Past terror management research has investigated the need for humans to distinguish themselves from their animal counterparts, demonstrating specifically, that this need is driven by the existential motivation to deny death. I will be discussing research that builds upon these findings to address the prevalence of cultural standards of body hair removal and attraction preferences for opposite sex partners with relatively low levels of body hair. The first set of studies utilized the mortality salience hypothesis to demonstrate that reminding someone of their death decreases their attraction toward a hairy, opposite sex individual. The second set examined how the ability to use symbols (i.e., symbolic language) influences perceptions of hairy (as opposed to non-hairy) individuals. For instance, reminders of death increased perceptions that a hairy individual was the author of a poorly-written essay, and that a non-hairy individual was the author of a well-written essay. Implications will be discussed.