Southern men are following the nationwide trend in hair removal, according to an Auckland-based survey.
New Zealand males are increasingly visiting salons to get rid of unwanted hair, and Dunedin has been no exception. Dunedin's Why Not Hair and Body salon manager Karen Bartley said there had been a definite trend in men's hair removal, mainly for back and chest hair.
The increased interest had been noticeable for the past six months to a year and the salon was treating at least three men a week for hair removal, Mrs Bartley said. She put it down to ''vanity'' or partner demands.
Costs differed for treatments, but varied from $60 for a male leg wax, $80 for the chest and back and $40 for the chest alone, she said.
Salons in Queenstown and Arrowtown had also noticed an increase since the beginning of the year.
''There's definitely been [an increase] in that, there's no doubt about it,'' one Queenstown salon owner said.
The online study was conducted by Associate Prof Virginia Braun, of Auckland University's School of Psychology, and Dr Gareth Terry, of the Open University in the United Kingdom, and surveyed 600 men and women, aged 18-35, on their body-hair grooming habits.
Participants were questioned on their perspective on body hair and hair removal, as well as their own body hair practices.
Of those surveyed, 48% were male and only 0.4% of them confessed to never having removed any body hair.
A total of 13.6% of the men had removed hair from their lower legs, 54.3% from their pubic area, 25.1% from their abdomen, 29.6% from their chest and 39.5% from their back.
The researchers reasoned that hair grooming was the norm for men, and was popular because it was deemed attractive, including in that it showed off muscularity, and hygienic.
About 8% of those sampled were from Otago.
Dr Terry said the survey found that, while body hair was considered more acceptable on men than on women, it was still not seen as particularly desirable.
The research was presented at the British Psychological Society's Psychology of Women annual conference in Windsor, near London, this month.
