(asked by Sculi from Citra, Florida)
I knew this question was gonna be one of the very first. So let’s get it out of the way.
Let’s start with the armpits. I’ll make it short: French women do shave their armpits!
Pretty much 100% of French women under the age of 60 have hairless armpits. Actually, I have seen more hairy armpits in the US (I’m thinking about hippie girls here) than in France (where even hippie girls tend to shave their armpits).
Let’s talk about the other body hair now.
- Legs.
French women don’t shave their legs that much. They wax them!
Actually thinking about it, maybe they wax their armpits too… I guess they do a little bit of both.
- And what about the other body hair? The pubic one?
Well, I have to admit something here. I haven’t been intimate (in that way) with a French woman since the 90′s so I’m not too up to date with the latest trends.
Back then, French women didn’t really shave their pubic hair, but young women usually at least trim it… Well, not all of them…
Nowadays… Well, I don’t know. I assume that the full bush is not as common anymore, but I also guess that the trend of completely shaving down there is not as popular as it is in the US (even though I think that even in the US it’s not as widely spread as Paris Hilton and Britney Spears want us to believe)
One a side note this stereotype of not shaving armpits comes from back then when the GIs stationed in France just after WW2. As well as most French stereotypes in the US, really. But remember that things were pretty different back then, France in the 40′s was a complete different country altogether, and a country that was just getting out of 5 years of war and 4 of foreign occupation with all the privations that go with it.
Many American preconceptions about the French come from the WWII era. The fact that only about 20% of Americans even have passports might explain why French stereotypes aren’t a little more current…
Thanks for the link! You’re on the Links page of Francophilia too!
I’m a French woman and I find you very funny. I won’t talk here about what I shave or wax but I will add you to my favorites.
Here’s some input from a French woman sitting right next to me on what most young French ladies do…
Armpits - shave or wax
Legs - wax or epilator
Bikini line - wax
The remaining bit - trim
I am a french women, 22 years old and all of you are right in a way, as a student i can tell you the latest trends, shaving pubic hair is not that fashionable, we want to look like women, not children….as for me, its a jungle down there…as far as everything else, cleanly waxed!!!
My late husband was French. When we met he asked me to stop shaving my armpits, which I haven’t done for 28 years. I don’t have hairy legs, so that was a non-issue. He thought, and I had to agree, that not shaving armpits added another layer of sensuality for both of us. Even “The Joy of Sex” says that. Now that I’m a widow and hoping to enter the social/dating scene, I may have to start shaving my armpits, darn.