In 2021, the idea that men care less about self-care and general grooming and beauty services is no longer accurate.

39% of men now consider beauty and grooming services a high priority.

The days of letting your body hair grow rampantly are gone, so have you mastered the art of manscaping yet? From navigating your anatomy to choosing the right tools for the job, grooming yourself is tricky.

Luckily, we're here with a guide to all of the manscaping styles, tips, and tricks you need to manscape like a pro.

What Is Manscaping?

Manscaping = man + landscaping. 

Yes, we're talking about trimming the lawn... er, your body. 

Manscaping refers to removing the hair of a man's body using methods like shaving, waxing, and plucking for cosmetic purposes.

Today's Manscaping Styles

When it comes to manscaping, you have choices to make. Fortunately, body hair isn't an all-or-nothing situation. So, don't freak out if you're not ready to go entirely bald just yet. 

Manscaping styles range from plucking straight hairs to complete grooming, and you can pick the level you're comfortable with. 

Before getting started, think about how much hair you want on your body. It would help if you also considered the shape and placement of your body hair. Some men love a hairy chest but prefer a clean stomach, while others want a hairy chest without a snail trail. 

When you go below the belt, there are even more options ranging from all-natural, neatly groomed, or all-off. 

Manscaping 101

We know you're new to this, so we'll start slow. Here's how to manscape the different areas of your body. 

Eyebrows

Your eyebrows define your face, so you should groom them regularly. 

When it comes to eyebrows, you want to remove excess weight and stray hairs. However, please don't overdo it. When eyebrows are appropriately groomed, they give off a more youthful appearance. 

To trim any hairs that are longer than the others, use scissors. Then take tweezers to clean up any wild hairs outside your eyebrows' natural shape.

Ears 

Ears become hairier as we age (fun, right?). As you get older, you'll have to look out for unsightly ear hair. 

Fortunately, ear hair is simple to eradicate, but it comes back with a vengeance, which means you'll have to tend to it more often. 

If you have long hairs on the outer area of your ears, use tweezers to pluck them. Then, trim any hair inside of your ear that you can see. Careful to use scissors that are made for this purpose, so you don't cut your skin.

Nose

When you can see hair sticking out of the bottom of your nostrils, it's time to take care of those.

Don't pluck nose hair! Plucking can lead to bleeding, which can cause an infection if you're not careful.

To safely tend to your nose hair, get a pair of grooming scissors and trim carefully. You can also use an electric trimmer if you're comfortable with one.

Chest

Unless you want to be a human porcupine for your significant other, don't shave your chest. Your partner will be thankful, and you won't have to shave your chest every day. 

If smoothness is what you're after, try a depilatory cream. This cream will dissolve your chest hair at the root, so it takes a few weeks to grow back. It also won't grow back with a sharp edge. 

Before using depilatory cream, test a small patch of hair. This way, if you have a reaction to the cream, it's not going to affect your entire chest. If all goes well, slap that stuff everywhere and wait the number of minutes recommended on the bottle.

If you have a reaction or don't like the idea of hair removal cream, you can consider waxing. Fair warning, however, that this a painful route. Waxing can also lead to acne breakouts, which aren't cute either. The upside, however, is that your hair won't grow back for three or four weeks. 

Regardless of which chest hair removal technique you choose, do it a few days before you want to showcase your handiwork. At this point, any redness should have subsided. Follow this process with a cold shower, an effective lotion, and avoid sweating for a few days. Sweat can clog those naked pores!

When it comes to the chest, sometimes trimming is the best option. No, you won't look like a smooth dolphin, but you also won't make your partner feel like they're sleeping next to sandpaper.

Shoulders

For shoulder hair, stick to a razor or body trimmer. A trimmer is best if you have sensitive skin, as shoulders are prone to breakouts. Under your shirt, your shoulders spend the entire day accumulating sweat, which isn't good for a fresh shave.

When trimming, set the trimmer at its lowest setting and shave against the grain. 

Yes, when shaving, you're often told to go with the growth of the hair, but since you're not breaking the surface of your skin, it's actually more effective to go against the grain with a trimmer. 

Shave and repeat this process once per week.

Neck

Shave or trim the front of your neck whenever you clean up or shave your facial hair. It's always best to define your beard by getting rid of the hair on your neck.

To do this, visualize a "U" shape that meets two fingers at the point above your Adam's apple and connects behind both ears.

Everything below this shape needs to go. As you might for your face, use an electric shaver on your neck.

The back of your neck is best left to a barber or a friend with a steady hand. If you have a grown-out haircut, seek the help of a professional who can artfully blend whatever is happening back there. This will make your haircut last longer.

Back

When shaving your back, it's best to use a body groomer. Whatever you use, remember that your back is sensitive to breakouts. 

If you don't have an easy way to shave your back, you can ask your partner to do it every couple of weeks.

You can also try a depilatory cream here if you want the slickest option. Again, waxing is another choice, but still painful and high risk for irritation.

Legs and Arms

Your legs and arm aren't as easily irritated as the rest of your body, so using a razor on these areas is usually fine.

Proceed with shaving your legs and arms as you please, with a razor, trimmer, wax, or depilatory cream.

Armpits

While armpit hair is normal for everyone, unruly armpit hair isn't attractive on even the burliest men.

You can keep your pits from looking like a jungle by neatly trimming the hair to tidy it up. For these areas, use a body groomer with a #2 or higher guard. 

Grooming Down Under

When it comes to keeping things neat down under, being well-groomed is essential. To trim the hair above your netherregions and upper legs, pull the skin taut and utilize a body groomer.

Butt

When it comes to manscaping in this region, you should leave it to a professional. It's hard to see back there, so taking a razor to it yourself is not recommended. 

Waxing will quickly leave you with smooth results, and waxing this area isn't as painful as other body regions. 

You can also try laser hair removal, but this is more costly. If you're adamant about trimming this area at home, very cautiously use a body groomer on a low setting with a guard.

Shaft and Balls

Yep, we're going there. Because we know you will anyway, and we don't want you to hurt yourself. 

Number one: keep the razor away. Do not bring a razor anywhere near the sensitive skin around your junk. If you insist on going hairless, there are other—less dangerous—methods.

For your pubic hair, use a depilatory cream (that is safe for sensitive areas) or a trimmer. The right body groomer will help you trim your pubic hair however you like. You can gather long tufts of hair and trim or glide a groomer over your skin to bring it all down to a short, uniform length. 

For those sensitive areas previously mentioned, never make contact with your skin. Don't use a razor. Don't use a depilatory cream. Don't glide a trimmer across there, either. Because your skin is so thin around your testicles, the skin can actually get stuck in between the trimmer teeth—no, thank you.

Instead, grab a body groomer with a more detailed head and pull the skin taut with every pass—trim hair in small, manageable sections. Again, don't let the trimmer make contact with your skin. You'll get a smoother result and won't be bleeding by the end of it.

Other Manscaping Tips

Now that you know how to groom all the different areas of your body, you're not a pro yet. Here are some additional tips to keep you adequately groomed and knick-free.  

Don't Use a Beard Trimmer

You want to save time while grooming, but don't do so at the expense of hygiene. Don't put the trimmer you shave your face with on your balls or armpits. 

Instead, purchase a device that is specifically designed for these regions. There are differences between body trimmers and beard trimmers. Most of today's beard trimmers come with attachments that help with the smaller jobs, such as snipping away mustache hair and shaping beards. 

Manscaping tools come with attachments that swiftly glide across broad areas like your back and chest. They also come with guard lengths to suit all preferences. Like a smooth back but prefer a little hair on your chest? A body groomer is perfect for this.

Plus, body groomers aren't as precise as beard trimmers, which is a good thing. They're wider at the head since the task at hand is more utilitarian. Don't confuse the two.

Start With a Higher Guard Setting

If you're not the best manscaper, don't skip right to the lowest guard setting on your first try. Instead, approach it like a haircut. You can always trim shorter if the first pass doesn't cut it. 

While this might add time to your body grooming routine, it says the weeks it will take to grow your hair back to optimal length. Once you've been grooming yourself for some time, you'll get better at knowing which length is best for each area of your body. Just play it safe and don't guess at first.

Lastly, don't be too quick with your tools. Take it slow because the pressure you put on the device can also impact how short you're trimming the hair. You can easily accidentally shave a shorter runway down the middle of your chest if you're not careful.

Take it easy.

Always Spot Check

When you're done, you might notice a few patches of hair that you've missed. And this is normal because it's challenging to get a uniform trim across vast areas (especially if you apply more pressure in some areas).

You'll need to eyeball the areas you shave to find hairs that escaped the trimmer at this stage. If your device comes with a smaller head, use it for this.

You don't want to rush this process, as even the slightest slip-up can lead to giving yourself a totally bare patch. If you're nervous, get a fine-toothed comb and run it underneath the hair so that the hairs stand up. This way, it's easier to see the ones you've missed, and you won't compromise the other hair around it.

Grab Your Blade and Get Started

Hopefully, you now have a better idea of what goes into maintaining these manscaping styles.

The bottom line here is that we all have individual preferences, and you can do whatever you want, as long as you're using the right tools for the job.

When you're ready to stop looking like a hairy silverback gorilla, get started with BAKBLADE today.