Trimming Chest Hair

Trimming Chest Hair

I have chest hair that ends where my neck hair begins. I would like to trim this hair, which often pokes out of the top of my shirt, but I’m not sure about the best way to do this. Scissors? Razor? Fire? (Well, maybe not fire.) I don’t really want to wax it, because I take pride in being the only twentysomething in L.A. who still proudly sports chest hair.
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The only way to trim chest hair and leave yourself a naturalistic remnant is to use scissors. Buy yourself a good pair of haircutting or mustache-trimming scissors. Grab a few fingers of fur, and trim. I do this at the beginning of every bathing-suit season. Just be careful around the nipples.
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Thinking of manscaping your pecs? Save yourself some pain and read this first.
There are still some naysayers when it comes to chest hair grooming: There are those that say chest hair is making a comeback , for example. There are even those who would argue that a good chest rug is healthy — that we evolved with chest hair because it was our first line of defense against blood-sucking parasites getting to our skin. But the reality is that it’s becoming more and more common , and why not? We are descended, after all, from a long line of manscapers , and since it both helps us smell better in warm weather and makes us look more muscular (provided you have muscles there in the first place), paying attention to the torso and indulging in a little chest hair grooming doesn’t seem like the worst idea. Here’s how to do it properly.
Know Your Chest Hair Type
As we’ve explained previously when examining how to manscape every single body part , it’s vital that you start by considering what the hair on your chest is actually like. “The coarser and denser the hair is, the pricklier it’s going to feel when you trim it down with your clippers,” explains Melanie Mari, owner and trained manscaper at Bare Skin Studio . If you have very coarse hair and you’re just trimming, rather than going for a completely shaved chest, you need to leave the hair on your chest just long enough to lay down flat against the skin, otherwise it’s going to be unbearably prickly (and manscaping tips for dealing with that post-manscape prickle are a whole different story).
The Secret to Good Chest Hair Grooming is Blending
It should go without saying that manscaping just part of your body is going to look weird, especially if you’re a very hairy guy. To avoid having a gleaming, bare chest side by side with a mass of fuzz on the belly, Mari recommends using a #2 clipper on the chest and stomach, then tackling the happy trail with a #1 clipper. “Or, if you want to look extra clean [and you have soft, fairly sparse body hair], trim the chest and stomach hair using a #1 clipper,” she advises.
How to Rock the Fully Shaved Chest
If you decide to go completely smooth on the chest, dermatologist Anthony Rossi recommends approaching it the same way you would shaving your face : “Manscape in a hot, steamy shower to soften up the hairs. Trim or shave with the grain , never against — if you’re not sure which way to go, pull the razor in the same direction that your hair seems to be pointing. That will prevent creating sharp angles. Moisturize afterwards to condition the hairs and clear up any irritation.”
Consider the Chest Hair Grooming Alternatives
Even tackling that chest wig with a razor or trimmer is going to be an ordeal for extremely hairy dudes, so you may want to think about other options for a more pleasant experience. If you’re practically wearing a fur coat in the shower, Mari recommends avoiding manscaping altogether and waxing instead , the advantages being that it’s super smooth and will last longer than shaving. There is also the possibility of using hair removal creams, but if you go this route, exercise extreme caution and be sure to read the label carefully to ensure the product is designed for sensitive areas (like your nipples).
Talking of nipples: Be careful when you’re chest hair grooming, as not only are your nipples very sensitive, they also bleed a lot if you accidentally slice them. The good news is, they do grow back (or the tips will, at least) — you can find more about dealing with such incidents in our guide to treating every body grooming injury . In the meantime, feel confident in knowing you’ve got this chest hair grooming thing down, and have fun flashing those glistening pecs at the beach. Or the pool. Or the bus shelter. Shaved chests look good anywhere, right?

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Sheep get sheared for the summer. But you don’t have to
If you’re reading this, then you think about your body hair. And chances are you even like your body hair—to a degree. You just wish there wasn’t so much of it. Or that your chest hair didn’t connect to your beard. Or that your thigh hair wasn’t so bushy that it makes wearing a swimsuit questionable. You’re not the kind of guy who’s going to wax it, but you want to take things down a notch. And that’s where the trouble begins. How short should you go?
It’s just like buzzing your head: once you’ve started there’s no turning back. And while “chest hair” is a thing many people like, “chest stubble” is not. So before you run a weedwhacker through your precious garden, let’s plan how we’re going to do this.
First things first: we’ve found that women like body hair . The key is to keep it “in check.”
So let’s unpack that. “In check” means that your chest isn’t sprouting over your collar. But it also means that when you take off your shirt, you should look like you were conceivably born with this amount of chest hair. Avoid the “plucked chicken” effect.
Start with your chest, use a clipper, and choose the right guard. ( Check out our favorite tools here. )
In barber speak, clipper guards are denoted by numbers: 1, 2, 3… and so on. Each corresponds to an eighth of an inch. So a 1 is 1/8, a 2 is 2/8 (also known as 1/4)… you get it. Rule of thumb, don’t start with anything less than a 4 (1/2 inch). You can always go shorter. You can’t go longer.
In the end, you want hair that feels soft and looks natural on you—not stubble that prickles.
Don’t—we repeat: don’t—start by running the buzzer right down the middle of your chest. You might regret it as soon as you see the landing strip between your pecs.
Instead, start on the margin, like around your collarbone where you might want the hair to fade out anyway.
Another good chest tip: the more ripped your pectorals, the more hair you can afford to lose. If you have a flabby chest, shearing is going to make it more obvious, not less.
Not all your body hair is the same length or same texture. Once you have your ideal chest setting, you shouldn’t just buzz your whole body with that same clipper guard.
Your armpit hair should be longer than your chest hair. Your belly hair should be shorter. Keep it in proportion by going up or down a buzzer guard for each area.
And unless you’re a competitive swimmer or a Yeti, don’t bother trimming your arms or legs. Take care of any noticeable groin fur that protrudes from your swimsuit and move on.
Once you’ve committed to an area, and selected the right clipper guard, take multiple passes in different directions. Up. Down. Side-to-side. Even the best clippers available to you at home aren’t usually barbershop quality, and they can miss things.
This is especially important in the groin area, where there are many different angles and surfaces. You don’t want to spend a lot of time on the most visible areas and then have your summer crush discover a stray patch of long curls o n your grundle .
The shorter you go, the more likely you are to face a couple days of itching. (An itchy chest is worse when you wear a shirt, so if you’re headed to the beach anyway, great.)
If you have a moisturizing aftershave you like, apply some to the areas you’ve just groomed. For instance, this one from Kiehl’s uses menthol oils to soothe the skin (Blue Astringent Herbal Lotion, $18, kiehls.com ).
Final word: sunscreen. Especially if you were rocking some Steve Carrell-level mohair until now, your flesh is about to meet sunshine for the first time. What’s worse than a plucked chicken? A scalded chicken. Don’t get burned.

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