When it comes to body hair, a kind of ‘all or nothing’ politics abounds and chest hair is no different. Of course, there was a time when humans were completely covered in body hair but, as our ape-adjacent ancestors migrated to warmer climes, and eventually indoors, we began to shed this coating through a process of natural selection. Over time, any body hair that did remain became encoded in deep sociocultural associations. Because of chest hair’s correlation to higher levels of testosterone, these codes tend to be rooted in virility: namely sex and dominance. As a result, a hairy chest has flitted between sexy and seedy depending on the decade – big bushes were everywhere in the 70s yet by the 90s they had all but disappeared. And now, bare chests seem to be gaining popularity again – at least according to one 2018 Mintel report which found that 46 per cent of men remove hair from their bodies, a figure up 36 per cent in 2016. Needless to say, our relationship with chest hair is profound. And, when even the most recent Tarzan (by Disney starring Alexander Skarsgård) managed to get a wax, is it any wonder? So, as our chest hair continues to wax and wane, let us take you through some of the most breast-beating moments of the past few decades.
