Twenty-four-year-old Tarun Sharma screamed in pain the first time he got his
chest waxed. It was for a pool party in college in 2017. The tech consultant wanted to show off his hard-earned ‘gym body’, the smooth brown dips and contours of his chest unmarred by body hair. Back then, he was the odd man out and subjected to snide comments from his male friends. Not anymore.
Welcome to the new ‘manscaping’ regime. It’s a whole new world of hair removal where no part of the body is sacred. Men don’t just get their chest hairs removed, but also go for ‘Boyzilian’ waxes. Mumbai’s Ministry of Strip, a unisex salon dedicated to waxing, receives nearly 150 male clients a month, and most want to go completely hair-free. And no, not all of their clients are Gen Z males, models or wannabe Bollywood stars. From corporate executives to professors, being hairless is the new bald truth.
“I am a big Akshay fan. Even he went hairless and he is in his 50s. So why not me?” quips 44-year-old Rishabh Sareen.
As part of this growing cultural trend, men are exploring options extending from
peels and lasers to waxing and traditional shaving. “Men also now typically spend approximately Rs 10,000 a month for various services such as waxing, facials and
mani-pedi. Earlier, only women came in and spent such an amount on themselves
in salons,” says Mohammad Shoaib, who works at the Tony and Guy outlet in Delhi’s posh GK-1 market.
Sharma, now just a year shy of 30, goes for regular waxing sessions. The very people who made fun of him have also started following suit. “Clean chest is in,” he says, embracing a post-modern avatar of masculinity.
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Hairy to hairless
For most people who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, a hirsute male was considered the ideal ‘macho’ man.
Bollywood, too, has reinforced this ideal time and again, with Anil Kapoor being the most (in)famous example. The hairy chests of an angry young Amitabh Bachchan and a suave Rajesh Khanna were the beating hearts of the nation before that.
There was a time when, along with chest hair, a luxurious moustache was a source of masculine pride. But trends shifted slowly, and now even the ‘hairy’ icon, Kapoor, has gone hair-free.
There is no clear timeline about when the metrosexual man overpowered the macho one. It could have been Lux’s 75th-anniversary advertisement in 2005 with a zero-hair Shah Rukh Khan in a bathtub, surrounded by Kareena Kapoor Khan, Juhi Chawla, Hema Malini and the late Sridevi.
Soon after, India was introduced to the male counterpart of the popular Fair and Lovely cream—Fair and Handsome. While its popularity wasn’t comparable to the
one meant for women, coincidentally, in 2016, it was relaunched with SRK as brand ambassador.
That said, in the 1990s decade of male hairlessness, what stood out was the moustached man in Kya Soorat Hai, a music video by famous pop group Bombay Vikings. South India, too, has bucked the hairless trend for the most part. Bountiful body hair or the lack of it is not a talking point with most heroes flaunting their hirsuteness. SS Rajamouli’s latest blockbuster RRR has Junior NTR make his first appearance in the movie in a loincloth, proudly displaying his chest hair, face stubble and moustache with blood dripping down his torso as he sets himself up as bait to capture a ravenous tiger.
Bollywood, on the other hand, embraced the hairless look—all the better to showcase those chiselled abs and arms. While the ’90s stars transformed from ‘chest hair is sexy’ to ‘no hair is cool’, actors like John Abraham emerging from the ocean in a pair of swimming shorts in Dostana, or even Hrithik Roshan in Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai, ushered in the hairless look with six-pack abs and bulging biceps.
As gyms flourished with men huffing and puffing to look like their Bollywood favourites, the pressure for those abs to be hair-free increased too. “I was not bothered by my chest hair before. But now, as I plan to have my own clientele as a fitness trainer, I have to offer them a no-hair look of my muscular body,” says Ritesh Singh, a fitness enthusiast who started working out in 2015.
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What kind of hair?
The ‘Boyzilian’ wax or removal of pubic hair is also slowly gaining traction among men. While Brazilian wax has traditionally been associated with women, places like the Ministry of Strip get many clients who opt for a completely hair-free body, including their private parts.
The trend may have started primarily among budding actors, models, and perhaps the gay community as well, but today, it is no longer limited to them. Most men are horrified by the idea of getting their testicles and behind waxed, but for Akshay Saini, it was the next natural step after getting an otherwise full body wax. His curiosity was piqued after his girlfriend commented that men have it easy when it comes to hair removal. “I got curious. I tried it out when I was on a trip to Mumbai. Yes, it was painful, but I actually like the hair-free feeling,” Saini said.
Many also opt for laser hair removal, which, though a lot more expensive than waxing, promises hair-free bodies for longer duration.
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Hegemony of masculinity
The anxieties of hair removal — and the popular perception of a hairless body as feminine — have not stopped the male grooming industry from spreading its wings, with most products marketed keeping the ‘masculine’ factor in mind. “The market suggests that by grooming in manly ways, men’s heterosexuality is not questioned. But if they use wrong grooming products they might become ‘namard’ or sissy and girly,” says Shannon Philip, author of Becoming Young Men in a New India.
So, most ads will appeal to the ‘asli mard’ or ‘real man’ narrative even when promoting hair removal products or appliances. Men are also beginning to discover what suits them. Ankit does not use hair removal creams because of their adverse impact on skin, while Ritesh swears by waxing because someone else does it, and he just has to sit.
For many, a trimmer is the easiest tool to get a hair free look—there is no risk of ‘embarrassment’ and it does the job at a short notice, like just before a date or a party.
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Not just hair removal
While hair removal may be one of the fastest-growing arenas in male grooming, cosmetic treatments are not far away either. “Earlier people would hide about taking Botox, and enter these centres furtively, after checking left and right to see if anyone has spotted them. Now, everyone is open about it,” says Rajeev Nagi, personal branding guru and the man credited with launching Botox in India.
Nagi says that the clientele has also expanded over the years. From Bollywood celebrities who wanted to appear younger, it has now expanded to include corporate honchos, sales managers and even local business owners.
Men also now go under the knife to get rid of stubborn fat or get a particular kind of chiselled body. “It is no longer just women doing it,” Nagi adds.
Vanity, after all, is not the prerogative of women alone.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)