Body hair is sexy, exotic and just plain cool. It comes in different lengths, colors and places. Even with all of its facets, character, and style, body hair still has proven to be attractive in the eyes of many.

Yes, there are some who can definitely do without body hair, but it is still an attractive quality for those who don’t mind a little roughness around the edges.

Going back 30 and 40 years ago, advertisements, music bands and the entertainment industry in general, displayed men that had long hair, a thick mustache or a nice rug patch exposed through a partially unbuttoned shirt. Back then, a man with chest hair meant masculinity. It was sort of a badge of manliness.

Now, advertisements and TV are confidently decorated with boyish bare chests, while hairiness is seen as a joke or a gross exaggeration. It must be admitted that people have a slight obsession with “staying” or looking young and a bare chest represents a fresh youthfulness that people wish to have. However, a hairy chest does not necessarily mean that one is growing old. It can be seen as a mark of maturity, because it takes maturity to handle body hair with style and dignity.

Pop culture can point us in the direction of the famous and funny “Austin Powers'” films, which parodied the 60s and 70s in many ways including scenes with chest hair.Facetiously, to deactivate Dr. Evil’s “Fembots,” Powers would bust his shirt open, Superman style, and expose his tufts of chest hair. This would cause the seemingly seductive weapons to completely malfunction in a perishing process that began with a hypnotized expression and ended in a heap of plastic and mechanical parts lying beneath lustful smoke.

In a recent Internet survey (Askmen.com) of 100 women, 76 said that they like hair on a man’s chest and 94 women expect a man to have hairy pits. Most women said they accept leg hair and overall, 14 percent of the women love hairy men.

There is something to be said about a hairy man who embraces his hair with nonchalance and confidence that is attractive.

Whether it’s the hair, the confidence that seems to come with the hair or the associations that come with hairiness, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Until recently, European women had been known, in the U.S., not to shave. This can prove two points: that the attractiveness of body hair can be cultural and that women shave because other women shave.

There are plenty of reasons why hairy people are attractive. However, the real sentiments are in the eye of the beholder.