--- title: Pubic Hair Grooming Could Lead to a Greater STD Risk description: The more frequently people groom their pubic hair, the greater their risk for a sexually transmitted infection (STI) like herpes canonical: https://time.com/4591904/grooming-pubic-hair-sex-sti-2/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-06T16:40:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:04:02.381Z og:title: Why Grooming Your Pubic Hair Might Be a Bad Idea og:description: It's linked to a higher risk of STIs og:url: https://time.com/4591904/grooming-pubic-hair-sex-sti-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7b89e0de11db7197/69888021bc6cfc25cd3dbfea/blue-pink-razors-the-pink-tax-womens-mens-products1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2500 og:image:height: 1406 og:image:alt: blue-pink-razors-the-pink-tax-womens-mens-products og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Grooming Your Pubic Hair Might Be a Bad Idea twitter:description: It's linked to a higher risk of STIs twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7b89e0de11db7197/69888021bc6cfc25cd3dbfea/blue-pink-razors-the-pink-tax-womens-mens-products1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Grooming Your Pubic Hair Might Be a Bad Idea > Sponsored content. 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Dec 6, 2016 4:40 PM UTC  Getty Images; Illustration by Lauren Margit Jones for TIME  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Dec 6, 2016 4:40 PM UTC Most Americans have, at one point or another, removed hair from down there. But new [research](http://sti.bmj.com/lookup/doi/10.1136/sextrans-2016-052687) suggests that the grooming practice is linked to a major downside: an increased risk of STIs, or sexually transmitted infections. In a new study published in the journal _Sexually Transmitted Infections_, researchers surveyed thousands of Americans about their sexual history, grooming habits and whether or not they’d ever had an STI. More than 7,500 people completed the survey, and grooming proved to be extremely popular; 66% of men and 84% of women said they’d groomed before, through methods like waxing, shaving, trimming and laser hair removal. Groomers tended to be younger, more sexually active and to have more sexual partners than non-groomers. They were also more likely to report having an STI in their life, including herpes, HPV, syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia or [HIV](http://time.com/4585537/world-aids-day-hiv/). Even after the researchers adjusted factors that were influencing the association, like a person’s age and number of sexual partners, a link remained. The more people frequently people groomed, the stronger the association. People who groomed daily or weekly were about 3.5 to 4 times more likely to report having an STI history. The results don’t imply that shaving, waxing or trimming will increase a person’s chances of getting an STI. This kind of cross-sectional study is just a snapshot in time, making it impossible to determine cause and effect or even to tell which came first: the grooming or the infection. Furthermore, people weren’t required to have a medically confirmed STI, and self-reported sexual histories are not always reliable, says lead author Dr. Charles Osterberg, assistant professor of surgery at the University of Texas Dell Medical School. But the observational study, which Osterberg describes as the largest one yet to look at grooming patterns in the U.S., raises some interesting questions about the link. It’s possible that when grooming causes microtears, bacterial and viral STIs are better able to penetrate the skin. Or maybe grooming is a sign that a person is more likely to have risky sex, the authors write. If that’s true, Osterberg says, “if a clinician were to see evidence of grooming upon physical examination, perhaps that physician should inquire about safer sex practices or a sexual history.” More research is needed to determine what role, if any, hair grooming plays in STIs. “Modern society has dictated our perception of genital normalcy, and what it means to feel attractive or feminine or masculine has changed,” Osterberg says. “This study sheds some light on a potential complication associated with the increasingly common practice of grooming.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4591904/grooming-pubic-hair-sex-sti-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4591904/grooming-pubic-hair-sex-sti-2/"},"headline":"Why Grooming Your Pubic Hair Might Be a Bad Idea","datePublished":"2016-12-06T16:40:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:04:02.381Z","description":"It's linked to a higher risk of STIs","url":"https://time.com/4591904/grooming-pubic-hair-sex-sti-2/","keywords":["motto","Sex/Relationships","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7b89e0de11db7197/69888021bc6cfc25cd3dbfea/blue-pink-razors-the-pink-tax-womens-mens-products1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mandy Oaklander","jobTitle":"Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7b89e0de11db7197/69888021bc6cfc25cd3dbfea/blue-pink-razors-the-pink-tax-womens-mens-products1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"blue-pink-razors-the-pink-tax-womens-mens-products","caption":"Women Aren’t Just Paid Less–They’re Also Charged More for Various Products","creditText":"Getty Images; Illustration by Lauren Margit Jones for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4591904/grooming-pubic-hair-sex-sti-2/","name":"Why Grooming Your Pubic Hair Might Be a Bad Idea"}}]}] ```