This is wild. My dad wore shirts just like the Shat’s short-sleeve collared with button pocket, for real no joke, from the 70s until he passed during the pandemic. Also sported a bigass metal watch. Some people, when they like a look, they really stick to it, lol
Okay, I’m just now noticing something that I realize I had been seeing on a whole bunch of the male actors, in the original series, and other shows form that general era:
Was there something in the water, back in the 60s and 70s that made dudes’ arms hairier? Because these motherfuckers have sweater levels of hair, on the ol’ forearms.
I don’t even think Shatner has it anymore. Is age-related arm baldness a thing? I guess, now that I think about it, my legs might be a bit less hairy in middle age than they were, when I was 19. But that could be my imagination. And I don’t think my arms are any less hairy.
But thing is, my arms aren’t NEARLY as hairy as actors you’d see in the 60s through the early 80s. And yet, now, there is basically no visible arm hair on male actors. And I routinely see grown men with basically zero arm hair, out in the world. Are people shaving that shit? IS there something happening to make people grow less body hair?
I guess. But, now that I think about it, I know people in old family photos and other amateur media all seem hairier.
So ARE people shaving their arms? I have never talked to any guy who does that. I’ve never seen any advertising for razors that refers to shaving arm hair. If a whole bunch of people are doing it, I don’t think they’d all be keeping it a secret, right?
Yes. People seem to be staying younger. Compare someone who is 50 now to someone who was 50 in the 1990s (say), and usually the person who is 50 now will look much younger. It’s likely the result of environmental factors, such as being exposed to less smokers.
Aging does reduce thickness and coloration of hair, making it less prominent. You can also lose density, as in hairs per inch. What tends to stay is overall coverage; if you’ve got a hairy back, it stays hairy, just less so.
Darker hair is more visible to begin with, and a lot of the old school actors were “tall, dark, and handsome” by preference.
Now, it’s been a long damn time since I read up on the how and why of hair changes from aging, but it amounts to the body just having less ability to repair itself and the decrease in skin thickness via collagen reduction. There’s a shit ton of detail missing from that, but I kinda stopped refreshing myself on medical info a while back because it sorta bothers me to not be able to use it the way I once could.
What you’re seeing in pop culture is partially a shift in what kind of looks can be a leading actor, and partly the cultural trend against mature looks leading to people chasing a “youthful” appearance to follow that ever shifting beauty standard by shaving or otherwise reducing their body hair.
Tom Selleck and Burt Reynolds wouldn’t be as “hot” by today’s standards. Reynolds did a centerfold shoot for cosmo where he’s laid out with nothing but a smile and a carefully placed hand, and it not only spawned a new magazine (playgirl), but it did it partially because he was utterly masculine by the standards of the time and hairy could still equal sexy to even very young people.
Today, that kind of photo would be ignored or even decried as him looking like someone’s dad, which usually gets used as a short code for older and less attractive. And that’s not excluding people who were alive and influenced by era; it isn’t exclusive to those coming to adulthood since the turn of the century.
There’s a documentary about changing mores regarding body hair and beauty. I couldn’t find the name with a quick search, but it is pretty interesting if you can find it.
All good points, of which I was at least somewhat aware. You are helping me to refine my actual questions, to a much greater degree of specificity. So, this is what we’ve got:
Are current-day leading men (or really, any actors who will be displaying their bodies) shaving their arms and/or chests? I guess they might be. Ryan Reynolds might be just as naturally hairy as the late Burt Reynolds, but he just shaves it? Or lasers it? Or gets Blake Lively to help him wax that shit? I can see them making some truly weird social media posts about that, now that I think about it.
1(b). Or are today’s actors actually less hairy, because the whole population is less hairy? See the next question.
What about how I’ve noticed less hairy regular folks, outside of any acting or on-screen context? As I said, flipping through photo albums from the 60s, 70s, and 80s really seems to show more hairy people, in those decades, compared to the present day. Now, I didn’t just go and make any kind of survey, but I have a pretty good visual memory, and I know I have noticed a lot more hairy people, in those albums. I suppose it absolutely could be confirmation bias, but I don’t think so.
And I’m CERTAIN that there are very few hairy people that I’m encountering, out “in the wild,” so to speak. Whether or not they were everywhere 40-60 years ago, I know they seem to be thin on the ground, now. But is that my imagination? Can someone prove that there are just as many hairy individuals as ever, and I’m just not seeing them? If it’s true that there are less hairy people in the population, what could possibly be causing it? Estrogen (or other hormones, etc) in the water? Seriously? I mean, conspiracy nuts like to talk about that shit, so I’m hesitant to even bring it up…but could that be a thing?
2(b). As in 1(b), are the hairy people still out there, but they are shaving and waxing and lasering their hair off, just like Ryan Reynolds might be? Is anyone out there reading this, while they’re dipilating, for the sake of modern fashion?
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