Sir, – Kathryn Holmquist ("There's nothing sexy about this hairless era", June 26th) suggests that the quest for hairlessness is a new one.
Far from it. Judaism has recommended shaving of hair for millennia (as Ms Holmquist notes), and Muslims are expected to shave underarm and pubic hair at least once every 40 days. Most of their rules regarding personal habits such as circumcision, eating pork, quick disposal of corpses have a sound basis in public health.
Body hair is not considered to be hygienic, and there has been a considerable decrease in the amount of body lice since the recent wave of hairlessness began.
So let's embrace the practice of body shaving in both sexes, and let's embrace each other in the knowledge that pthirus pubis, the pubic louse, is not party to the embrace. – Yours, etc, SEAN O'SULLIVAN, Crossabeg, Co Wexford.