Cultural and social attitudes
The attitudes towards chest hair vary between different cultures and times. In some cultures, it is a symbol for virility and masculinity; other societies display a hairless body as a sign of youthfulness. Some people find men with a lot of chest hair, pattern four, very sexually arousing. In ancient Greece and ancient Rome male statues did not show any chest hair. Even on paintings and sculptures from Middle Ages to modern times men were often portrayed without any hair on their anterior torso.
In the early Twentieth Century, attitudes toward hair on the chest was largely negative in Hollywood and in advertising. Perceiving chest hair as overtly sexual, leading men were expected to either have hairless chests or shave. Although the general public were somewhat indifferent at the time, the 1970s and 80s ushered in a trend toward admiration of the verile man and his hairy chest (e.g., Burt Reynolds, Tom Selleck, Alec Baldwin, etc.). The trend ended, however, with the late Twentieth Century trend within Western societies to once again remove chest hair. Some young men in their teens and twenties, especially in the United States and those involved in beach culture, now remove their chest hair, and it is quite common for actors, who will appear shirtless in a movie or television show, to shave their chests. The removal of body hair (depilation and epilation) by men was labelled by the personal hygiene industry as manscaping. This public trend, distributed by the media, began in the United States and spread to other Western societies. Many companies catered to men looking for ways to remove their chest hair, such as Nair for Men and Nads for Men.
While most men depicted in fashion advertising still have no chest hair, a few exceptions can now be seen, suggesting that the trend may be reversing itself once again.
Bucking the larger trend, a positive acceptance of body hair could be found amongst adherents of naturism as well as the bear community, the latter a gay subculture whose members tend to exhibit stereotypically masculine gender traits. Removing or maintaining chest hair ultimately depends on one's individual preference, which can be influenced by what is considered most attractive.