Before we get into this article, I just want to say that I don’t feel like anyone should feel pressured to groom their body hair in any particular way. While I choose to have my pubic hair clipped short a lot of the time, that’s very much a personal choice I make, and I don’t want this review to make anyone feel they have to shave their hair. You have the right to choose what to do with your body hair, and nobody should shame you for your choices.
This review is two firsts for me- it’s my first time working with Betty’s Toy Box for a review, and it’s my first time reviewing a grooming product! The Coochy After Shave Protection Mist is available for $11.99 from Betty’s Toy Box, and its name is pretty much self explanatory. Like aftershave products intended for the face, the Coochy After Shave aims to prevent irritation, sooth skin, and prevent ingrown hairs.
While I don’t shave my pubes off completely, I do like to keep them clipped short. I know that surprises a lot of people, especially those I know in real life who’ve seen how much I love the rest of my body hair, but I actually find keeping my pubic hair short helps me with dysphoria. If I have a full bush, it’s much easier for my clit/dick to become hidden in hair, which (to me) emphasises the fact I have a vulva, and triggers my dysphoria. On the flip side, if I have very little hair around my vulva itself my genitals look way more like just a (admittedly small) standard issue penis, with my labia resembling a scrotum. I don’t shave or clip all my pubes- not least because I have so much leg, butt, and stomach hair I genuinely don’t know where my pubes begin and end- but having at least the hair on my labia clipped short really helps with my dysphoria.
The downside of this is I do tend to get quite a few ingrown hairs each time I groom my pubes, which gets super irritating. I was super interested to see the extent to which the Coochy After Shave could prevent these, so set up an experiment. I did some grooming without using the Coochy After Shave, so I had a good idea of a baseline to compare the spray to. Then, after 3 weeks of regrowth (which is about the time I take between grooming sessions, because I’m lazy and forget to do it a lot of the time) I groomed again, this time using the Coochy After Shave.
On my baseline shave, I got a few ingrown hairs and red itchy patches. I don’t tend to get super intense or bad irritation, but it is a little noticeable for a little while directly after shaving. I haven’t used conventional aftershaves because- while I know some people use conventional aftershave after pube shaving- pretty much all the people I’ve heard say that have penises, and vulvas tend to be a lot more sensitive, so I haven’t wanted to risk using them.
When applying the Coochy After Shave after grooming, I didn’t find myself getting irritated or stung by the mist, which is definitely a point in its favour. And I did find that I developed fewer ingrown hairs and experienced less irritation in the days following my grooming session. I tend to find that my packing underwear has the most issue with irritation following shaving, but I was able to wear it with no irritation.
The scent of the Coochy After Shave is… difficult to describe. The bottle describes it as ‘botanical blast’, and I think ‘botanical’ is the best way to describe it. It’s herb-y without being earthy, it isn’t super flowery and doesn’t feel like a stereotypically ‘feminine’ scent[ref]Yes, I know gender roles are fake, and I actually quite wearing more feminine scents in perfume some of the time, but I know this is something others care about[/ref]. The best way I can think to describe it is that it reminds me of herbal soaps sold in English Heritage historical house gift shops, although not quite as grandma-esque as that makes it sound. I’d definitely prefer an unscented spray- especially against my genitals- but the scent here is at least pleasant and relatively unobtrusive.
You can use the Coochy After Shave as an aftershave for parts of the body other than your genitals. I initially planned to use social isolation as an excuse to not shave my facial hair for a while and see how it grew if left alone, and then promptly had a panic shave when I realised how neckbeard-y my facial hair actually was. I’d run out of my normal aftershave, so in a pinch decided to use the Coochy After Shave, and it was actually super effective! I normally get at least a few ingrown hairs after shaving any bit of my facial hair off, and the fact I didn’t after using the Coochy After Shave impressed me. While my pubes and facial hair are the only bits of body hair I personally like to groom[ref]Aside from occasionally cutting my armpit hair with scissors when it becomes too much of a jungle[/ref], you could use the Coochy After Shave on pretty much any body part after shaving if you wanted to.
Obviously, the Coochy After Shave Protection Mist will only be useful for you if you’re the kind of person who likes to groom your body and/or facial hair, although I would say its usefulness isn’t limited to pubic hair. If you’re very sensitive to scents, the botanical notes might be too much for you- and I’d suggest checking out Coochy’s unscented products instead- but personally I find them not too noticeable. I’ve found it to be genuinely effective at preventing ingrown hairs, and while it’s not the kind of product I would have bought myself, I’ll almost certainly buy myself a replacement when this bottle runs out- that ‘almost’ being removed if Coochy release an unscented version.
Buy the Coochy After Shave Protection Mist from Betty’s Toy Box for $11.99
This product was sent to me by Betty’s Toy Box, in return for a fair and impartial review. Affiliate links were used in this post.
