without cutting. Avoids razor bumps but can cause chemical irritation or burns if left on too long. Only use products labeled as safe for the bikini area, and never apply them to mucous membranes.
Waxing: Pulls hair from the root, so results last longer. Painful, particularly on the scrotum, and carries a risk of folliculitis and ingrown hairs during regrowth. Professional waxing reduces the risk of burns or skin tearing compared with at-home kits.

Practical Tips for Reducing Complications

If you’re going to groom, a few habits meaningfully lower the chance of irritation and injury. Trim long hair down with a clipper first, even if you plan to follow up with a razor. Shaving through long hair is how most cuts happen. If using a razor, do it during or after a warm shower when the skin is hydrated and the hair is softer. Pull skin taut on the scrotum before each stroke, and shave with the direction of hair growth rather than against it. Going against the grain gives a closer shave but dramatically increases the risk of ingrown hairs.

Afterward, skip fragranced products. Alcohol-based aftershaves and scented lotions sting on freshly shaved genital skin and can trigger contact dermatitis. An unscented moisturizer or a product containing aloe vera is gentler. Loose-fitting underwear for a day or two after shaving reduces friction against freshly exposed skin. And if you notice a pattern of folliculitis every time you shave, try extending the interval between sessions. Shaving the same area daily doesn’t give the skin time to recover.

Religious and Cultural Dimensions

Pubic grooming isn’t a modern invention driven entirely by aesthetics. Religious traditions have addressed body hair removal for centuries, with rules that vary widely by community and era. Jewish rabbinical texts, for example, contain detailed injunctions about shaving male and female body hair, with regulations evolving across the Pentateuch, the Talmud, and later collected rulings. Scholars have found that even rules presented as fixed and timeless shifted in practice according to the surrounding culture and period.¹⁰ Islamic tradition similarly includes guidance on pubic hair removal as part of personal cleanliness practices, and hair removal has appeared in various forms across Hindu, ancient Egyptian, and Greco-Roman cultures.

The current wave of widespread male pubic grooming in Western countries accelerated in the 2000s and 2010s, driven by changing beauty norms, the influence of pornography, and increased cultural openness about body grooming. But framing it as a purely contemporary trend ignores a longer history. People have been making choices about their pubic hair for as long as they’ve had tools to do something about it.

When to Talk to a Doctor

Most grooming-related skin problems are minor annoyances that resolve within a few days. But some signs warrant medical attention. A bump that grows larger, becomes increasingly painful, feels warm to the touch, or develops a surrounding area of spreading redness may have progressed from simple irritation to an abscess or cellulitis that needs treatment. Recurrent painful boils in the groin folds, especially if they appear in areas where skin rubs together and not just where you’ve shaved, could signal a chronic inflammatory condition called hidradenitis suppurativa, which is unrelated to shaving but often confused with razor bumps.

If you develop wart-like growths, blisters, or ulcers after grooming, those aren’t grooming injuries and should be evaluated for sexually transmitted causes. The timing can trick people into thinking shaving was responsible when the real issue is an infection that happened to become visible during the same period. Any genital lesion that doesn’t resolve within a couple of weeks or that recurs deserves a professional look, regardless of your grooming habits.

1
PubMed Central. Prevalence and Motivation: Pubic Hair Grooming Among Men in the United States
2
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Attitudes and practices associated with pubic hair grooming behaviours: A cross-sectional study
3
Urology. Pubic hair grooming injuries presenting to U.S. emergency departments
4
PubMed. Correlation between pubic hair grooming and STIs: results from a nationally representative probability sample
5
PubMed Central. Association between pubic hair grooming and prevalent sexually transmitted infection among female university students
6
PubMed Central. Did the “Brazilian” kill the pubic louse?
7
PubMed Central. Preoperative hair removal to reduce surgical site infection
8
F1000Research. Effect of preoperative hair removal vs. no removal on surgical site infections: a systematic review and meta-analysis
9
Journal of Health Sciences and Medicine. Is there any difference between shaving versus clipping versus depilatory gel of hair removal for skin preparation before surgery in respect of wound infection?
10
Viator. Godly Grooming: Pubic Hair, Religious Community, and the Construction of Tradition