How to Shave Your Bum (Yes, Really)

Most men only need a trimmer: trim the cheeks, leave in between alone. When shaving makes sense, how to do it safely, and how to survive the regrowth itch.

By The Jerk Lord · Published 2026-08-04. Read on the main site: https://jerkgel.com/journal/how-to-shave-your-bum.

How to shave your bum, in one paragraph: trim the hair down with a guarded electric trimmer — and for most men, stop there, because trimmed is the correct end state for this area. If you want the cheeks fully smooth, take a warm shower, apply unscented shaving gel, pull the skin taut with your free hand, and shave with the grain in short, light strokes, using a mirror and a stable position so you can actually see the work. The razor stays on the cheeks only; between them is trimmer-with-a-guard territory, full stop. Rinse cool, dry thoroughly, moisturize — and know going in that the regrowth itch a few days later is the part everyone regrets, which is one more argument for the trimmer.

A disclosure before we start, because it explains why this guide will keep telling you to do less: nearly every guide ranking for this topic is published by a company that sells razors or body groomers, which is why "trim it and move on" rarely gets top billing. We sell exactly one product — a water-based personal lubricant — and it plays no role whatsoever in this operation, which is precisely why you can trust us when we say most men should put the razor down. (This guide is the deep-dive on one zone; the full below-the-belt manual is how to shave down there.)

Do you actually need to shave your bum at all?

No — and that's the honest answer, not a disclaimer. Butt hair is universal, functional, and not a hygiene issue; nobody's health improves by removing it. What you have is a comfort-and-preference decision with three options, and the middle one wins for most men:

The reasons to do anything at all are practical and unglamorous: sweat management in summer, chafing on long runs, personal or partner preference, or just wanting to. All valid. But notice what the table says: trimming delivers most of the benefit in every row, works on the whole area instead of half of it, and skips the itch entirely. Shaving earns its place only if "fully smooth cheeks" is specifically the result you're after. If you're undecided, you're a trimmer person.

Why are the cheeks and in between two completely different jobs?

Because the skin is different, the visibility is different, and the risk is different — so the tools have to be different too. This is the single most important thing in this guide:

The cheeks are the easy part: flat, firm skin over muscle that behaves like the back of your thigh. It pulls taut, it takes a razor with the grain, and it forgives normal technique. If you want to shave anything back there, this is the part you shave.

Between the cheeks is a different landscape entirely: thin skin, natural folds, no direct sightline, and no way to pull anything flat. Every property that makes a razor safe on the cheeks is absent here. Blind razor work on thin, folded skin is how emergency-room stories start — and there is no version of explaining that injury at intake that you want to star in. The correct tool is an electric trimmer with a guard, worked slowly by feel, and the correct win condition is "tidy," not "smooth." A guard between the blades and your skin means the worst case is an unremarkable trim instead of a memorable evening.

Hold that split in your head — razor for cheeks if you insist, guarded trimmer for everything between — and the rest of this is just execution.

What tools do you need?

A short list, none of it exotic and none of it brand-specific:

• An electric trimmer with guards — a body groomer is ideal; a beard trimmer you've retired from face duty works. This is the primary tool for the whole job, not the warm-up act.
• A fresh razor — only if you're smoothing the cheeks. Sharp and clean matters far more than blade count; ideally it's a razor reserved for below the belt.
• Unscented shaving gel — cheeks only. Nothing scented, nothing "cooling" — you do not want to field-test menthol back there.
• A handheld mirror — non-negotiable. You are working on the one part of your body you have never directly seen, and guessing is not a technique.
• A clean towel and unscented moisturizer — for afterward, every time.

How do you shave your bum cheeks step by step?

The sequence is trim, shower, gel, taut skin, with the grain — the same fundamentals dermatologists recommend for shaving anywhere, applied at an awkward angle. In order:

1. Trim first, dry, before the shower. Take the hair down to a few millimeters with a guarded trimmer. A razor into full-length hair pulls, clogs, and misbehaves; dry hair trims cleaner and doesn't stick to everything.
2. Warm shower, five to ten minutes. Softens the hair and the skin. The wet-before-blade rule is universal dermatology guidance — the American Academy of Dermatology's shaving tips are the canonical version.
3. Set your position. In the shower, one foot up on the tub edge or a stable half-squat, handheld mirror in the free hand until you've confirmed the terrain. This is a logistics problem, and you solve it like one: stable stance, decent light, no rushing. Positioning is the entire skill gap between this and shaving your face.
4. Gel on, let it sit a minute. Cover everything you intend to shave. Never bare skin, even for a touch-up.
5. Pull taut, shave with the grain. Free hand stretches a section of cheek flat; razor takes short, light strokes in the direction the hair grows — generally downward, but check yours. Rinse the blade every couple of strokes. If you're pressing hard, the blade is dull; change it rather than leaning in.
6. Stop at the crease. The shave ends where the flat surface of the cheek ends. Inside the crease you switch back to the guarded trimmer or you're done — see the section above, and believe it.
7. Rinse cool, pat dry, moisturize. Cool water calms the skin, patting avoids friction on skin you just sensitized, and unscented moisturizer starts the itch-prevention program immediately. Skip the victory passes over already-smooth skin; that's how razor burn happens on skin that was fine.

First time, give it twenty unhurried minutes. Practiced, it's ten.

How do you handle the space between — the trimmer-only zone?

Slowly, by feel, with a guard on, and with modest ambitions. The method: shortest guard you're comfortable with, the same one-foot-up or squat position from the shower, and slow passes guided by your fingers rather than your eyes — the mirror confirms, the hand navigates. The guard does the safety work; your only jobs are to go slow and to not chase perfection in an area no one is inspecting. When it stops snagging and starts gliding, you're done. Afterward, rinse well and — this matters more here than anywhere — dry the area completely. Lingering moisture between the cheeks causes more irritation than the hair ever did.

Why is the regrowth itch so bad, and how do you survive it?

Because shaving cuts hair below skin level, and what grows back is a field of sharp-tipped stubble in the highest-friction environment on your body — skin against skin, plus underwear, plus sitting, which is most of your day. This is the number-one regret of first-time bum shavers, it peaks around days two to four, and no one who writes razor ads mentions it. Here's what actually helps:

• Moisturize daily, starting day one. Unscented lotion, every day of the regrowth window. Half the itch is dry skin; this is the half you can delete.
• Loose cotton underwear for the first several days. Synthetic compression fits are a stubble-friction machine.
• Don't scratch; rinse. A cool rinse calms the itch a scratch would inflame. Scratching freshly shaved skin with fingernails is how irritation becomes broken skin.
• Don't re-shave to "fix" it. Itchy stubble is not a grooming failure, it's physics. Shaving over it restarts the clock and compounds the irritation.
• If bumps appear, stop entirely. Clusters of red or painful bumps mean ingrown hairs or folliculitis — this zone is prime territory for them, courtesy of all that friction. We wrote the full recovery guide: how to get rid of shave bumps. Short version: hands off, warm compresses, no razor until fully clear.
• The permanent fix is upstream. Trim instead of shave and the itch mostly never happens, because the hair is never cut below skin level. Most men who shave this area once and never again cite the itch. Now you know in advance.

How often should you do all this?

Far less often than a razor company would suggest. The honest schedule, by job:

Two rules override the table. Never shave over skin still irritated from the last pass — the schedule serves the skin, not the calendar. And if the maintenance cadence of smooth cheeks sounds like more than you signed up for, that's the table quietly telling you you're a trimmer person after all. The hybrid most men land on: trim on a monthly-ish loop, shave rarely or for specific occasions, and let the space between stay on permanent trim-only status.

What are the most common mistakes?

• Putting a razor between the cheeks. The big one. Trimmer with a guard, always, no exceptions for the ambitious.
• Shaving blind. No mirror, fogged shower, guesswork angles. Get the stance and the mirror sorted before the blade moves.
• Dry shaving a touch-up. Never — this skin punishes it faster than your face does.
• Skipping the trim-first step. Razor into long hair pulls and clogs. Trim, then shave.
• Scented or mentholated products. One sentence of imagination is all this requires.
• Skipping moisturizer and then blaming the razor. The famous itch is half dry skin. Lotion, daily, until regrowth settles.
• Re-shaving itchy stubble. Restarts the worst phase from zero.
• Doing any of this in a hurry. Every mistake above is rushing wearing a costume.

Quick answers

The four questions everyone asks are answered in the FAQ block above — and the summary of the whole guide fits in two lines. Most men: trim everything with a guard, every few weeks, done. The committed few: shave the cheeks with the grain on taut skin, keep the razor out of the middle, moisturize like it's your job, and never shave over skin that's still complaining. Everything else you'd want to know is in the FAQ.