'Manscaping' Goes Mainstream

I guess being a hairy beast I've been ahead of the curve here. Never had a problem with back hair. Just everywhere else.

Ben, a 6-foot 4-inch, dark-haired, blue-eyed New Yorker, is not a bodybuilder, model or porn star.

But the 33-year-old never misses his monthly appointment at Manhattan's Townhouse Spa for grooming -- not just a manicure and a shave, but a $150 back waxing.

"It doesn't hurt that much and the girls appreciate it," said Ben, who makes infomericals for a living and was shy about going public with his last name.

Nowadays, trimming or eliminating unsightly body hair is as "important to guys" as women, he told ABCNews.com.

"It's like when you're in a bar and you see a girl with terrible nails and cuticles," said Ben.

"It's a turn off. And, I'm sure the girls feel the same way, especially in the summer at the Hamptons when I walk around with my shirt off. I don't need to have that back hair on display."

Ben is one of many American men who have embraced manscaping -- shaving or waxing the heavily forested parts of their bodies. He won't go near the "nether regions," but many men do.

Hair anywhere except on the head seems to be verboten these days, and the modern male will take the razor where few man have ever gone before.

A 2005 study published in the journal Sex Roles found that 63.6 percent of 118 men at the University of South Florida said they trimmed or removed body hair to be hygenic and attractive.

At Townhouse Spa, the number of male clients -- most of them in their 30s, 40s and 50s -- has more than doubled in the last year, according to owner Jamie Ahn.

"It has a lot to do with machismo," she said. "After the media and magazines said back hair is not sexy."

In the poor economy, women's grooming has dropped off but male business has only increased, according to Ahn.

"We do have a high gay clientele, but we are starting to see a lot more straight men who want pampering," she told ABCNews.com. "We have a lot of bankers and hedge fund guys who think grooming is as important as their work."

And let's face it: The women make you do it.

The manscaping craze is being driven largely by women.

"Excess body hair, for me personally, is a big turn off," said Karina Jimenez, a 21-year-old from San Antonio, Texas.

"The natural look is honestly OK. I mean, of course if you like the person for who they are, it doesn't matter what they look like," she told ABCNews.com. "But sometimes a little manscaping couldn't hurt."

"The tailored look is attractive because it's clean, and let's face it, most men are dirty," said Jimenez.