How to trim your chest hair

Thinking about taming your chest rug or removing it altogether? Here’s everything you need to know about phasing out the fuzz.

There are lots of reasons you might want to tend to your chest hair. Maybe you feel cleaner, cooler and fresher without it or maybe you work out and don’t want your hard-won muscles hidden under a forest of fur. You might just hate the way it interferes with the smooth line of T-shirts. Or maybe, just maybe, you simply like the way it feels to have less hair. Whatever your reason, manscaping your chest is easy – you just need to know how to go about it.

1. Decide what look you’re after

Some guys like having chest hair – they simply don’t want quite so much of the stuff. If that’s you, the solution is to trim the hair down a little using a body hair trimmer. This allows you to retain some hair but shorten it to a length that keeps it neat and tidy.

This is a quick, easy-to-maintain option and particularly good if you have thick, dark course hair as it means you’ll largely avoid the itchy regrowth associated with shaving.

Removing the hair altogether so you’re as smooth as Michelangelo’s David, on the hand, is a little more time consuming, requires more aftercare (you’ll need to exfoliate and moisturise skin to minimise ingrown hairs) and reveals a lot more flesh so can radically alter your appearance.

2. Begin with a trim

If you’ve never trimmed your chest before start with your trimmer on the longest setting first and go shorter until you find a length you like. (If hair is very thick comb it first to remove any tangles so it’s easier to trim.)

You can trim hair in or out of the shower but if you’ve a lot of body hair you might find it easier to do this when it’s dry.

3. Be a smooth operator

If alabaster abs and polished pecs are what you’re after, begin by trimming hair as short as you can, using the lowest length attachment comb. This will make removing hair altogether much easier. Then remove the comb and use the shaving head to continue your manscaping.

Pull skin taut as you shave and follow the direction of hair growth. To make things easier you can do this in the shower (the steam makes short hairs softer and easier to cut) and can apply a little shave cream or gel to ease the glide of the blade across the skin.

4. Navigate the nipples

Body hair trimmers are designed to minimise the risk of nasty accidents but to be on the safe side, only use the trimmer to the edge of the nipples – don’t go over them like you were driving over speed bumps. Pulling the skin taught as you trim will make it easier to ensure any stray hairs are removed.

5. Level the playing field

The secret of getting a natural look when manscaping your chest is to ensure that all the hair on your torso is even, so work downwards, over the abdomen and down the happy trail until everything’s the same length. Go even ‘further south’ if you fancy.

6. Scrub to stay smooth

To minimise the risk of ingrown hairs when you’ve trimmed hair super-short or removed it altogether, exfoliate skin with a body scrub or body buffing mitt twice a week afterwards and keep skin soft and supple (and minimise itching) with the help of a good body moisturiser. Specialist solutions designed to minimise the risk of ingrown hairs on the face can also be used on the chest as an extra precaution.