Waxing, shaving and laser hair removal - and that's just the men

WAXING, shaving and laser hair removal — just some of the ways sun-seekers here are prepping to hit the beach this summer. And that’s just the guys.

Even in these hairy times, many men now splash out on some sort of ‘manscaping’.

At GMALE Male Grooming in Ranelagh, it’s a case of ‘wax on, wax off’ for up to 30 clients a week.

“We’re generally booked out about a week in advance,” says Gavan Glynn. “March to September is our busiest time for waxing, but we have regulars who come all year round.

“It’s probably most popular with guys aged from 35 to 45. You very rarely get a younger man who has a lot of hair on his back. As they get a bit older, it starts to pop up.

“Waxing ranges in price from €20 to €60,” he adds. “Back, shoulders, chest and eyebrows are the most popular areas.

“We don’t go near the nether regions because we don’t have huge demand for it. But I would never rule it out.”

Hirsute actor Robin Williams (61) has famously poked fun at his chest mane: “A lot of people go ‘Don’t wear fur’ — I am fur!”

With hairless role models such as Colin Farrell and Daniel Craig, though, for today’s metrosexuals it seems being furry is no laughing matter.

“If you look at any of the ads aimed at men nowadays, there isn’t a single chest hair in sight,” says Owen Connolly, consultant psychologist at Connolly Counselling Centre in Stillorgan. “Hairiness is associated with men who are more primitive, with the gorilla. As far back as bodybuilder Charles Atlas, the male ideal has been seen as hairless.

“If you have enough images of hairless guys showing off their six-packs, men will become very conscious of themselves — to the point that they shave their chest or legs.”

It’s all part of how men’s view of themselves is changing.

“There’s a more liberal thinking about what it means to be a man,” says Dr Ken Harland, co-director of the Centre for Young Men’s Studies at University of Ulster.

“There’s no doubt feminism has influenced the way in which men think about what it means to be male. But you’ve got to acknowledge that young men are becoming increasingly active in constructing their own patterns of masculinity.

“Just because men start doing things like shaving their legs, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they have been influenced negatively. This renegotiation of masculinity allows young men to present themselves in a way that may not have been acceptable in the past, rather than conform to some outdated notion of masculinity.”

It explains why 20% of Urbana Laser Hair Removal and Waxing Clinic’s clients are now men. “We’ve always been unisex, but in the last few years we’ve seen a huge increase in the demand for hair removal for men,” says Paula Cuddihy, who owns the Dublin and Drogheda-based clinic.

“It’s a very broad spectrum — we get guys in here who are students and guys who are barristers.

“Hair removal is a very female-oriented industry and some salons don’t cater for men at all. But they hate hair just as much as we do.

“Our female clients have no problem sitting next to men in the waiting room.”

At Urbana, laser hair removal ranges from €40 to €150, depending on the size of the area, and most men need between six to 12 sessions.

“Some guys only have little patches on their back, others would be absolutely covered from their belt line to the top of their neck. Definitely back and chest are most popular, but we’ll begin waxing and laser on the male bikini line in the next couple of months because we’ve had so many queries on it,” says Cuddihy.

“We try and transfer guys we get in for waxing to laser simply because the results are more long-lasting.”

But there is a steep learning curve. “If a guy has never been in for a wax before, it can be a bit of a shock to the system And they have a newfound respect for girls who have a Brazilian or Hollywood wax.”

For Steve Carrell, star of The 40-Year-Old Virgin, however, once was enough. “That was 100% real,” said Carrell of the movie’s eye-watering chest-waxing scene.

“We set up five cameras because we knew it would be one take.

“If you watch closely, there’s one close-up where you can see blood actually beading to the surface. It hurt so much.

“It took about seven weeks to grow back. And my wife was very happy when it eventually did because I looked like a freak.”

If you do the maths, though, most men still take a DIY approach to hair removal.

Take Stephen, 36, an accountant from Dublin, who lathers up once a week to remove hair from his body. “My girlfriend sometimes helps me to shave off the hair on my back,” he says. “I hate it — it’s this straggly, wiry hair that’s different to the rest of the hair on my body.”

“Nobody really sees it, but the fact that it’s there bothers me. I’ve been getting rid of it for about 10 years.”

With many women expressing a preference for smooth men, are females responsible for the disappearance of the man-pelt?

“There’s this whole idea that women don’t like men to be so hairy,” says Owen Connolly. “So I think a lot of it has to do with ladies’ preferences.”

“Back hair doesn’t do it for me,” says mature student Sarah, 31, from Co Meath. “I don’t mind some hair on the chest, but not too much.”

“I draw the line at hairy hands and nostril hair,” adds pal Sinead, 30, a make-up artist. “The rest I can deal with.”

Despite the trend for depilation, fuzzy fellas aren’t going down without a fight.

In Brazil, 20 of them recently complained that a Gilette ad — which shows beautiful women telling men to shave their chests — “encourages prejudice against hairy men” .

So could the Hairy Chest Club — whose card-carrying members include Tom Selleck and Pierce Brosnan — be about to make a comeback?

“Body hair is almost like a fashion,” says Connolly. “How long the hairless trend will last, I don’t know.

“The problem with any fashion is that it feeds into the insecurities of some people.

“Dublin City YMCA, which I’m president of, recently had a charity leg wax — and those lads had no problem with their hairy legs. It was treated with fun.

“There are some people who do that and they are very confident; there are others who have to do it because they lack confidence.

“As a young man, I was one of the hairless ones myself,” jokes Connolly. “Unfortunately the trend back then was to be like Burt Reynolds.

“But my wife and I are married 44 years, so it worked out well in the end.”

Paula Cuddihy is clear:

“Bradley Cooper sometimes has chest hair and sometimes he doesn’t,” she says. “But no matter what comes and goes, back hair is never sexy.”