Half the young women questioned in a new US study had all their pubic hair removed within the past month.

What’s more, one in five said they were "typically hair-free". It’s been suggested that waxing or shaving off all the pubic hair has become a ‘new norm’ for women.

But the researchers at Indiana University found that US women actually go for all kinds of hairstyles down below, and change them regularly too. However, the younger women are, the more likely they are to be hairless.

Only 12 percent of women in the 18 to 24 age group said they let their pubic hair grow naturally. Most of them style their pubes in some way, ranging from a modest trim to a ‘landing strip’ or a full wax.

Oral sex
The study - entitled Pubic Hair Removal among Women in the United States: Prevalence, Methods, and Characteristics - also found that hair-free women tend to be in a sexual relationship but not married. And they’re more inclined to feel good about their genitals.

What’s more, the women without pubic hair are more likely to have been on the receiving end of oral sex in the past month. This might be because they're more interested in sex and remove their pubes for extra sensitivity, say the researchers. Or it could be that men are keener to go down on a hair-free vulva.

Fashion
Over the past ten years, hairless genitals seem to have become all the rage. The new study doesn’t try to offer any explanation for the fashion. But it’s often suggested that it’s down to the boom in internet pornography – with porn stars setting the trend in pubic hairstyling.

However, removing pubic hair is nothing new, the researchers point out. People have been doing it for thousands of years. Women in ancient Egypt and classical Greece are thought to have plucked their pubes. And if the thought of a full wax makes you wince, spare a thought for the Ancient Greek women – they may have trimmed their pubic hair by singeing it off with a lamp.

Photo: Jochen Schoenveld

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