Men leave pants buying to wife

Somewhere in your husband's underwear drawer, we're guessing there's a lucky pair of pants... but that's more than likely the only pair they actually bought.

In fact the average man buys their own underpants for just 17 years of their lives, new research has revealed.The peak of underpant buying for men, occurs at the tender age of 23, according to the survey by Debenhams. At this point, super-tight briefs are the popular choice, but by 26 the chaps are moving on to the less revealing boxer short, while the over-33s are already buying Y-fronts.

Rob Faucherand of Debenhams told the Daily Mail: "You can tell when a man is looking for a partner by the number of new underpants they buy.

"If he buys more than 31 pairs every year, he's either still trying desperately to impress the woman in his life – or else she's not The One."

That may prove handy for ladies wishing to test the seriousness of their current relationship.

The research also revealed that, though a man's brief buying declines after the age of 33 due to the onset of the stable relationship, it often picks up again between the ages of 38 and 40, where break ups are common.

But by 44 years of age, your man's pant-buying days are well and truly over as they hand the responsibility to their loving partner.

Mr Faucherand said: "It is odd that even the most macho men delegate the duty of buying new underpants – the garment closest to their masculinity – to women as soon as they can."

We put it down to laziness, but still, as Mr Faucherand says: "This is the one issue that feminism has never addressed. It's not who wears the pants in each household – it's who has to buy them that counts."