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?
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:
1(b). Or are today’s actors actually less hairy, because the whole population is less hairy? See the next question.
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?