Back in the '70s, I lived in Europe for about two years. At that time, I noticed that most European women did not shave their underarms.<BR><BR>However, I've watched a few tennis matches on TV and have noted that most of the European female players have no armpit hair.<BR><BR>Has the custom changed since the '70? Or is shaving just the custom among female tennis players?<BR><BR>(Yeah, yeah, I know: There are far more important questions to be answered.)

Can't answer your question, but related item: my first trip to France in hot months of summer I noticed all the women in sleeveless dresses or blouses with their unshaven armpits. OK. But really threw me was seeing many of them tucking an unwrapped loaf of bread under their arm and carrying it home. I didn't eat a lot of bread that trip.

I think there are a lot of hairy legs there too.But maybe it is the "class" of women, you know, like the more "peasanty" types go for the natural hairy look and the more chic up to date learned how to shave From what I have observed in Greece and Italy, there are a lot of women with mustaches too-

To put your oh-so-finely tuned male sensibilities to rest --and I am sure you are paragons of manly perfection--most women in northern Italy do shave.

Not that it should matter but this is a female's post. I lived there not so long ago for a couple of years. Being a woman, I kept track of legs and underarms. I was in a good sized city far from Paris; kind of average place vis a vis rural vs. urban.<BR>Not more than 10% had hairy legs and 80% of these were middle-aged or above. Professional looking women were invariably in stockings and, therefore, hairless.<BR>As to underarms, there were more nonshavers in this category. I used to know exactly from my own ongoing survey where I worked, but I can only recall that what I called the FHP or "femmes du hairy pit" (some paltry humor I shared with some American friends)was in the twenties percentage-wise.<BR>I lived there for a number of years and, you know, while I adapted readily to all things francais, I never quite got used to what I personally view as the unfeminine repugnance of hairy pits or, worse, matted leg hair under nylons.<BR>And, yes, as has been mentioned, it seemed to be much more prevalent among the lower classes. The prototypical woman with hairy everything, is 55-60, she's in the outdoor market doing her daily shopping with a plastic shopping bag she reuses every day, she has a triangular scarf tied tightly over her hair and knotted under her chin, she's about 5'4" and 170 lb., and she's wearing an overcoat that in some god-awful green-black color made out of what looks like carpet.<BR>Chances are that when she was a girl, shaving was very much in the minority. I've had colleagues tell me that, and that the lower classes change very slowly and not just in France.

I spent a year or so in Spain, and my Spanish roomies all shaved and were quite aghast at the last American who had lived there and didn't shave. They thought it very unhygenic. I think she might have just been a hippie but they had never met one before. I lived in Berkeley for quite a while, and the shaved were the minority. (but that's not Europe so never mind)

Wonder why it's unhygienic for women not to shave their underarms and legs and not so for men.

Who says men are not un-hygenic, they just won't shave! But as hairy as your average man is, they would spend more time than a woman shaving legs,pits, face,then what about the stomach and the neck, sometimes backs! They would hog the bathroom all the time and we would be the hairy ones = waiting for the guys to be finished shaving! Best to keep it the way it is, girls are nice and smooth and guys just try to be