No Manscaping For Us
A group who doesn't believe in clipping or shaving body hair, especially pubic and ball hair. We believe in celebrating body hair! No friends only, private or empty profile. Must have a frontal full bush pic to be in group.
- created by Caru
Would you shave for a body-building show?
Return to DiscussionsI've been asked by fellow trainer at gym where I work to train with her for body-building contest. Amateur. Would be our first. Told her, sure. Have added 10 pounds so far. 10 more to add. Question. My friend now says I should shave. I said heck no. She said I'll be only furry one on stage. That I'll stand out. I laughed and said so much the better. What would you do? Fairly sure this fun furry crowd would follow suit (hirsute?).
Pirate,
If you're going to all that time and energy spent to bulk up and train and diet and enter a BB show, you should (read must) shave. The reason guys shave (for a show) is not to feminized themselves... that's honestly a stupid thought. You shave so that you show the muscle definitions, plain and simple. All that time spent working out and dieting to produce definition in your muscle tone can only be seen if you are clean shaven. Don't go and enter a BB competition and not shave your body hair as you will just be wasting your time and effort and you will not do well at all at the show. The judges will just simply ignore you. All your training effort will be wasted. Your hair will grow back.
And yes, I have competed in a BB competition before. And yes I shaved.
Thanks, Mike! Good thoughts!! Question: are there any natural bodybuilding contests? Where no shaving? Hmmmm. Will research!). In any event, adding bulk easily at moment, but body fat increasing too. Learned some great lower ab exercises this morning after run from fellow instructor. Wow!! Chest and triceps and legs tonight. Fun!! Best to all and thanks!!! Fun!!
Well, here is my two cents worth. I have to agree with pilot. Shaving is done to allow you show off your muscle definition, simple as that. I've been told by my trainer that I will have to shave my arms and legs when I go into shows later this year. First I was stun that he wants me to compete, at my age (granted age has nothing to do with it), I started the training to look better and feel better not to be on stage. Second, I like my hair! His reply, it will grow back. I do have the advantage I'm smooth so chest and back there is no issue there but any hair that can be seen will have to be removed for the show. We spend endless hours at the gym, pushing and pulling and sweating, along with been true to our meal program when we like to eat what we want, so the minor change for one day really won't kill us but make it that we can be proud of our results from all our efforts to look as we do.
This is proving to be a more interesting thread than I thought it would be, on a couple of levels.
First of all, it's instructive to me as an outsider to hear about the rules/expectations for a body-building show, that one is expected to shave most or all of one's body hair in order to the better show off one's muscular definition. So, on that level, "rules is rules". If you're expected to shave, I guess you shave.
But on another level, and perhaps more controversial, I think there's something to what HairyNakedSarge says above: that shaving "feminizes" a man's body; or, as pointed out to me by a psychoanalyst I was working with, who found "odd" a man's practice of shaving his body hair, it brings one back to a period of "preadolescence". That might seem as outrageous to some of you as the idea of shaving "feminizing" the body: but I think it's worth being conscious about.
Well, for one thing, I'm not in at all good enough shape to compete in a Body-Building competition, so it's a moot issue for me, personally. But for another thing, I like to see a man wear his body hair proudly. for what it's worth, I recently read On the Move, the autobiography of Oliver Sacks, the very creative psycho-therapist (the movie, "Awakenings", is part of his story: he was a record-setting body-builder himself, but also quite hirsute, and pictures of him in his BB briefs show that he didn't shave ...
And for another, I guess I like the appearance of a well-built and hairy man. Fur looks nice.
And maybe some it is more masculine, or more animal.
But it's not earth-shaking.
But it's all for what it's worth. And I think it's worth bringing to consciousness and considering.
NB