For most of us it’s a tedious necessity that has to be performed every day. But for a growing number of gayers it’s part of a super-horny sex ritual that uses elements of discipline and control, masculinity and boyishness. Perhaps what’s most fascinating about shaving fetishism, however, is that it stems from official disapproval of hairiness.

During the past hundred years those in authority have taken a dim view of hair in general. Too much has been pronounced unsightly. Some has been thought obscene. Cut it off has been the cry. But now it’s the cutting, trimming and shaving that’s become obscene. Daft, isn’t it? But I often rely on stupidity like this to fill Raunch Pad.

The only sensible reason for shaving the hair on our heads is to keep cool. People in hot countries have been doing this for thousands of years. Religious groups decided that some hair was bad and demanded that it be cut in a certain way or covered up.

But in days of old most people thought that long hair was a good idea. Men’s hairstyles today tend to be short because of a practice that began in World War I. Soldiers had their heads shaved to prevent the spread of lice. Gradually head shaving became thought of as a symbolic method of control. It was used to punish women who fraternised with the enemy during World War II. In 1971 the three male publishers of an allegedly obscene issue of the underground magazine Oz had their heads shaved before they came to court.

Head shaving was now associated with humiliation. It’s not hard to see how it was becoming sexually exciting.

As for body hair, it’s long been thought undesirable. The roots of this prejudice may lie in cleanliness being next to godliness. (Devout Muslims shave pubes and pits for this reason). By the 20th century, when a greater degree of bare flesh was considered acceptable in public, the word spread (it was certainly never written down) that body hair was in some way immodest. Women should shave their armpits. Men should shave their chests. Naturally pubic hair was thought obscene on both sexes.

After World War II body shaving became the norm. The new musclemen reckoned that shaved bodies were sexier. Women were only allowed to pose in the nude if they shaved their pubes. Generations of straight boys were shocked when they were presented for the first time with real naked girls. Their pubic hair was a turn-off.

We can’t continue discussing the subject of body shaving without dragging in the Freudian stuff. Because our bodies don’t get hairy until puberty, shaven adult bodies inevitably reflect not cleanliness or style or culture but childhood. This gets particularly weird in the straight world, where there’s a lot of porn that features legal-age but young-looking female models with so-called “shaven havens”. It’s a less worrying problem in gayland, where shaving’s still very much part of the humiliation fantasy. Of course there are young-looking male models.

They’re called twinks. But the models we tend to like to see being tied up, smacked and shaved are fully-grown (my, how they’re fully-grown) muscle hunks.

“FOR A GROWING NUMBER OF GAYERS IT’S PART OF A SUPER-HORNY SEX RITUAL THAT USES ELEMENTS OF DISCIPLINE AND CONTROL”

To see how this image became popular, we only have to look back as far as the 1970s. One porn director, William Higgins, decreed that his models should have almost their entire bodies shaved, like Mr Universe and suchlike.

Higgins’ films were popular, other directors copied him, and theirs was the gay look that went around the world. Higgins liked pubic hair trimmed not shaved. But later directors experimented with trimming pubes into shapes, and the term “Hitler moustache” became known. (The female equivalent was the “landing strip”).  As with all porn firsts it’s difficult to cite the originator of the shaving scene. But Lee Baldwin is as good a candidate as any.

He and James Silver shaved each other in Shave (1982) and Baldwin went on to make Shave Slave (1986), which did more than most to establish shaving as part of an SM ritual. Drummer critic John F. Karr wrote, “Shave Slave is the most complete shaving video I’ve ever seen and one of the most sexually excessive too, encompassing domination, bondage, enemas, watersports, dildos, hot wax and spanking in the course of stripping a young man of his hair.”

In more recent years shaving porn has become an established niche market. It’s produced its own minor celebs. Don’t worry if you don’t know Alex Powers, Jason Branch, Chris McKenzie and Jordan Austin.

They’re not big outside the SM genre. There are also a few directors – Tom “Ropes” McGurk, Bob Jones, Rick Bolton – who specialise in shaving. There’ve been at least three shaving series – Razor’s Edge, Bad Boy Barbershop and Close Shave. And let’s not forget that the genre produced one of the most famous titles in porn history, Shaving Ryan’s Privates (2003). It’s not a joke, it really does exist. It’s not easy to find nowadays. But it’s available at www.gay.theater.aebn.net.

The secret of a good shaving scene is that it must be genuine and the participants must be into what they’re doing. If you’re a shaving fan, there are some titles you should check out. McGurk’s work is considered top end of the range and his best stuff has been collected in a long “Classics” series. Visit www.tomropesmcgurk.com.

The great Lee Baldwin came back with his own film, Butt Crazy Boys (1992), in which Tony Montana had his butt shaved. When William Higgins moved to the Czech Republic and changed his name to Wim Hof, he made Impromptus (1998) in which the shaving of a kid called El Greco is a highlight. It’s fun to watch very hirsute porn stars lose their pelts.

Edward James, the Shaving Ryan’s Privates man, also made the all-shaving Razor Close (1997) in which Max Grand is among those under the blade. Donnie Russo occupies the barber’s chair in Military Kink (1993), Steve Cruz in Limits (2007). There’s not much shaving in UK porn. But Ashley Ryder is in the “shaved” scene of Maxwell B’s Bound, Shaved and Fucked (2008) and you can see Mark Given (later Mark Summers) being shorn in Best Shave in Town (2007) available at UK Naked Men.

There are two notable gay shaving sites. Acer’s Shaved Dicks (www.pridesites.com/fetish/ashaveddick) has five free galleries of pictures plus links to other sites (not all free, however).

The best address may be www.buzzedhard.com, which is “for guys with a hard-on for hot haircuts, bodyshaving and all things haircutting.” Just a glance at the gallery menu – clipper party, forced cut/shave, military, skinheads, arm pits, facial hair, barber chair, razor strap, bumper cut, crewcut, flat top, Mohawk, zero crop and more –  will give you an indication of how the shaving scene is growing.

It’s growing so fast that even the straights are catching on. In 2010 one of my favourite news sites, Queerty, revealed that two major manufacturers – Gillette and Nivea – had begun discreet campaigns aimed at straight guys interested in shaving their bodies!  Blimey. What will those heterosexuals think of next? Happy new year!