Photo illustration by The New York Times; Getty ImagesPubic hair is back, writes The New York Times Fashion & Style’s Marisa Meltzer. Gwyneth Paltrow, who once said the J Sisters Brazilian wax “changed her life” joked with Ellen that she now “works a Seventies vibe.” Jezebel chimed in “Ha! Retrobush.”

Lady Gaga posed on the cover of the Winter 2013-14 Candy Magazine, leaving no questions about her pubic hair preferences in the Steven Klein images.

Just recently, American Apparel jumped into the conversation when its Lower East Side Manhattan store put pubic hair on its mannequins.

“One of our merchandisers did that display to show off our semitransparent mesh lingerie for Valentine’s Day, and we’re longtime supporters of natural beauty, so we liked it,” said Marsha Brady, creative director for American Apparel, which is based in Los Angeles. “It just seems like everybody’s got it all backward. Pubic hair isn’t a trend, removing it is. It’s like everybody’s suddenly acting like having hair is a new idea.”

The queen of porno chic Carine Reoitfeld teamed up with Steven Klein and always game model Crystal Renn for this visual shocker in Vogue Paris’ May 2010 issue.The image came at a time when I was in Google’s Internet image jail for writing about food porn.

Here is the actual Crystal Renn by Steven Klein image, now filtered.

“We have noticed a massive decrease in requests for Brazilians and high bikinis,” said Angela Jia Kim, the owner of Savor Spa in the West Village told The Times. “Our clients in particular are eco- and health-minded, and the grown look certainly suits a girl who is more au naturel.”

I will add that having some pubic hair is more womanly. After all, we’re not young girls. However, I also understand comedian Jim Norton’s comment that he would be “happier to hear that bell bottoms were making a comeback than pubic hair. It blocks the view of something I love very much.”

Sexy, reliable source Cameron Diaz takes up the topic of pubic hair in her new tome The Body Book. Diaz warns readers against a permanent changem like laser hair removal.

“Grooming one’s lady bits is a matter of personal choice,” Ms. Diaz wrote in an email to The Times. “I simply urge women to consider not doing anything PERMANENT down there. Wax it bald, leave it wild and bushy, shave it into a heart or a landing strip or a birthday cake. Trim it, tease it, dye it like an Easter egg … just bear in mind that trends and preferences change and you should think about keeping your future options open for yourself (and your future lovers).”

I like Beverly Turner’s November article for The Telegraph “Pubic hair is back ladies. The men don’t care and the women can’t be bothered.” The hairless look arose from the porn industry and not as a look to stimulate intimacy and great sex at home. Caitlin Moran points out in her book How To Be A Woman: “Hairlessness is not there for the excitingness. It’s not, disappointingly, there to satisfy a kink…the real reason porn stars wax is because, if you remove all the fur, you can see more when you’re doing penetrative shots. And that’s it. It’s all down to the technical considerations of cinematography.”

Turner writes that over 60 percent of men prefer a more womanly flower. “Only teenage boys with more porn than experience could freely express a preference for a hair-free ninky-nonk without sounding like a paedophile,” the quick-witted mom writes.

And her husband raises an even more relevant observation — one that’s nobody’s business for women in charge of our bodies, super liberated women would say. Yet, his observation is worth noting. “Well, neat is good: it suggests you’ve made an effort. But too little hair is a bit pervy isn’t it? We’ve got daughters. It would be weird if I preferred that look.”

And then the zinger:

He also says that if he was going loco down in Acapulco (we have young children – we talk in code) with a woman for the very first time and she had a well-sculpted Brazilian, it might indicate a large audience of regular admirers. And he wouldn’t like that idea. I let the discussion about judgemental sexual double-standards go. He did ever so well on the pube question.

I vote for a well-manicured look that clearly says: “I am woman!” ~ Anne