To Shave or Not to Shave: Why Women Prefer Hairless Men
Men and women all have their personal preference when dating the opposite sex. While some men may prefer blonde hair and blue eyes, most women opt for a hairless man. New research suggests why women don't fall for hairy guys.
According to a study published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, women across the board all prefer hairless men.
"According to evolutionary view, hairless men should be preferred particularly in areas (or cultures) with high parasite threat, which means close to the equator, where parsite richness is highest," study researcher Pavol Prokop, a professor of biology at Trnava University in Slovakia, wrote in an email to LiveScience. "We compared only two countries that differ in parasite threat, but we found no differences in women's preferences."
Researchers studied more than 150 Turkish women and nearly 200 Slovakian women to rate the attractiveness of men with hairy chests and men with hairless chests. To maintain consistency, researchers photographed the same group of men from the chest down, first with a hairy chest and a second photo after the men had shaved their chest.
The study revealed women across the board preferred men without hair. Only a very few women who preferred a hairy man. Previous theories once suggested women adopted a hairless preference as a way to avoid lice and other parasites.
Prokop and colleagues chose Turkey because the country has a higher rate of parasite-transmitted diseases such as malaria. Researchers theorized this would influence Turkish women to be more sensitive to parasite concerns and prefer hairless men. However, it was found women had less of a concern of parasites and generally opted for a hairless man.
However, researchers did not explore how a woman's preference may differ by country. In some African nation such as Cameroon, women may prefer a hairier man.