Hair removal and a Kindergarten diva?

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  • ishallnotwant
    ishallnotwant Posts: 1,210 Member
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    My daughter (just turned 11) is having the same problem. She is a redhead and has light blonde hair on her legs but there is a lot of it and it is very noticeable. She doesn't like to wear skirts or shorts to school and keeps asking me if she can start shaving her legs. She's still in elementary school (just started 6th grade) and I just don't feel comfortable with it. This may sound prudish, but when I think of a woman shaving her legs, I think of it as something women do to look nice for men, or attractive (sexy) in general, not something young girls do before they go to school in the morning. I'm not really sure when I will let her start shaving but i'm trying to think hard about it and be fair to her. To be honest, I don't really know what she is going through and I want to have compassion through it. She has come home really upset before because the kids at school were making fun of her over it.
  • dmpizza
    dmpizza Posts: 3,321 Member
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    Corners of my family(not me!!!!), have a unibrow issue that is easily fixable with minor regular grooming. Its a small thing and isn't a big deal if you just do it and don't sweat about it.
  • delilah47
    delilah47 Posts: 1,658
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    Normally, I think little girls are pushed into adulthood much too soon, but if your little girl has dark hairy legs and the kids tease her, you should do something. Five is so young, but like someone else said, get her some of those buffer pads. If she thinks it's worth the effort, she can do it herself. Kids are so mean. It's better to have her remove the hair on her legs than have the other kids setting a precedence of teasing and bullying her at so young an age. It could affect her entire school years if the teasing gets started now.
  • BeingAwesome247
    BeingAwesome247 Posts: 1,171 Member
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    I wouldn't let her shave on her own...It'd be me doing it...and yes, I've thought of the fact that fall is just about upon us and we live in the north.

    I was picked on horribly from 2nd to 7th grade...puberty hit me young. Bra's by 3rd grade, shaving was 3rd or 4th and period by 5th. I was 5'4" with a 34/36 C cup bra by the end of 5th grade. I'm only 5'5 now lol I wear the same shoe size I wore when I was 11 hahaha

    Either way, my mom didn't know how to handle any of it; so I took matters into my own hands most the time and I so don't want her doing that.
  • Ruthe8
    Ruthe8 Posts: 423 Member
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    dont do it..its too soon

    I agree- it will make the hair thicker and darker too.
    No, it really won't. That's a myth.
  • JamieAlexandraX
    JamieAlexandraX Posts: 58 Member
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    Like someone has said let her try the buffer pads, i have used these before and they are great.
  • mfoutch86
    mfoutch86 Posts: 87
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    I have a kindergartener. Granted he's a boy, but I can't imagine him or any of his buddies (girl or boy) even looking at the hair on each others legsl. I would agree with too early. You don't want her to end up w/ thick stubbly hair from the shaving by the time she's 6.


    Can we just stop the myth that shaving makes hair thicker/grow faster? That is a silly old wives tale.
  • ccckwalk
    ccckwalk Posts: 262
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    I wouldn't as a mom. I can understand you not wanting her to be made fun of, but it is not the issue of hairy legs or being different but inner confidence and acceptance. I would try to teach her to love herself for her unique qualities, shaving will come soon enough. :) tough choice though...~Good luck one mom to another~Corina
  • tumblyweed
    tumblyweed Posts: 416 Member
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    I don't think it really matters when you start hair removal. It's only self-maintenance. I spoke to the lady who threads my eyebrows and she said that in her culture they start young.

    Shaving, I probably would not do, but a cold wax... why not? I have 2 little girls and left the door open to that in my mind, because they are so darned hairy.

    Telling the other kids not to tease her is one thing but does it do anything for their self-esteem? No. The only thing a child gets at that age is that they are being picked on. And it would be even worse to make a girl who wants to wear dresses to school cover up in pants...odd message (you don't want anyone to see THOSE legs. They aren't really little-girl-dresses material).

    The important thing is that you do not damage her skin.

    With all that being said, I would send her to school for a couple of days to see how it goes. These things sometimes work themselves out on their own as she might come to realise that her hairy little legs are more 'normal' than she thought. That's what happened in the case of my kiddos.

    Hope it works out! :flowerforyou:
  • odusgolp
    odusgolp Posts: 10,477 Member
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    dont do it..its too soon

    I agree- it will make the hair thicker and darker too.


    And a pound of muscle weighs more than a pound of fat *gasp*
  • chubbygirl253
    chubbygirl253 Posts: 1,309 Member
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    once she starts she really can't stop and its too soon. It'll make the hair coarser. don't do it.
  • MB_Positif
    MB_Positif Posts: 8,897 Member
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    I agree that Kindergarten is too young. Someone above mentioned that she didn't think kids this young would even notice hair on each other's legs, but that is actually not true. Kids are starting to pick on each other younger and younger. Last year my son didnt' want to wear his Disneyland shirt to Kindergarten because he said his friends would not think Mickey Mouse was cool. I was like, "You've got to be kidding me! When I was 5 I would have bowed down at your feet knowing you'd been to Disneyland!"

    Regardless, I had these issues myself. People picked on me for it. It sucked and it was annoying, but it gave me thick skin and pretty much anything goes in one ear and out the other now. I think I started using an electric razor when I was 10.
  • nancywood3
    nancywood3 Posts: 1 Member
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    Apparently it's a myth that shaving makes hair grow in darker. Hairs fall out and grow back however they are going to grow back. Also, let's not diminish the agony of teasing. I know one beautiful girl who dropped out of high school because they called her ''hairy arms''. On the other hand, 5 seems awfully young. Can't she just wear long pants? Or sweatpants in gym? That's a real dilemma and you should do whatever you think is right for her.
  • kit8806
    kit8806 Posts: 222 Member
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    My daughter just turned 4 in July and said she needed to shave!!! I told her no, not yet. I said she was too little. She also has noticeable hair on her legs, but I told her if she started now, she would have to keep doing it forever, and mentioned that mommy doesn't like that she has to do it all the time! I told her when she gets a bit older we can talk about it.. she seemed ok with that..
  • Ruthe8
    Ruthe8 Posts: 423 Member
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    once she starts she really can't stop and its too soon. It'll make the hair coarser. don't do it.
    NO. It does not make the hair coarser. That does not even make sense. Stop and think about how hair works. The hair outside your body is dead. How would cutting it off affect anything ever?
  • BeingAwesome247
    BeingAwesome247 Posts: 1,171 Member
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    THank you for all the replies! I don't have many friends with kids so it's nice to get other views on the subject. Will I probably try and push it off for a while, yes.

    Just curious and not sure how to feel about it....I'm a single mom and she's my baby girl...my one and only and has all of mommy's attention. I want her happy but I don't wanna do something to make matters worse
  • samiam321123
    samiam321123 Posts: 38 Member
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    I agree it's too young.
    And the wrong focus at that age.

    I agree with this. Maybe it'll be a passing issue that you can push off for a few years. I don't even remember leg hair being an issue till middle school!
  • mickipedia
    mickipedia Posts: 889 Member
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    I got picked on for having dark hair on my legs as a kid.. I wasn't allowed to shave and now it's stuck with me and I hate it..

    Maybe get her those buffer pads that are a little like sand paper (they're little mitts) and you rub the hair off.. Or maybe hair removal creams.

    She's young but it doesn't stop kids scarring you for life with mean comments.

    Either that or get her to wax.. She'll do it once and change her mind
  • vinsonh42
    vinsonh42 Posts: 125
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    I started shaving very young and my mom taught me to use a razor. Did i cut myself a few times? Yes, but not so badly that i had to be take to the hospital. Maybe try the NO-NO, no razor and the hair won't come back as much after a while.
  • KittieLea
    KittieLea Posts: 1,156 Member
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    Oh my...5 years old? I don't have kids, but my mom let me use Nair when I was about 8 or 9, then I was allowed to use razors when I was in junior high. Hopefully she can hold out for a few more years? Good luck!

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