Dd shaved her upper lip...now what?

[Moxie]

This thread is funny! I'm reminded of DH's Italian grandmother who WOULD NOT let anyone cut a baby's hair before they were a year old. Why? If you cut a baby's hair before they are a year old, their hair will always be thin, of course! :lol::lol::lol:

 

Hair grows from inside your body. Applying a razor to your skin isn't going to change it.

[Amy1k]

It is obvious when a woman shaves. Sorry to say this, but it is one of the ugliest faux pas I have seen in terms of beauty tricks. When the hair starts regrowing, then it looks awful.

 

Remove facial hair in any way except for shaving.

 

Exactly. I've kissed a woman's cheeks who shaved. Not nice at all. Felt like kissing a man.

 

I'm puzzled at why you would feel offended. :confused:

It's only hair - different bodies, different experiences. To each her own. :grouphug:

 

It was a joke. I posted that I shaved my lip and then all these ^^^posts followed. I posted about being offended with a > ;) to indicate that I was joking. Sometimes it's hard to get emotion across on the internet correctly.

[Negin]

It was a joke. I posted that I shaved my lip and then all these ^^^posts followed. I posted about being offended with a > ;) to indicate that I was joking. Sometimes it's hard to get emotion across on the internet correctly.

Okay. Good. Phew. :lol:

[stripe]

Exactly. I've kissed a woman's cheeks who shaved. Not nice at all. Felt like kissing a man.

Maybe that's why she did it! ;)

[Tap]

I think some of the misconceptions about hair may be because of the time frame in which people often experiment with hair removal. Teenagers remove hair and it comes back differently...well, maybe it's NOT the hair removal, but the age at which they removed it and the hormone changes going on at that time.

 

If it was so easy to change hair by cutting it, people would be a lot more hesitant to cut the hair on their heads. (that sentence isn't correct, I think ;) )

 

:iagree: I think people think that their hair stays the same all their life, as what they remember from being a teenager. People often start shaving as a teen due to the change in hair texture and quantity, it doesn't just stop changing the day they decide to shave it off for the first time. I don't color or chemically treat my hair. It has naturally changed in texture/color and quantity over the years, on all parts of my body, not just my face. It is common for women to have major changes in body hair when ever there is a significant hormonal change. That can include going in/out of puberty, high levels of stress, pregnancy, menopause and medical issues.

[Negin]

Maybe that's why she did it! ;)

Okay. You almost made me choke on my water. :smilielol5: :smilielol5: :smilielol5:

[goldberry]

:banghead::banghead::banghead:

 

:banghead::banghead::banghead: right back at ya! ;)

 

You guys are seriously saying that my sister shaved her moustache for a year, and wa-lah! it grew back wiry. She gave it about a year not shaving before she started shaving again. It was still wiry. Maybe she should have waited longer??? It was a TOTAL COINCIDENCE that this coincided with her shaving. Over the course of the year, just due to aging, her moustache would have become wiry all on its own...

 

I shaved my upper leg 3-4 times over ONE SUMMER. The hair grew back funky and has NEVER reverted to its original condition. That too, was coincidence....over the course of ONE SUMMER my hair would have changed all on its own....

 

Sorry, not buyin' it! Good for you, though, if it's never happened to you!:D

[Unicorn.]

So how long does it have to be before she can have it waxed? If I let her get it waxed once or twice, can she then just bleach it if she wants too? She wouldn't come out of her room today, until I finally convinced her that A. no one would notice and nobody knows but her, her twin, and mom and dad

B. As soon as it grows back we can bleach it or wax it.

Poor baby, she is already so self conscious.

 

I didn't realize this thread would cause so much controversy! :lol:

I am one of those who has had hair darken/thicken from shaving and plucking... which is why I was freaking out last night.

[Negin]

So how long does it have to be before she can have it waxed? If I let her get it waxed once or twice, can she then just bleach it if she wants too? She wouldn't come out of her room today, until I finally convinced her that A. no one would notice and nobody knows but her, her twin, and mom and dad

B. As soon as it grows back we can bleach it or wax it.

Poor baby, she is already so self conscious.

I didn't realize this thread would cause so much controversy! :lol:

I am one of those who has had hair darken/thicken from shaving and plucking... which is why I was freaking out last night.

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

Not too long - call a salon and ask, but usually they can wax fairly short hair. Let it grow back or whatever. Then, if it were me, once a month or whatever the salon says, have it waxed at a salon. Makes her feel special. Makes her realize that other women do this. She won't feel weird about it. If she feels self-conscious, have her go at a quiet time. She could bleach it in between treatments. She could bleach it tomorrow. Poor thing. I went through this, but since all of us women in our culture had it, it wasn't 100% embarrassing, only embarrassing amongst the non-hairy Brits and later, Grenadians. All my classmates. That was bad enough. But no one ever knew what I was doing. I was tweezing every. other. day. I wish I never had done that. I wish I'd stuck with waxing and/or bleaching. Hope she feels better soon. :grouphug:

[Tap]

:banghead::banghead::banghead: right back at ya! ;)

 

You guys are seriously saying that my sister shaved her moustache for a year, and wa-lah! it grew back wiry. She gave it about a year not shaving before she started shaving again. It was still wiry. Maybe she should have waited longer??? It was a TOTAL COINCIDENCE that this coincided with her shaving. Over the course of the year, just due to aging, her moustache would have become wiry all on its own...

 

I shaved my upper leg 3-4 times over ONE SUMMER. The hair grew back funky and has NEVER reverted to its original condition. That too, was coincidence....over the course of ONE SUMMER my hair would have changed all on its own....

 

Sorry, not buyin' it! Good for you, though, if it's never happened to you!:D

 

Just discussing the topic, not arguing. :001_smile:

 

 

Why do you think shaving made a difference? (Seriously asking, not trying to sound degrading). If you cut the hair off at the surface of the skin, the follicle and shaft are not touched. The hair continues to just grown out of the shaft like it did before. If someone has very long hair on their head, that is pulling on the shaft and altering the direction of the hair all day, every day. I understand that shaving someones head could make the hair look different, and I can even conceive that the weight of the hair pulling on the follicle could affect the growth of the hair somehow. In my opinion, shaving off 1/4 inch long, fine face/body hair to the level of the skin, isn't going to have these effects.

 

I can't say what happened to you. I obviously don't know. But it doesn't make sense to me scientifically that it would alter the growth.

[Moxie]

How are threading and waxing superior to tweezing? Don't all three methods remove hair at the root?

[Amy1k]

How are threading and waxing superior to tweezing? Don't all three methods remove hair at the root?

 

:agree: I like threading because, as I have aged, my skin has changed and I feel like it is more damaged by the pulling of wax. Threading is like super fast tweezing. Unless the threader is unskilled and then it's exactly like tweezing. ;)

Edited February 20, 2012 by Amy1k

[Amy1k]

Threading is awesome because it seems to create a great eyebrow shape in my experience. Unlike me using tweezers.

 

Waxing also has the potential for burning. My daughter had the tan removed from in between her eyebrows when I took her to get waxed. Her skin was pink for a week and she was terribly embarrassed. When she is threaded, her skin has a bit of a pink rash until the next day, but she has pretty sensitive skin.

[QuirkyKidAcademy]

How are threading and waxing superior to tweezing? Don't all three methods remove hair at the root?

 

That's what I'm wondering. How in the world would the body know which method was used to grip the dead hair - wax, tweezers, thread? All the body knows is that the hair was ripped out by the root.

[Negin]

it doesn't make sense to me scientifically that it would alter the growth.

I think that some things can't be explained scientifically. I was always under the impression that shaving and tweezing would not alter the growth and texture of hair. I believed this from the time I was 11 until I was 27 and got a horrible, horrible wake up call. :glare:

Let's be honest here. The texture of the hair on the legs definitely feel different when shaved as opposed to when waxed.

The texture of my upper lip hairs felt far, far different (not initially, but later on down the line) when tweezed as opposed to electrolysis.

It's just experience. Some things are from experience and are not always based on science.

 

How are threading and waxing superior to tweezing? Don't all three methods remove hair at the root?

Again, my experience. That's all. Threading and waxing never made my hairs coarser and never gave me that 5 o'clock shadow and stubble that tweezing and shaving did. Bear in mind, I tweezed without any problems for 14 years. Time catches up on you. Or at least it did with me. I would hate to have my dd suffer what I went through. She does not shave or tweeze her upper lip hairs. I only share this info with others because of LOTS of experience and because I care. Everyone is free to do what they want. Their bodies, their hair.

 

:agree: I like threading because, as I have aged, my skin has changed and I feel like it is more damaged by the pulling of wax. Threading is like super fast tweezing. Unless the threader is unskilled and then it's exactly like tweezing. ;)

:iagree:

 

Again, to me, the worst things to do to the face are shaving and tweezing, in that order.

[Tap]

I think that some things can't be explained scientifically. I was always under the impression that shaving and tweezing would not alter the growth and texture of hair. I believed this from the time I was 11 until I was 27 and got a horrible, horrible wake up call. :glare:

Let's be honest here. The texture of the hair on the legs definitely feel different when shaved as opposed to when waxed.

The texture of my upper lip hairs felt far, far different (not initially, but later on down the line) when tweezed as opposed to electrolysis.

It's just experience. Some things are from experience and are not always based on science.

 

.................

 

I can understand how waxing and shaving can make the hair feel different, because with waxing you are damaging the follicle, with shaving you are not. Same with electrolysis vs. tweezing. With one you are yanking the hair out, with the other you are using electricity. They are again affecting the follicle/shaft.

 

 

Maybe that is the difference that we are missing in this discussion. Did you go from waxing/electrolysis/threading/tweezing to shaving? That would make sense as to why the hair seemed different after shaving.

 

If a person goes from:

 

unaltered hair (assuming teen age), to 'removed hair at the follicle level' and then to shaving, after the follicle was altered/damaged by prior removal techniques....I can see why the hair would seem very different from the unaltered hair after shaving. I would say it was the inbetween steps that caused the difference though and not the shaving.

[RanchGirl]

OP, you might want to check out the Spring Sprong or R.E.M. Spring for your daughter. I bought the REM at Amazon, best $13 I ever spent! It's like threading but easy to do yourself (and not for the eyebrows, but good for other facial hair). You can go to YouTube and see videos of the Spring Sprong.

[Negin]

Did you go from waxing/electrolysis/threading/tweezing to shaving? That would make sense as to why the hair seemed different after shaving.

For my upper lip, I went from bleaching (age 10 or 11) to

tweezing (age 13) to

electrolysis (age 38-ish).

Tweezing was fine, other than being a pain in the behind (every. other. day!) until I was 27. Then I noticed stubble and a 5 o'clock shadow. I was beyond devastated and freaked. I cursed the day I'd ever met a tweezer. :glare:

[Amy1k]

OP, you might want to check out the Spring Sprong or R.E.M. Spring for your daughter. I bought the REM at Amazon, best $13 I ever spent! It's like threading but easy to do yourself (and not for the eyebrows, but good for other facial hair). You can go to YouTube and see videos of the Spring Sprong.

 

Oh, goodness. I can't believe I'm considering ordering this (for myself).

[Negin]

Oh, goodness. I can't believe I'm considering ordering this (for myself).

I've heard great things about it. I might get dd to try it out. I need to read up on it more.

[Negin]

Oh, this is what a good friend of mine on these boards loves and raves about.

But the REM has better reviews.

[Amy1k]

Remember the Epilady? :laugh: I saved up my money as a teenager for one of those. YIKES. As.If. That's what that Spring Sprong thing reminds me of. I'm tougher now. ;)

[rudyionk]

I just wanted to say, BLESS HER HEART to OP.

 

I can totally relate and I am so sorry for every female that is hairier than the norm, like me and my dd's will be when they mature.

[cdrumm4448]

I love this thread as I've had these conversations for years. When I was a child I read my mother's cosmetology textbook for fun (yes, I'm a geek). Anyway, even in the 60s it stated that what is done to the surface of the hair has no effect on what goes on in the follicle.

 

And, FWIW, I only shave my legs consistently below the knee. The hair on my thighs is blond. I have shaved it on and off throughout my life and it is still blond. Hair changes throughout your life due to many things, but what you do to it at the surface of the skin isn't one of them.

[Negin]

Remember the Epilady? :laugh: I saved up my money as a teenager for one of those. YIKES. As.If. That's what that Spring Sprong thing reminds me of. I'm tougher now. ;)

Yes. I can't inflict pain on myself. The Epilady always intimidates me.

I'd rather someone else wax me or give me electrolysis or threading or whatever. Not I. ;)

[Guest]

:iagree: I think people think that their hair stays the same all their life, as what they remember from being a teenager. People often start shaving as a teen due to the change in hair texture and quantity, it doesn't just stop changing the day they decide to shave it off for the first time. I don't color or chemically treat my hair. It has naturally changed in texture/color and quantity over the years, on all parts of my body, not just my face. It is common for women to have major changes in body hair when ever there is a significant hormonal change. That can include going in/out of puberty, high levels of stress, pregnancy, menopause and medical issues.

 

:iagree: During two of my pregnancies, the hair on my legs virtually did not grow. I ordinarily shave my legs, but it would be weeks and weeks before the hair needed shaving again.

 

When I was a teen, I zealously shaved every imaginable hair from the hips down. (No, not the teA room...) Eventually, though, I realized that it was way too much effort and stopped shaving my thighs. It didn't change anything. The hair on the upper thigh is the same on me now as before the couple of summers I shaved it a billion times.

 

I've also shaved my toes always and forever and there's not a chance that I would refrain.

 

I have had bikini hair waxed for decades now and either it's finally learned that it's unwanted or my hormones don't care about keeping me hairy there anymore, figuring I'm a dried-up, infertile prune by now, so the hair grows back very sparse. I barely need waxing anymore; it's more efficient to just pluck the few strays as they come back.

 

I agree with the posters who are looking at the science element of it. There are men, for example, who could not grow a full beard, no matter what they might do to try. The genetic potential to grow hair is what will make the major difference in whether someone's hair will be coarse/dark/wiry or thin/sparse/light and how that will play out in their lifetime.

 

That said, I am fully versed in being one of the hairier beings on the planet, so if someone advocates waxing over shaving facial hair, I'm down with that, but not because it will grow back "manly." Waxing has been a very good solution for me; I often thought it would be efficient to just lower myself into a gigantic vat of wax and then peel everything off from my mustache to my toes. :tongue_smilie:

[DusksAngel]

That said, I am fully versed in being one of the hairier beings on the planet, so if someone advocates waxing over shaving facial hair, I'm down with that, but not because it will grow back "manly." Waxing has been a very good solution for me; I often thought it would be efficient to just lower myself into a gigantic vat of wax and then peel everything off from my mustache to my toes. :tongue_smilie:

I would love to do this. I hate having dark hair all over the place, and having PCOS on top of it just makes it worse. :tongue_smilie: Darn hormones!

[Moxie]

I would love to do this. I hate having dark hair all over the place, and having PCOS on top of it just makes it worse. :tongue_smilie: Darn hormones!

 

I've always thought that if I ever win the lottery, I'm going to be lasered from my earlobes down!

[tadbhoward]

I love this thread as I've had these conversations for years. When I was a child I read my mother's cosmetology textbook for fun (yes, I'm a geek). Anyway, even in the 60s it stated that what is done to the surface of the hair has no effect on what goes on in the follicle.

 

And, FWIW, I only shave my legs consistently below the knee. The hair on my thighs is blond. I have shaved it on and off throughout my life and it is still blond. Hair changes throughout your life due to many things, but what you do to it at the surface of the skin isn't one of them.

 

 

Interesting conversation. I have to ask, what is the color of your hair below your knee now? I only ask b/c I only shaved above my knee until I was 21. Now the hair above my knee is baby fine and blonde like it was when I started shaving when I was 12 but the hair below my knees is black and stayed course and black for the entire two years I went without shaving. :tongue_smilie:

[LizzyBee]

Ugh! Just Ugh! Tonight I noticed dd's upper lip looked a little dark. I was going to talk to her tomorrow about bleaching it, and didn't say anything to her. Her twin told her to shave it, so she did. Aaaarrrrggghhhh!!

Now what? Is she going to have to have permanent laser hair removal? Will it be ok? Anyone have any btdt info or sympathy to share? I can't believe they were so stupid! They're 13. Help me not to freak out here!

 

:banghead::banghead::banghead:

 

My 15 yo was going to have hers waxed, but chickened out. The stylist told her to shave it, and said that shaving is actually better than waxing as far as preventing the hair from getting darker or thicker.

[AuntieM]

This thread is funny! I'm reminded of DH's Italian grandmother who WOULD NOT let anyone cut a baby's hair before they were a year old. Why? If you cut a baby's hair before they are a year old, their hair will always be thin, of course! :lol::lol::lol:

 

And I find it an interesting contrast that my friend, who married a man from India, wondered if her inlaws would ask her to follow an Indian custom of shaving baby girls bald on the first birthday to ensure thick future growth!

 

Hair grows from inside your body. Applying a razor to your skin isn't going to change it.

 

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

Not too long - call a salon and ask, but usually they can wax fairly short hair. Let it grow back or whatever. Then, if it were me, once a month or whatever the salon says, have it waxed at a salon. Makes her feel special. Makes her realize that other women do this. She won't feel weird about it. If she feels self-conscious, have her go at a quiet time. She could bleach it in between treatments. She could bleach it tomorrow. Poor thing. I went through this, but since all of us women in our culture had it, it wasn't 100% embarrassing, only embarrassing amongst the non-hairy Brits and later, Grenadians. All my classmates. That was bad enough. But no one ever knew what I was doing. I was tweezing every. other. day. I wish I never had done that. I wish I'd stuck with waxing and/or bleaching. Hope she feels better soon. :grouphug:

 

:iagree: Whatever method you decide (hey, why not let your DD do a lot of research on methods?), please do be supportive. I was one of those preteens teased mercilessly for having a mustache. It was incredibly demoralizing.

[Lisbeth]

So, if my husband wants to revive his thinning hair, he should shave it?

 

I'm sorry, but science just doesn't support any of that. It may be something that you have observed, but there's nothing to back it up except for old wives tales. Hair that grows back may appear darker because it has not been lightened by the sun or, over time, it might darken due to age (blondes often darken to brunettes regardless of hair shaving).

 

Agree. It is coincidental, not causal.

[Lisbeth]

How are threading and waxing superior to tweezing? Don't all three methods remove hair at the root?

 

:iagree:

[Home_s_Cool]

I've never had this issue with my upper lip. But dd17 does, she inherited dark hard from her dh side.

 

All of dh's sister has this issue, so I asked them what they have done. Mixed - one shaves, another bleaches.

 

We decided to bleach based on how long between treatments. My sil who shaves said it is more upkeep since the stubble show up quicker. Whereas as with bleaching we probably do it once a month or so.

 

So our choice is more the upkeep discussion. I'm sure if will change over time for our dd - but for now bleaching is fine.

[mom2abcd]

Don't stress. I personally do think shaved hair grows back coarser, but it could be just the initial stage of hair growth that makes it seem that way.

 

I would buy her an epilator. Braun Silk Epilators are good. You can get them at amazon.com or Target.

 

They hurt a bit, but really are MUCH better than shaving and much cheaper than other treatments, many of which hurt just as much (waxing).

 

The dark hair is probably hereditary, but keep an eye out for other symptoms of hormone imbalance. That can be corrected to an extent.

 

Oh, the excitement of teenage daughters!