Smooth Hound

[eyesup]

. . . why would they trouble themselves to go to the gym?

Tap, tap, tap, tap!!!
For health reasons of course. Why do people jog, run, ride bikes, climb flagpoles? 

For the fun, entertainment, exercise, health benefits or just for hell of it. Not everyone is obsessed with themselves. Nor are we all alike.

As Mrs. E is fond of saying, :If we were all the same, what a boring world it would be.”
We wouldn’t be here talking about all those OTHERS that are different.

Duane

[eyesup]

. . there's only so much one can do with the body you wound up with, to be honest about it, and you'll never be any younger than you are now, which may be harder to accept.

That statement IS buying into the belief that we must do something about what we are born with, therefore we must join a club of go to the gym. I used to belong to a health club in Houston. That was a big town back in the ‘80’s. I’m sure it’s even bigger now. A health club was convenient and easy to use to stay in healthy condition. Not a lot of hiking was available to a young guy working 60-70 hrs. a week. So that was my solution.

Now, I don’t use or belong to a club. I go hiking when time is available and I eat better than when I was young and oblivious. The end result is the same. So my doctor tells me. Click, click!

It would be better if we concede that we, not only don’t know, but have no clue to the circumstances behind a person’s appearance. And any supposition we settle on is most likely wrong. A clearer picture will come from getting acquainted and maybe learning the real situation.

Although if someone is wearing 30 lbs. of piercings along with a full body tatoo, the probabilities may go up to an accurate guess.

Duane

[BlueTrain]

I'm beginning to think that you're all alike and that I'm the one who's different. But there are sure some good discussions going here. Now it's my bedtime. Until tomorrow.

[MartinM]

I’m in the body acceptance camp, or what I see as naturism, accepting my body as crafted by nature. I try to look after it with healthy food and natural exercise, walking, running, climbing, wild swimming, do some yoga, meditation and until recently practiced aikido. Nature gave me hair on my body as a gift (moderate amounts) which I accept and which both provides me a small degree of environmental protection and effects the way I feel the sun and breeze on my body.

I have absolutely no desire to shave my body. Ok, I was always brought up with keeping my hair reasonably short and it tends to annoy me if it gets too long so I cut it periodically. But neither do I want to shave it. Despite being thin on top, it still gives me some protection from the sun on top and protection from cold in winter (not enough!) I stopped shaving some years ago but occasionally trim which I know goes down better with others.

I do find myself looking in the mirror from time to time but largely in respect of this amazing body I have been given. I don’t look at it thinking I would like to change this or that. Naturism has been critical in me getting to this level of body acceptance.

I have recently obtained a six inch scar down my belly due to an operation which I am quickly learning to accept, although keen to lose as much scar tissue as possible to avoid limitations on movement and discomfort, but otherwise I am happy it will just blend in. Not very natural, I know, but lifesaving.

[BlueTrain]

I could say that nature gave me red hair but it was really my mother. Coincidentally, my wife also has red hair and naturally, our two children have red hair. In the case of my wife and I, however, it is more like we had red hair. My mother died when I was young and my father remarried. She, too, had red hair.

Having red hair has proved to be a frustration if one ever wanted to have a nice suntan. I like to say I just bleach out in the sun. Even the freckles have gone away.

I also had an operation last fall, which left only a two-inch scar. Totally painless, thanks to anesthesia (and thanks to spell-check, too). Regular assembly-line out-patient procedure. Our family doctor says an operation like that doesn't even count but I'd rather not have any more.

I attended my 50th high school reunion a few years ago and saw may friends from school days, some of whom were neighbors that I started first grade with. Regarding bodies, I didn't think anyone there looked much different from the way I remember them in high school. Most looked older, to be sure, but no one's basic build was any different, curiously enough. A couple looked no older at all, incredibly enough. They had probably never married and had children.

[eyesup]

BlueTrain, judging from the frequency of red hair occurring in the family line and red hair being welcomed to the fold, you just might be caught in a “self fulfilling prophesy!”

If you read MartinM’s then BlueTrain’s posts you get a pretty good view of what, in my opinion, is the best way to look at what life hands us. What we have when we are born is the blank slate. What we do after that is based on our choices.

The least complicated path is to adapt as things change around you to. Some people like things complicated, so they choose options that make them happy. I like uncomplicated. I’ve run into friends from high school or college that are trying their best to look like they did way back. That’s a fools errand and it’s sad to see. You can’t do anything about time or gravity.

I’ve had a couple of outpatient procedures but the scars are not visible if I’m shirtless, only when I am naked.
Plus the surgeon was very good and they aren’t obvious. So I have never had a reaction to them.
Not that I would worry one way or the other.

I have a scar on the knee of my left leg that I got when I was less than 2 yrs. old. Still visible after all these years. Scars and such are just markers to where you’ve been and experienced.

Tempus Fugit!

Duane

[BlueTrain]

It isn't that simple. A person is born into a complex set of circumstances, overlaid with a lot of social conditions that can be exceptionally difficult to overcome, red hair not being one of them, at least. Some people have more choices than others; some have no choices at all. Some people don't even have bus fare out of town. Life is not fair.

[nuduke]

Yea, I couldn't imagine hassling with shaving the rest of me everyday.

In fact, it only takes me a minute or two a day, when it's 'bald', to keep smooth.

It's interesting how the majority of opinion seems to be against shaving the pubic region or rest of body yet trimming of head hair and shaving the face is normal. I'm not suggesting hypocrisy here, just that we all have deeply embedded norms to deal with that makes us think a lack of natural hair in one place (pubes) is unnatural but that routinely shaving another place (face) simply goes alongside as totally normal.  I am equally dualistic - I make myself smooth from the neck down yet I have quite long head hair and a goatee beard which I keep very closely clipped.  Not consistent and subject to hegemony!

Have we now come to the conclusion that to be truly naturist naked then, you shouldn't cut any hair at all?  In Sikhism, hair is allowed to grow naturally as respect for the perfection of God's creation. That's very akin to what several of you have said about accepting what we are and what body and features we are given. 

Mind you, amongst Muslims, hair removal is part of achieving general purity and cleanliness and includes the trimming of nails and the removing of armpit and pubic hair.

 

I don't know about any of this obligatory stuff though.  In my case I find it aesthetically pleasing, hygienic and a matter of choice not obligation or spiritual belief. 

John

[BlueTrain]

It's probably more fads and fashion than anything else, with some periods in recent history and certain places being conformist, others anything but.

No doubt you've seen the images on the plaques attached to two of the space missions depicting a man and a woman, both nude. The first one, Pioneer 10, was launched in 1972, 46 years ago. They have what might be described as contemporary hair styles, though no body hair is depicted. What would they look like if designed today, do you suppose? Would they even be nude? If they were designed in 1900, the hair styles would at least be different. The man would invariably have a mustache. Thirty years earlier, he'd have a beard.

In the 1950s, having a beard was not done. A mustache would be a pencil-thin style. I even remember a line from a movie, "Why are you hiding behind that beard?" (The character said he grew it to look older.) Any style that teenagers favor is usually considered rebellious if it isn't exactly like their parents, who of course, went through the same stages. It is ironic that as your body hair increases, the hair on your head sometimes begins to thin out. Women don't have the same hair issues. They don't have mustaches, except for the occasional aunt.