This question about undershirts for men with a hairy chest is timely because it also touches on the manscaping (trimming/removing body hair) topic.
Coincidentally, just yesterday I also replied to a woman reader’s question about shaving underarm hair to potentially minimize staining the underarm area of a shirt.
Ray’s Question about Wearing the Right Undershirt for Hairy Chest
Hi Tug,
I spent a bunch of time on your site searching for articles RE: chest hair, but I couldn’t find much.
I have chest hair that goes up my neck pretty high. It goes up to two or three finger widths underneath my adam’s apple.
To cover up this chest hair, I’ve worn crewneck undershirts all my life.
I’ve worn them under polos, t-shirts, buttoned dress shirts, unbuttoned dress shirts, and in any season.
Since the chest hair goes up so high, my undershirt for hairy chest needs to have a high collar to cover the chest hair.
This means my undershirts are always visible.
People tell me it’s unstylish to have a visible undershirt, and it’s really starting to bother me now.
What do you recommend I do in this situation?
Is my only option to remove the chest hair by shaving/wax/laser?
Thank you!
Example of a Hairy Chest
So What Should Ray Do About His Chest Hair?
Hey Ray,
Thanks for stopping by my site and for sending in your question!
Here are two thoughts about solving your undershirt for hairy chest problem:
#1 – Visible Crew Neck Collar
No matter what anyone says, it’s totally fine to have your undershirt collar show if you’re using an undershirt to cover high chest hair or a tattoo.
If you continue wearing high collar undershirts to cover up, you might want to consider doing a little color matching.
Alternatively, try wearing variations of undershirts for hairy chests that have a complementary color to what outer shirt you’re wearing.
If you don’t, then I’d definitely recommend wearing a v-neck undershirt over a crew neck. I think it looks a little more stylish when your undershirt collar is not showing.
#2 – Manscaping is OK
There’s nothing wrong with trimming, shaving, waxing, or nairing your chest hair either. Lots of guys do it.
Personally, I trim mine using my beard trimmer. I prefer how it looks and feels over not doing it.
My recommendation would be to start by trimming your hair rather than wearing a high-neck undershirt for hairy chest. See how it looks to you, then make a decision from there.
You may decide it’s not for you. Then, you’ll go back to wearing crew neck undershirts.
You may, however, decide that you prefer it and possibly try an even cleaner look with waxing/nairing.
You could also try a little combo of waxing/nairing your higher chest hair and trimming the rest.
Take a look at this article as well:
The V-Neck is the New Crew Neck
Toward the bottom of that article, there’s a great video my friend Antonio of real men real style did a little under a year ago. It talks about wearing crew neck and v-neck undershirts for hairy chest.
He also mentions a little bit about chest hair that I think you’ll find pretty interesting.
Hope the info helps you out! Let me know what you wind up doing/trying so I can share your progress with my readers!
Update to the Hairy Chest Undershirt Problem
Ray’s gonna try a little trimming and see what he thinks!
Here’s another article about Wearing Undershirts at Work that also touches on the chest hair trimming topic.
This article has been updated, re-written, and republished. The original comments below have been maintained for historical purposes.
#3 Option (should be #1, best answer): Skip the undershirt. Men have body hair. Own it, bud!
What brands of wifebeaters cover the most chest? Any ideas?
that’s a tough one jose. gotta say that most tank tops i’ve seen cover about the same amount of chest hair. there are some that cover a bit more, but then again, the big “u” collar shape is not designed to cover chest hair.
seeing you like tanks, but want chest coverage, have you thought about wearing a “muscle shirt” instead? it’s a crew neck undershirt, without sleeves.
I wasn’t looking for the wifebeater to cover chest hair. I know from owning didn’t brands that some are higher in front. I was wondering if anyone out there knew of any brands that are higher in front, some I might have missed. I wear a wifebeater everyday as a base.
thanks for the clarification jose. hopefully someone can chime in here and provide some recommendations for you. all my tanks are a little deeper “u” shaped.
uh, but have you looked at square-cut tank tops, or possibly the tanks from ceceba north america? i think either one of those will be higher cut than many of the other traditional ribbed tank tops.
hey jose, another reader just pointed me to this italian brand of undershirts called intimissimi. i checked their uk website, and noticed some tanks that appear to have a higher neck-line.
might not be cost effective for someone based in the u.s. to purchase from the uk website, but i thought it might offer you a little idea of some higher-collar tank tops.