On Feb 23, 6:50*pm, "F.O.A.D." wrote:
...and sadly, I mean it:

Ow! Pubic hair grooming injuries on the rise, researchers find

Larry Washburn / Getty Images stock

Shaving razors accounted for more than 80 percent of pubic hair grooming
injuries, say researchers who reviewed emergency room reports.
By JoNel Aleccia, Staff Writer, NBC News

Whether it’s a DIY Brazilian wax or a botched attempt at "manscaping,"
homegrown efforts to remove the hair down there are sending more people
to emergency rooms, new research suggests.

Pubic hair grooming injuries jumped five-fold between 2002 and 2010,
according to a recent analysis of ER visits by scientists at the
University of California, San Francisco. The cringe-inducing reports
increased most at the end of the time frame, with an estimated 2,500
grooming mishaps a year by 2010.

And those are just the cuts, burns, gashes, rashes and other unpleasant
outcomes that required emergency medical attention, said Dr. Allison
Glass, a clinical researcher at UCSF. Those figures are likely a vast
underestimate of the true injuries, and a reminder, among other things,
of the need for extra care when wielding razors or hot wax.

“We actually found that 3 percent of all genitourinary injuries were
related to grooming practices," said Glass. “I think the message is this
is something that general practitioners and urologists should be aware of..”

Not to mention the average Jane -- or Joe -- considering a little trimming.

Pubic hair grooming has become increasingly common, virtually
ubiquitous, in recent decades, the report published in the journal
Urology notes. Surveys suggest that between 70 percent and 88 percent of
young women in the U.S. partially or fully remove their pubic hair, the
study said. Among men, both gay and straight, the estimates ranged
between 58 percent and 78 percent.

Nearly 57 percent of the injuries logged in the National Electronic
Injury Surveillance System database were in women, but 43 percent
affected men, a surprise to some urologists, Glass said.

“This is not a female thing. It’s a male thing, too,” she said.

Shaving razors were the culprit in 83 percent of the injuries, with cuts
being most common result. Scissors were used in nearly 22 percent of
injuries, and hot wax led to 1.4 percent of the harm.

The accounts of the reported injuries would make anyone squirm. Suffice
it to say that the 17-year-old boy who picked up a razor after smoking
marijuana now understands that that was a bad idea.

What’s behind the reason for the rise in the most private of grooming
injuries? Glass suggests that it’s caused in no small part by a social
shift that has filtered down to girls as young as 12. A 2011 study by
researchers at the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana
University analyzed Playboy centerfold images between 1953 and 2007.
They found that pubic hair began disappearing from popular pinup
depictions starting in the 1970s and disappeared by the late 2000s.

“Changing beauty ideals are reflected in media sources … and have likely
contributed to the expansion of this cultural trend,” Glass and her
colleagues wrote.

The mean age of those injured was nearly 31, the study found. But almost
half of the injuries in women occurred in those aged 19 to 28 -- with
nearly 29 percent occurring in girls younger than 18. In men, the harm
was more evenly distributed, with about 37 percent in those aged 19 to
28, and nearly 30 percent in those aged 29 to 45. Only 16 percent of
injuries occurred in boys younger than 18.

http://tinyurl.com/ah2ffxx

--
I'm a *Liberal* because I knew the militant christian fundamentalist
racist militaristic xenophobic corporate oligarchy wasn't going to work
for me.

Gumby must have nicked your balls when he shaved you.