DD, 12, wants to shave her legs, what age have you let your dds?

[Janus]

Hi, my oldest is 3 months away from being 13. Unfortunately she has my colouring, almost black hair and quite a lot of it! Her legs are very hairy and so we have been 'veeting' for about 9 months as she does various sports in a mixed school. I so remember my Mum not letting me shave or remove hair in any way until I was 15 and I had to bleach them, it was miserable! Veet is a real faff and doesn't remove all hair. But, 12 seems to young too and also its the start of something she'd have to do every 5 days or so.
I have an epilady now and she has tried it but, she's right, it doesn't remove every hair without spending an age at it.
What are your thoughts/experiences?

[DeafLeopard]

I will let 9yo DD do it as soon as she asks as she has my pale skin and dark hair and I was teased mercilessly for being hairy.

My friend is a beautician and she reckons that waxing from a young age inhibits hair growth and that is what she has done with her own DD as soon as her DD wanted to get rid of her hair.

I can't imagine DD coping with the pain, so will probably help her shave her legs as not too keen on chemicals on her skin - having suffered chemical burns on my face from veet in the past

[SauvignonBlanche]

I let DD start at 12, she's lucky though and has very fine blond hairs, she only does it sporadically.

[chickensaladagain]

My 11 year old shaves her legs

She is very fair but very hairy and the girls in her class were being very mean

She uses a Venus razor and hasn't managed to cut herself to shreds yet

It is younger than I anticipated but it's hair, it's not worth the heartache

[ScottyDoc]

Get dd waxed. I was waxed from early teens and do so to this day, it's much much better than shaving. I'm very dark with light olive skin and my hairs show up dreadfully if I ever shave. Waxing lasts a lot longer too. The teasing at school outweighed the pain of it for me :(

[monkeyfacegrace]

I started my periods at 9, shaved legs/pubes/armpits from 10, and started having sex at 13.
12 is plenty old enough to grab a razor. Dont make a biggy out of it, its only shaving.

[roundtheback]

I can't remember what age I started shaving my legs, but it must have been around 12. I did a lot of swimming at that age and am rather gorilla-like in my natural state. But I certainly didn't ask permission from my mother

Surely she is the person placed to know when the hair has become something she would prefer to be without?

[Janus]

I see VEET have the new wax machine thing, so should I try that? I can't get her to a salon once a week to get it done so wonder if I should try home waxing? She has an amazing pain threshold as she could bear my epilady which I could only do when I turned 40 and after 4 children!!

[landrover]

The wax roller machines you can get off ebay (package of machine and accessories etc ) are brilliant! dead easy to use, you can do your legs weekly and cost next to nothing each wax! When i say weekly obviously u just keep on top of it that way! I am a beauty therapist and bought this package for my home use x
By the way Monkey face, hope u don't mind me asking but what on earth was it like having sex at 13? you were still a child! God i was 21 and still didn't feel ready!

[purplewithred]

Let her shave. Why not?

[McPheetStink]

I don't see an issue

Nothing worse than being picked on.

[2kidsintow]

In the summer I do my 8 year old's for her when she asks as she can be quite self conscious about it. She's not got dark hair, but it is quite noticeable.

My 12 year old doesn't do hers yet, but she has started shaving her armpits, so will probably progress to that in the summer if she wishes to - although she isn't self conscious about it at all, despite having much darker hair than her sister.

[Mumofjz]

you wouldn't need to take her to the salon to be waxed every week, more like every two months.

I waxed from an early age (approx 13) and don't really feel a thing now and have very little hair growth now

[BanjoPlayingTiger]

That may not be the case Mumofjz I tried waxing at 13 and needed to do it weekly to stay on top of the hair growth. Some of us really are that hairy!

My 13yo has shown no interest in de-fuzzing her legs as yet. I assume if it were bothering her she would come and talk about it. I would have been quite happy for her to shave from about 11 I think. Though like I say, it hasn't come up here.

[Sparklymommy]

I have a 10 year old who does a lot of dancing. It hasn't been mentioned by her yet but she is in a team of girls in a local variety show and one of them, aged 12, has very noticeable under arm hair. My mother said that once my dd starts gettinf hair there she will need to shave as it does look unsightly when on stage.

I have considered suggesting she have her legs waxed as though the hairs are fair they are plentiful but my mother says thats cruel as it hurts. She is a bit of a chicken!

I think i started shaving my legs at about 11. I certainly didnt ask my mother!

[Janus]

OK, I think I will try with wax first and if too painful or too much hassle it will be shaving. I don't have a problem at all with hair removal, I just wanted to do it the best way as shaving is horrible as you get the horrible stubble which you just don't get with waxing/epilady/veet. So it was the shaving I had a problem with not the hair removal itself, if that makes sense?!
Off to Boots again!!

[AdoraBell]

Sparkly it's only cruel if you force her to do it. Yes it hurts, but tell her that in advance and let her decide. If she feels it's too painfull she'll tell you, then just don't repeat it.

I'm struggling with this right now as DDs are 11, one with dark hair like mine and she wants to shave but her leg hairs are hardly visible. Most of her peers are much darker and hairier than her, so I'm trying to hold off. I feel she's rushing because she feels she's behind all her classmates in terms of development.

I agree about the shaving/stubble issue, but I'm all about chemicals, so I'd be inclined to go for waxing, if DD can put up with the pain/discomfort.

[Flisspaps]

I don't see the difference between letting her use cream to take the hair off or using a razor to take the hair off.

[SofiaAmes]

I had to help my dd do hers when she was 9. She was getting teased too much at school by the boys (I had prepared her for the girl teasing...which ironically never happened, but had not expected the boys to start that early).
Janus, please do not have her wax for her first time. It's terribly painful and I think would be traumatic. Shaving is easy. And when she is a little older she can do laser.

[ZZZenagain]

dd is 12 and I showed her how to shave, she does it when she wants to, both underarms and legs. I would leave off waxing personally until she is older unless shaving leads to ingrown hairs. She usually wears trousers so her legs aren't seen much outside of summer - and summer seems to be getting ever briefer. She rarely shaves actually but sometimes the urge takes her. She seems to manage it fine without cutting herself.

[syl1985]

Don't worry about her age. With some teenagers the hair problems come sooner then others.

I personally would let her do something about the hair.
Because these days people find hair and especially lady's or teenage girls with hairy legs, arms, armpits etc dirty and unhygienic.

When the hair starts to grow I'd tell my child to do something about it. It's like you wash yourself every day and put clean clothes on. If you don't do it it's unhygienic and uncomfortable for yourself and others.

With hair removal there are varies of options to choice from. All with their own + and - points.

SHAVING or a LADYSHAVE:

• easy, cheap and quick.
  
• it's painless.
  

• the hair is not completely removed. The hair just continues to grow and will quickly become visible again, especially when the hair is very dark colored. You'll need to shave about every day or every other day.
  
• the hair that comes back will be thicker and more visible then the one you had before.
  

WAXING:
+ You remove the entire hair. This will take longer to grow back. With a bit of luck you even remove the hair sack. Then the hair won't grow back on that place.
+ In time it'll take longer and longer for your hair to return. Also the hair will become thinner and less visible and you'll have less hair that grows back.
+ the longer you do it, the less painful/uncomfortable it becomes.

• some places on the body can be vary uncomfortable/painful to wax. I do wax myself and my tip on this is:
  

Do it yourself. It's cheaper and when you start with waxing just start with little 1 cm square wax strips and make them bigger when you feel you can handle it. But not to big. If you do that you won't be able to get all the hairs out properly.

• hair shorter then about 5mm won't be removed by using wax.
  
• it feels uncomfortable, but making sure the wax is made from sugar, makes it feel better. Because that sticks to the hair and not the skin. Also when the pain get's to much you can easily removed the sugar wax with water. Other types of wax you can remove with baby oil, but not as easily and quick as the sugar wax.
  
• at the beginning you'll need to do it every couple of days. because you can't remove all hair at once. but the longer you do it, the longer it does take for hair to grow back.
  
• the skin is irritated after you've waxed it. irritation can vary from one hour to 24 hours. as long as it's irritated it's best to keep the skin out of the sunlight.
  

EPILATORS:
+ removing the entire hair without the use of any sticky substance.
+ it only removes a couple of hairs at the same time. this might feel uncomfortable or like getting little electrical shocks. but it's not painful.
+ you can stop at any time.
+ the longer you use it the longer it'll take for hair to grow back. Also the hair that does grow back will be thinner, less visible and less hair will grow back.
+ the longer you do it, the less painful/uncomfortable it becomes.
+ less skin irritation then by waxing.

• they usually don't work on hair from the bikini line.
  
• at the beginning you'll need to do it every couple of days. because you can't remove all hair at once. but the longer you do it, the longer it does take for hair to grow back.
  
• the prices vary from real cheap to very expensive. I've no experience with the expensive type of epilators. They're suppose to be less to almost painless. I thought that Philips does have an offer at this moment. That if you buy their epilator (an expensive one) and it does hurt you then you can send it back and get your money back.
  

LASER TREATMENT: (totally zero experience with this)
+ as far as I know it's a painless treatment that after doing it a couple of times will stop the hair from ever growing back.

• it's expensive and best is it to go to a professional to get the laser treatments.
  
• it can't be done on any skin type.

[syl1985]

Forgot to say that if you start with waxing or using an epilator instead of shaving. The waxing or epilator will be less uncomfortable then when you first used to shave and then switch over to these 2 hair removal options.

It's because if you haven't shaved ever before in your live then the hair isn't as big as when you'd have shaved regularly. This smaller hair is easier removed out of the skin and therefor it's less uncomfortable.

[bigTillyMint]

If she has dark hair and it is very noticeable then I would let her do it. Luckily DD (14 in 4mths) has fine blonde hair and is just about the only one in her group who hasn't yet started)

[Flisspaps]

Some good info from syl there, apart from shaving doesn't make hair grow back thicker.

It removes the tapered tip of the hair, so it grows back blunt but it's only ever as thick as it was in the first place.