The most interesting part about Underwear is the point where it stops being a necessary, everyday piece of apparel, and becomes a conscious fashion choice. From there it becomes a surprisingly outward expression of yourself, despite the fact that we keep it (for majority of time at least) fairly concealed. But how far does that logic go? We can all agree that the men who feel comfortable and confident in the more risqué underwear choices, such as thongs or g-strings , may well be different personality-wise to those who stick to the store-variety boxers or briefs, but what about the more subtle underwear habits? What does a man’s underwear tell you about him when you examine the habitual aspects surrounding the way he wears them?

Underwear maker Tommy John recently decided to try and answer this very question by running a survey of men asking about their undies and the way they treat them. The results, which were summarized in this AOL UK article , list some surprising tendencies in men’s long term underwear habits – all of which we’ve relisted below with our own reactions and counter facts.

Not buying new underwear suggests a fear of change – This more or less makes sense. We all get attached to one, if not all our pairs of underwear, but when a majority of men (75% in fact) take two to five years to switch to a new pair, it definitely can say a lot in terms of how comfortable one gets in a secure situation. You could compare it to the time you spend in a job…in fact the survey results even showed that 10% of men would keep their underwear twice as long as they would stay in their current place of work.

Most men have ‘lucky underwear’, but does that make them superstitious? – Having a pair of underwear made of a cotton and luck blend is the secret fad that’s never gone out of style. Apparently it’s more widespread that we would have thought; 90% of men have their own pair of lucky underwear, whilst a further 40% say they wear them specifically for nerve-wracking occasions (we would imagine a date night, job interview etc.). This is where we would like to have seen further questioning since its one fascinating subject. What makes a pair ‘lucky’ for different men? Is it just how good the underwear looks/feels on the wearer, or does sentimentality play a part? And do ANY men these days really think underwear brings good luck, or is it a question of confidence?

Does someone else buy your underwear? You may lack control elsewhere – Self-explanatory and hard to deny, we’re sure many men would baulk at the fact that 25% of those surveyed by Tommy John let someone else pick their underwear for them (beyond the odd sexy pair that their partner may want them to try). Whilst these include the expected matriarchal figures like mother-in-laws, we can only imagine what stranger secret underwear buyers are out there, and what kind of choices they make (here’s a hint, apparently 1/3 of these third-person-underwear purchases are superhero undies. Marvelous…)