Armpit hair
Armpit hair ( lat. Hirci ) is the name given to hair that grows in the armpits of people . As part of body hair, they are a secondary sex characteristic . In the armpits, in addition to the eccrine sweat glands , which are practically distributed over the entire body in humans, there are also the apocrine sweat glands , which occur mainly or exclusively in hairy areas of the body, such as the armpit and genital region and on the nipples . Among other things , they produce pheromones that can be perceived via the Jacobson organ or vomeronasal organ and serve as messenger substances.
General
Underarm hair develops during puberty , usually long after other sexual characteristics have developed . Underarm hair are used for absorption of perspiration , but as is also the pubic hair secondary sex characteristic, and serve on one hand as an optical stimulus , on the other hand but also (or more through better distribution surface) reinforcing the posting of sexual attractants ( pheromone ) passing through the vomeronasal organ registered become. The armpit hair also serves to reduce friction in the armpits.
Armpit hair (like head and pubic hair) can be very different in color, shape and density. The development of the armpit hair depends not only on the genetic predisposition and the androgen level of the individual, but also on other factors such as friction and climate. Due to evolution, people in hot climates usually have thicker armpit hair, as the evaporative cold of the armpit sweat absorbed there serves to cool the body. The growth of the armpit hair does not stop with a certain length of hair, rather the genetically determined hair only has a certain lifespan of about six months and then falls out. A hair on the head, on the other hand, can live up to seven years.
Armpit hair removal
In most cultures in Europe , the USA or the Orient , many people remove their armpit hair these days. Initially, women in particular removed armpit hair in western cultures, but for a decade now, armpit hair has also been increasing in men. In a representative survey in 2012 among men between the ages of 14 and 29, 43.3% stated that they removed armpit hair. The removal of body hair generally appeared as a fashion trend and an expression of femininity in the USA between 1915 and 1945 and only then spread in Europe.
religion
In the Orient, hair removal has mainly religious reasons, which here are directly related to the concept of hygiene . The cleanliness regulations of Fitra in Islam require, among other things, the plucking of the armpit hair and the shaving of the pubic hair after "40 nights" at the latest. This applies to both women and men.
In Buddhism, however, the monks' religious rules prohibit the removal of armpit hair.
aesthetics
Already in Roman antiquity at the time of the first emperors, armpit and pubic hair were perceived as a cosmetic problem and associated with the concept of uncleanliness and the bad smelling. In today's western culture , women remove their armpit hair, especially in the warmer seasons, for aesthetic reasons, as their visibility when wearing the very common sleeveless tops and dresses is perceived as neglected. Older films already show that women who were in the limelight removed their armpit hair for visual reasons. At least in West Germany, natural armpit hair was still common in women before 1980, and in the GDR until the end of the period. In the mid-1980s, the singer Nena was the subject of conversation in the English tabloids because of her unshaven armpit hair . At a concert in England , however, fans held up banners with the words “Nena, we love your hairy armpits!”. Juliette Lewis' refusal to shave was seen in some media as a "tremendous demonstration of rebellious peculiarity". Also Patti Smith pointed to the album cover of Easter her armpit hair. The magazine Vogue wanted to Helmut Newton's photographs of Hanna Schygulla not publish because they almost always showed her armpit hair. Even today, wearing armpit hair in the photo and film sector is a topic that is effective in the media. B. in the case of Drew Barrymore while attending Fashion Week in New York and Julia Roberts at the 1999 premiere of Notting Hill .
Since the 1980s, natural armpit hair has increasingly been considered a violation of the norm in women in Western culture, while armpit hair is more accepted in men. Nevertheless, the removal of armpit hair has been part of the beauty ideal for men in many places since the end of the 20th century . Especially among young people, the number of shavers increases every year, not infrequently in connection with the removal of all body hair outside of the head hair.
Health and hygiene
Like the intimate shave , the armpit shave can lead to unpleasant irritation of the sensitive underarm skin.
A hairy armpit, in which sweat collects, leads many people to the association that one would sweat more with armpit hair. This is not the case, at most the odor- causing bacteria are more difficult to wash off, so that hairy armpits should not be cleaned more often, but more thoroughly than depilated armpits, depending on the individual predisposition. The fact that due to the aesthetic norms (see section above ) it is mainly women who depilate their armpits, although women excrete less sweat than men, shows that the aesthetic aspect takes precedence over the hygienic.
sexuality
Sexual attitudes towards armpit hair also differ culturally. In some cultures they are considered to be particularly attractive and erotic, while in other cultures they are perceived as repulsive.
In today's western cultures too, the views range from aesthetically and hygienically justified rejection to indifference to erotic attraction and, in some cases, to fetishism , as for example with the Japanese writer Mishima Yukio , whose fetishes were “male armpit hair, sweat and white gloves”.
competitive sport
In addition to aesthetic reasons, the removal of body hair and thus also the armpit hair in some sports, for example swimming, should help to minimize the flow resistance.
To dye
For a few years now, brightly colored armpit hair has been found in members of youthful subcultures . The multi-award-winning star make-up artist René Koch also described in the broadcast of the WDR Böttinger guests - "Clothes make the man" on October 8, 2005, the coloring of men's armpit hair as a fashion trend for several years.
Web links
- J. Djuren: The hairy and the hairless .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hirci (lat .; pl.) From hircus “buck” or “armpit hair”. Hircism means "goat smell of the armpit".
- ↑ J. Verhaeghe, R. Gheysen, P. Enzlin: Pheromones and their effect on women's mood and sexuality. In: Facts, views & vision in ObGyn. Volume 5, number 3, 2013, pp. 189-195, PMID 24753944 , PMC 3987372 (free full text) (review).
- ^ Barmer: Female Development - Puberty. ( Memento of May 16, 2006 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ Walter Landauer: The inheritance of hair and skin features, exclusively coloring and drawing, with consideration of racial differentiation and descent . In: Molecular and General Genetics MGG . Heidelberg, December 1926.
- ↑ Ilka Lehnen-Beyel: Why hair grows constantly . In: New Scientist . November 4, p. 39.
- ↑ The naked man: 30 percent shave more than just the beard. In: Abendblatt.de . February 20, 2012, accessed December 26, 2014 .
- ^ Susan A. Basow: Women and Their Body Hair. In: Psychology of Women Quarterly. Volume 15, 1991, pp. 83-96, doi : 10.1111 / j.1471-6402.1991.tb00479.x .
- ↑ Alois Payer: Vinayamukha: Basic concepts of the order rules and the order law of Theravāda. Part II . Materials on the basic concepts of Buddhism. Version dated April 21, 2006.
- ^ Wenke Husmann: Questions of taste . In: life . Die ZeitOnline, June 2, 2006.
- ^ Report on the study by Susan Basow The Smarter Wears Armpit Hair . In: Berliner Zeitung. dated August 30, 2000.
- ↑ Falter: Those with the balloons ( Memento from August 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Interview, 2001.
- ^ Günter Göckenjahn: Lived quickly . In: Berliner Zeitung. dated July 5, 2004.
- ^ Helmut Newton , Karl Lagerfeld : Big nudes. Extended, newly lithographed edition, Schirmer / Mosel, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-88814-355-1 / Helmut Newton: Autobiography. 1st edition, Bertelsmann, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-570-00672-7 .
- ↑ Yukio Mishima: Confession of a Mask . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1964.
- ↑ Martin Holfeld: Didactic processing of chemical content from sport for interdisciplinary chemistry-sport lessons - 4.5.8 Swimsuits .