(asked by Sculi from Citra, Florida)
I knew this question was gonna come sooner or later. 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 during my time 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, it’s true. They don’t shave their legs, they usually wax them!
Actually thinking about it, maybe they wax their armpits too… I guess they do a 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 (even more so because that post was originally written a few years ago on the first iteration of “Ask a Frenchman” and things may have changed since, as trends down there seem to be evolving quickly these days.
So, back then, French women didn’t really shave their pubic hair, but young women usually at least trimmed 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.
On 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 ’40s was a completely 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.
Disclaimer: as previously mentioned, the first iteration of this post was written a while ago (in 2007), some trends may have changed since. Actually, if you’re a French woman reading this and want to bring in your two cents, feel free to do so in the comment section.
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