Should Men Shave Their Armpits? Trim, Shave, Or Leave It

Should men shave their armpits? Simple question. And not an odd question if you think about it. Half the population (women) already shave their armpits.

So shouldn’t men shave their armpit hair as well? Does a shaved armpit have benefits? I mean – if it didn’t, why would women go through the ritual daily?

In this article, you will find the following information and scientific backing to help you make that decision:

• Why Shave Your Armpits?
• The 1950s Study
• The 2011 Czech Study
• What Does The Research Mean?
• Shave, Trim, Or Leave It Alone?
• What Nobody Warns You About Shaving
• Should You Shave Your Armpits?
• Common Questions

But before we get to the scientific reasoning behind shaving armpit hair, let’s begin understanding why a man would ask such a question.

Why Would A Man Want To Shave His Armpit Hair?

• Armpit Hair And Sweat: There is circumstantial and somewhat vague evidence suggesting that shaving your armpit hair reduces sweating. While shaving your underarms won’t make your armpits cooler – or produce less sweat – the sweat stains on your clothes will be less pronounced.
• Underarm Hair And Hygiene: Bacteria cause the odor from sweat, and the bacteria can multiply in the damp area of armpit hair – shaving the armpits results in less space for bacteria to breed, and increased effectiveness from your natural antiperspirant deodorant products.
• The Aesthetics Of A Shaved Armpit: If you are an athlete or an underwear model – shaving your armpit hair would be of a professional advantage to you. Even if you are a regular guy – no one likes to see hair poking out from under your arms.
• The Connection With Smell: There are opinions that shaving armpit hair helps reduce a man’s body odor. Other studies show that a man’s confidence lowers when he is aware of his body odor.

These points bring me back to my original question – should men shave their armpits to reduce body odor?

There have been two studies on axillary (armpit) hair and how the lack of it either creates or diminishes a man’s attractiveness.

The 1950s Study: Shaving Cut The Smell

In the early 1950s – a research study found that men shaving their underarms significantly reduced the odor from their armpits.

The effects of shaving on smell lasted for 24 hours after shaving the armpits of the male participants. The odor returned as the hair grew back.

The scientists suggested that since bacteria trapped in the armpit hair played a role in creating odor – shaving axillary (armpit) hair naturally reduced the smell.

The uncontested conclusion was that armpit hair was a cause for unattractive body odor. A shaved underarm would therefore reduce the unappealing body odor of a man.

Well, that was the case until a group of Czech scientists decided to revisit the burning question of whether shaving a man’s armpit would improve his body smell rather than just eliminating unpleasant odor.

Does Shaving A Man’s Armpit Hair Improve His Smell?

A man’s odor sends out signals about their immune system’s health, hormone levels, social status, and nutrition choices. Necessary signals that women pick up subconsciously.

In 2011, a different group of researchers in the Czech Republic decided to test the original research findings carried out in the 1950s.

Their argument was based on recent studies that show the positive effects of a man’s body odor – particularly in the sphere of attracting women.

Throughout four experiments, the researchers got groups of men to be odor donors.
Some of the men had never shaved their armpits, and some of them shaved their armpits regularly.

The participants received specific instructions on shaving their armpit hair:

Researchers asked a portion of the men to shave just one armpit. They asked some others to shave both armpits every other day. The rest of the odor donors were instructed to shave their armpits once and then let the hair grow normally over some time.

The participants avoided the following activities at least 2 days before odor samples were collected: sex, alcohol, smoking, perfumes and deodorants, food with intense flavors, and close contact with pets.

The men wore cotton pads in the armpits for 24 hours. Researchers presented the cotton pads to a group of women who volunteered to rate the odor of the men. Yes, that’s right – they volunteered!

These brave women washed their hands with unscented soap in a ventilated room and proceeded with the unenviable task of smelling each cotton pad. They rated the odor samples on intensity, pleasantness, and attractiveness.

The Results Of The Four Armpit Odor Experiments

In three out of the four experiments – researchers found that the ratings given for shaved and unshaved armpits were about the same.

Only in one experiment – the first one – was the shaved armpit group voted as more pleasant, more attractive, and less intense than unshaved armpits.

What Does All This Armpit Research Mean?

How could they find a significant correlation between shaved armpits and improved body smell in the first experiment but nothing of note in the other experiments?
The researchers provided the following explanations:

• Perhaps the participants from the first experiment had a stronger body odor than the rest of the group.
• The results of the first experiment could have been a coincidence.
• The baseline results indicated that shaving armpit hair did affect body odor. But it was minimal and not as overblown as the 1950s research suggested.

There is insufficient evidence that shaving armpit hair improves a man’s body odor.
There’s a possibility that there’s a slight improvement in body smell – but I wouldn’t put a razor to my armpit based on that possibility.

Other factors will likely affect how you smell to a much greater degree:

• Your grooming routine
• The food you eat
• The beverages you consume
• The regularity of your showers

Shave, Trim, Or Leave It Alone?

Here’s the deal. All that research answers whether shaving makes you smell better. It doesn’t answer what you should actually do on a Sunday night standing in front of the mirror with a trimmer in your hand.

So let me answer that part, because it’s the question you came here with.

For most men, the right move isn’t shaving and it isn’t ignoring it. It’s trimming.

Trimming gets you everything men are actually after here – less hair holding sweat against your skin, deodorant that reaches the skin instead of the hair, and nothing poking out from under a tank top. And it skips the part that makes guys quit. Trimmed hair never has to grow back through the skin, so it never itches, and there’s no stubble phase.

Shortest guard on your trimmer, both sides, every couple of weeks. Ninety seconds and you’re done. If you want the wider approach to the rest of it, I cover the whole map in my guide to grooming men’s body hair.

Shave it bare if you’ve got a specific reason. Competitive swimmers, cyclists, bodybuilders, and anyone who gets photographed with their arms over their head all qualify. So does the guy who sweats heavily and finds bare skin lets his antiperspirant actually work – if that’s you, the products that stop pit stains will do more for you than a razor will.

Leave it alone if it doesn’t bother you and it doesn’t show. That’s a legitimate answer, not laziness. Body hair is not a hygiene problem. An unwashed body is a hygiene problem.

What Nobody Warns You About Shaving Your Armpits

The men who try shaving and hate it almost always quit for the same three reasons. Know them going in and you can decide with your eyes open.

The regrowth itch. Two or three days after you shave, the hair pushes back through the skin with a blunt tip and rubs against your arm every time you move. It’s maddening. This is the single biggest reason a guy shaves once and never does it again. Trimming skips this entirely, which is most of why I point men there first.

Razor burn and ingrown hairs. Armpit skin is thin, it folds, and it rubs against itself all day. Drag a blade across it dry or against the grain and you’ll have bumps by tomorrow. If you’re going to shave, trim it short first, do it at the end of a warm shower when the hair is soft, use an actual shave cream, and go with the grain. Never dry-shave a pit.

Stubble against your sleeves. A day or two of underarm stubble catching on a cotton sleeve all afternoon is its own small misery, and a fitted shirt makes it worse.

None of this makes shaving wrong. It just means going in expecting smooth skin and getting a week of itching instead is what sours most men on the whole idea. If you’ve decided to do it anyway, here’s how to shave your armpits like a man, step by step.

Should You Shave Your Armpits?

Right now, the evidence doesn’t seem to support the benefits of shaved armpits.

I recently spoke with a team of researchers who felt shaving helped clean the skin and thus reduced odor. But I think they needed a larger population and should repeat the experiment multiple times to be sure.

So here’s where I land, gents.

If you’re asking because you think shaving will fix how you smell – it won’t. Not in any amount the research can reliably measure. Fix that with a proper shower routine, a real antiperspirant, and paying attention to what you eat and drink. Those three move the needle. A razor doesn’t.

If you’re asking because of how it looks, that’s a fair reason and it’s your call to make. Trim it short and you get the look without the itch.

And if nobody’s going to see it and it doesn’t bother you, leave it alone. You’ve got better things to spend your Sunday on.

Common Questions About Men Shaving Their Armpits

Should men shave or trim their armpits?

Trim, for most men. You get the same practical benefits – less hair holding sweat, deodorant reaching skin, nothing showing under a tank top – without the regrowth itch, razor burn, or ingrown hairs that come with a blade. Save the full shave for men who compete or model.

Does shaving your armpits reduce body odor?

Barely, if at all. A 1950s study said yes, but when Czech researchers ran four experiments in 2011, three of the four found no real difference between shaved and unshaved men. Odor comes from bacteria feeding on sweat, so washing regularly does far more than shaving ever will.

Does armpit hair grow back thicker after you shave it?

No. That’s one of the most persistent grooming myths going. Shaving cuts the hair off at the surface and leaves a blunt tip, which feels coarser and looks darker as it comes in. The hair itself hasn’t changed thickness, color, or growth rate at all.

Why do my armpits itch after shaving?

Because the blunt-cut hair is pushing back out through thin skin that rubs against your arm all day. It usually starts around day two or three. Shaving with the grain after a warm shower helps, and trimming instead of shaving avoids it altogether, since trimmed hair never has to break the surface again.

Read next: should men shave their legs?

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