Shaving the armpits is something many women do for aesthetic and hygiene reasons, but it’s becoming increasingly popular for men too.
Some sportsmen like to remove all of their body hair, while other guys like to shave their underarms purely for aesthetic reasons.
Of course, there are hygiene benefits too, with research presented by Gillette at the 23rd World Congress of Dermatology in Vancouver in June 2015 showing that shaving under your arms is proven to significantly reduce body odour.
Whether you struggle in the heat, work out a lot or often find yourself feeling stressed, consider shaving your armpits with a little help from Gillette.
Getting Under the Skin of Underarm Odour
In a clinical study, trained ‘expert noses’ assessed the underarm odour of 30 men;
- Before they washed or shaved their armpits;
- 5 minutes after they’d washed under their arms with soap; and
- 5 minutes after they’ve washed their armpits with soap and shaved their armpits using a razor.
Overall, it was found that shaving was 2.5 times more effective than washing with soap alone at reducing underarm odour. After men had washed their armpits with soap, their body odour was found to reduce by 23%. However, after shaving and soap washing, there was a 57% reduction in body odour, showing a clear benefit to removing armpit hair.
In contrast, it was found that trimming armpit hair with scissors only reduced body odour by 27%, making it little more effective than simply washing with soap.
What’s more, the benefits of shaving could be smelt for days; the 57% reduction in body odour was evident after one day, a 40% reduction was evident on day two and a 30% reduction was still there on day three. This means that three days after shaving, the effects were still greater than those on the first day after washing with soap.
This is because using a razor on your underarm skin helps to remove dried sebum, debris and trapped odorants, which can all be responsible for causing an unpleasant odour after exercise or after a hot day.
How to Shave Your Armpits
Here’s how to shave your armpits and benefit from that proven reduction in body odour this summer:
Trim Longer Hairs
If you’re shaving under your arms for the first time, you’ll need to trim longer hairs first to prevent painful tugging and pulling when you eventually start shaving and to stop your razor from getting clogged.
The Gillette All Purpose Styler and Beard Trimmer can also be used as a body hair trimmer and there’s a choice of three different comb lengths (2mm, 4mm and 6mm), depending on how long your armpit hair is to start with.
