From Bare To Styled: Why Bikini Grooming Is Becoming A Choice, Not A Rule

Ask anyone who grew up in the 2000s what the bikini area was supposed to look like and you'll get the same answer, usually delivered with a wince. Smooth. Completely. Anything else was a confession.

Funny how fast that script is falling apart.

Nobody Is Winning, and That's the Point

Here's a set of numbers that should end a few arguments. A 2024 study in Women's Health (Javidi et al.) surveyed a nationally representative sample of 522 U.S. women in spring 2023. Among the 323 who had ever removed their pubic hair, 25.4% preferred trimmed, 23.8% preferred partially removed but not fully bare, and 23.3% preferred bare. Three styles, basically tied. No majority anywhere.

The stat I keep coming back to is a different one. Of those same women, 41% agreed that they groom as a form of self-expression. That's four in ten treating a so-called hygiene routine the way they treat a haircut or a lipstick shade. Chores don't get described that way.

There's a quieter signal too. The authors found that 62% of women had ever removed their pubic hair, compared with 83.8% in a 2016 national study. Different samples, so no victory laps, but the researchers flag it as a possible shift.

Hair Made a Comeback in the Conversation

Part of this is cultural, and it has been hard to miss. In January 2024, John Galliano's Maison Margiela Spring 2024 couture collection, shown under the house's Artisanal label, put merkins, the decorative pubic hairpieces with a centuries-old history, on several looks, including his “painted muses.” Fashion editors who normally talk about hemlines suddenly had to talk about pubic hair.

Later that year, a Paris photography exhibition called Motherland took a more playful route. Photographer Guen Fiore worked with make-up artist Lynski, hairstylist Yumiko Hikage, and creative director Nastya Klychkova on images where pubic hair was braided, dyed, bedazzled, and styled. The point was joy, not shock.

Then came January 2025. A TikTok creator named Sujindah posted about an Etsy bikini review that included a photo of a full bush, repeated the phrase “full bush in a bikini,” and a lot of people picked it up.

Before anyone writes the obituary for hair removal, though: that isn't what happened. The same study shows most women have removed their hair at some point, and nearly a quarter of those who groom still prefer bare. They're allowed to. What changed is visibility. You can now see all the options, talk about them, and pick one without it becoming a statement. More choices doesn't mean the old choice got canceled.

Where Most People Actually Live

Look at the data again and the in-betweens jump out. Trimmed and partially removed together account for about half of those preferences. Those aren't yes-or-no answers. They're questions of how short, what shape, how much, and for what occasion.

And those answers move. Maybe you keep it neat for a beach trip, let it grow in winter, tidy the edges before a date, then do nothing for a month because life got busy. A single wax appointment doesn't cover that kind of flexibility. What does is a tool you can adjust on the fly.

Hardware That Gets It

This is where gadgets have quietly improved. Take the LadySpot SpinDuo Bikini Trimmer from SPOTMATE. It's a 2-in-1 bikini trimmer with a guarded Trimmer Head for shaping and length, plus a Rotary Shaving Head for when you want a closer finish in a particular spot. Three guide combs (1.5, 3.5, and 5.5 mm) let you choose a length instead of getting stuck with one outcome.

Then there's the body, which rotates 180° and has a built-in light and mirror. Sounds minor until you've tried to groom at an awkward angle in a dim bathroom. Seeing what you're doing is half the job.

No device is going to settle anything for you. But a tool that trims, shaves, and adjusts matches how people really do this, which is differently from one month to the next.

The Real Story Is Who's in Charge

Take away the runway shows and the viral clips and you're left with a simple shift: the decision is moving back to the person it belongs to. For a long time it came from elsewhere, from partners, trends, and a beauty industry that profited from one standard answer. The 2024 data points to a more varied picture, with women choosing in different ways and for different reasons.

Some will stay smooth and love it. Some will grow it out and forget about it. Plenty will trim, shape, or shave a little and change the plan next week. All fine.

The goal isn't to swap one rule for another, either. “Everyone should go natural” is just a new bossy sentence. The better idea is much simpler: it's your body, the options are real, and a swimsuit can just be a swimsuit.