When do you let your daughters start shaving their legs?

[laundrycrisis]

I grow thick dark hair on my legs. I was made fun of for it and embarrassed by it by age 8. I think I had to wait until I was 11 to start shaving though. I was not trying to be sexy - I just didn't want to be embarrassed or made fun of anymore. If I had a DD I would let her shave as soon as she wanted to and could do it safely and handle the razor with care. IMO it's her body and she has to live in it and if she's embarrassed by dark hair on her legs it's nice that there is an easy way to get rid of it.

[jenn-]

Thank you for this thread. My daughter is 10 and has mentioned her hairy legs on a few occasions. I think I will have a sit down talk about it with her. I was not allowed to shave until I went into high school. Honestly I didn't care what other people thought of me, so teasing never happened in my world. I was a major tomboy growing up, so shaving was just a necessary evil. Even now I only shave once a month during the summer and only before wearing a dress on a date over the winter (so maybe twice all winter). I hope my daughter can be more like me and not have to obsessively shave every day.

[Carrie12345]

I grow thick dark hair on my legs. I was made fun of for it and embarrassed by it by age 8. I think I had to wait until I was 11 to start shaving though. I was not trying to be sexy - I just didn't want to be embarrassed or made fun of anymore. If I had a DD I would let her shave as soon as she wanted to and could do it safely and handle the razor with care. IMO it's her body and she has to live in it and if she's embarrassed by dark hair on her legs it's nice that there is an easy way to get rid of it.

 

I have an 8yo who is dark and pretty hairy and a (soon-to-be) 7yo who is fair, but VERY hairy. I think my 8yo can handle shaving (if she asks), but I have terribly mixed feelings about my 7yo, even though she's the one who "needs" it most.

 

Why, oh why, couldn't they be reversed????

[MamaT]

My 10yo (will by 11 next month) just shaved her legs for the first time this week. It was important to her, and not a big deal to me. :001_smile:

[Haiku]

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Edited June 23, 2010 by TaraTheLiberator

[Nakia]

Thank you all for your answers. For now, Anna doesn't seem interested, so that is fine with me.

[lionfamily1999]

Whenever she wanted to. I think she was about 12. But she is blonde.

I feel kids need some sovereignty over their own bodies and I don't control issues that arent health issues that concern me. So, I don't allow aluminium based anti-perspirant, but I don't control makeup or shaving.

 

ETA: I rarely shave my legs except maybe half a dozen times (max) over the summer months. I dont "believe" in shaving legs. I love it when women don't shave their legs. But I am not going to put that on my daughter. She knows me and my thoughts- that is enough.

Well put.

[Lolly]

I hate hairy pits on men or women...it grosses me out...swimmers turn me on :lol:. I've begged DH to shave his arm pits for years and he just laughs at me. They hold odor and just look plain nasty to me :tongue_smilie:.

 

As for leg hair, I love shaving my legs for me! I love the feel of silky shaven legs on my silky sheets just for me :-). It may be socialized, I agree, but now that it stuck in my head, I do love it! :D

 

I've got to laugh! My kids swim. Yesterday the quote from Coach Jim, "Hair is sexy!" They have entered the point in the season where they are NOT allowed to shave. Swimmers actually do not shave except for during championship meets. This coach has not asked them to go hairy until now. They will not shave until late July.:lol: Then, it all goes; arms, legs, backs. Anything not covered by a suit gets shaved. (Except for eyebrows and girls' faces!)

[Ginevra]

Before passing such harsh judgment, you might want to consider that some people are unwilling to bend to arbitrary societal standards that cause people unnecessary shame and harm (and I am thinking way beyond shaving here) and are neither anti-social nor pathological.

 

Tara, I didn't mean a particular societal standard in isolation. I mean that people, because we are social animals, always do things that are not specifically necessary because it is the societal norm. The only people who do not care at all about following any societal norm are, by definition, anti-social.

 

I'm not saying that abstaining from shaving your legs means *you* are pathological! I'm saying that, in my culture, smooth legs are the norm for women old enough to have obvious hair and so, I willingly bend to the arbitrary societal standard and shave them. I willingly wax outlying bikini hair. I willingly shave pit hair. If I was unwilling to do those things, citing that I will not bend to the social standard of smoothness, that would be fine. However, I would wonder why I eat with a fork or have a hairstyle or make my bed in the morning. There isn't any health or wellness benefit to those things. I do them only because it is normal in my culture and so, hair-removal is the same. :)