Ladies? Hair today, gone tomorrow?

[Beekissed]

Got a question for you gals. I've been doing some thinking about the subject of body hair and thought I'd poll the members here to see where they stand.

Do you shave your legs? Underarms? Hoo-hoo?

I read an article about the importance of hoo-hoo hair in the world of hygiene and health and had never really thought about it that way. That article left the door open for more questions of the same about our other body hair.

I came to realize that I don't even know what the hair under my arms really looks like!!! I've kept it shaved since I first got a few wisps of hair there...same with the legs. In other words, I've been shaving my body since I was around 9 or 10 years old. 36 years of shaving!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And for what??? So that I can look like some Hollywood ideal of a woman? So that I can remain prepubescent for a life time? Where does it all end?

I love the way the smoothness feels of my legs but how do I know I won't like the way my legs feel with a full leg(?) of hair? Will I even have hairy legs if I let it grow? Same with the underpits. How will I know if I never try it...so here goes.

For the past several years I've been transitioning into what I should have been all along, IMO. I've stopped coloring my hair~and I LOVE the way it looks! I've really minimized make-up and hope to phase it out altogether some day when I lose all my insecurities. Now, I'm considering letting my body hair grow and see how it feels to be as natural as I am supposed to be. Is this when most people start saying, "Boy, she really let herself go!" , while shaking their heads? Letting go seems so freeing somehow.

Why is it that Americans are so snide about European women and how natural they are about this? What is wrong with us that we think that shaving our entire bodies is a good thing and not shaving is a bad thing? I don't know...I've been shaven for most of my life and I have had those same attitudes towards women who didn't "groom" properly. So sad to wake up one day and get a different view and realize how wrong I've been...but also very liberating.

I'm about to find out what it's like to be natural, just as God intended me to be. Anyone care to give me the heads up on your experience in this matter?

 

[Denim Deb]

Normally, I shave my arm pits, and if I'm going to be in public, below the knees. In the winter, I don't normally shave my legs.

I started shaving my legs when I was 12. I had chipped my knee cap, and had a cast that covered my whole leg. When I got the cast off, I couldn't STAND how my leg look, so I shaved that leg. So then of course, the other leg looked funny, so I had to shave the other leg. But, I hate to shave. I've tried various products w/no luck to keep the hair off, but for the most part, I don't want to be bothered.

As for makeup, I stopped wearing it years ago. And, I've never dyed my hair. My last perm was way B4 my daughter was born. I found all of that to be just too much trouble and decided if people couldn't accept me for who I was, that was their problem, not mine.

 

[Beekissed]

That's the realization I am coming to...who in the world am I trying to impress? Satisfy? Mollify? At this point in my life I am just too...I guess I would call it realistic...to fool with subterfuge any longer.

I like my gray hair. I like my voice just the way it is. I like what I've accomplished and who I am, though things can always improve in that area. But shaving? Where does that figure into the broad scheme of life? Costs money and effort...I don't mind the effort, but it has started feeling a little silly to me.

 

[moolie]

Ditto what Deb said here...

Normally, I shave my arm pits, and if I'm going to be in public, below the knees. In the winter, I don't normally shave my legs...

As for makeup, I stopped wearing it years ago. And, I've never dyed my hair...

Never permed my hair either. Allergic/sensitive to makeup and I'm sure hair dye etc. as well. Didn't start shaving anything till about age 16, my girls seldom shave now at 15 and 16 (pits only if they need to get into a bathing suit, legs pretty much never--baby fine blond hair so far).

Bit of an "au naturel" girl here, pretty much never even put on a bra unless I'm wearing something nicer than a t-shirt and jeans or the skirt I wear around the house--daughters are heading down the same path

 

[Wannabefree]

I just tried sugaring and love it for the legs. I still shave under arm and will continue, just cuz that'd hurt like mad to rip out

ETA: I already never dyed my hair, rarely wear makeup, and rarely even cut my hair. I usually cut it when I have enough to donate to Locks of Love, then repeat the process, grow for a couple years, cut, donate, regrow...

 

[Snowhunter]

I shave my underarms when I intend to go out in public.. or they drive me crazy (usually at least once a week, sometimes twice). I've never let the hair grow long enough to get past the itchy stubble phase, the longest being 5 days.

My legs? Almost never (Except for anniversaries ) The worst, for me, with longer leg hair, was having it get pulled when I put on socks. If I'm going out in shorts, I'm probably severely ill I will usually take the clippers and trim down to every few weeks, just because I prefer it that way to long.

The other is sans, and I personally feel cleaner that way.

Now I usually keep my eyebrows shaped, via at home tweezing (pluck OUCH, pluck OUCH, pluck OWIE!!) but I'd have some very bushy unibrow going on, if I didn't, and I just prefer how they look nicely shaped.

I have colored my hair a good bit in the past, but its been quite awhile. I don't like what it does to my hair. BUT! I get a bit bored w/the color, so sometimes I change it up a bit. Its hair, it'll grow out eventually. I just do it to suit me. Its been blonde, black, red, and even pink (cept that was an accident) but it still never does what I want it to, even 3 yrs after my last coloring.

 

[FarmerChick]

you don't have to put down the ways of others to DO WHAT you want to do.

It is all about how you follow the 'worlds 'kinda' views' or make your own rules how you wish to live. It doesn't matter as long as you can accept your ways and be happy with those decisions.

I shave it all, I wear makeup, I color my hair and have it done professionally, I wear nice clothes and I intend every single day to keep up with it BECAUSE it is WHAT I LIKE to do. How it makes me feel. I enjoy looking put together and up to date.

Bee, you can grow out whatever you want. If someone looks at you and says, she let herself go, and you don't hear it, then eh. If you hear it, you can respond or shrug it off because you are comfortable with your decision.


everyone can do whatever they want. it is how you deal with others remarks will make or break ya.



Moolie you had me cracking up on the bra. Mine is off when at home, the minute I walk into the door. If I have to go out, back on it goes. I hate bras. With the high heat in summer they just feel like misery. I bought some sports bras and they are way better but they seem to smoosh down the boobies, don't like that

 

[moolie]

Bee, you can grow out whatever you want. If someone looks at you and says, she let herself go, and you don't hear it, then eh. If you hear it, you can respond or shrug it off because you are comfortable with your decision.

This. Totally this.

Moolie you had me cracking up on the bra. Mine is off when at home, the minute I walk into the door. If I have to go out, back on it goes. I hate bras. With the high heat in summer they just feel like misery. I bought some sports bras and they are way better but they seem to smoosh down the boobies, don't like that

It's amazing to me how many people say the same thing to me when I confess my hatred of the brassiere. It's actually healthier to go without, except when say exercising or whatever, times when you need the support or it's painful. I do have some very nice lingerie that I've collected over the years--expensive stuff, I'm a weird bra size so I have to buy my bras at a specialty shop and I make sure they are really nice, I just don't wear them often!

Interesting comments about the eyebrows etc., I have fairly thick eyebrows but I've been told many times that they have nice shape so it's probably just as well that I've never tweezed them or tried to shape them. I'm not a girly girl, but I do like to have my hair cut a couple of times a year at a nice salon just for the pampering experience--the head massage when they wash my hair, the "I can just sit here and read my magazine and not have to have a conversation with a total stranger" ambience etc.

But yeah, I only shave what I have to when I have to, and I'm lucky in that regard that I'm not a very hairy person

 

[Beekissed]

You oughta heard the flack I caught when I let my hair go grey naturally.... I caught it from the people with whom I worked, from my sisters, and from my kids(in a joking manner...later they said they preferred it this way!).

My sisters didn't like it because I am the youngest....if I am grey and they obviously are not, this could tell people they color their hair. Really? Like everyone thinks red heads just stay red far into their fifties and beyond?

Then something miraculous happened....the one that made fun of me decided grey ain't so bad. Then another went grey...not because of me, I'm sure, but sort of a natural conclusion that age catches us all.

I'm all for gals doing what makes them feel the best about themselves, to a certain degree~don't hold much with excessive plastic surgery and such~because everyone needs to feel good. Up until now it made me feel good to be smooth. Now, I wonder what it feels like to not be so smooth...but maybe still soft after the stubble grows out?

After I stopped coloring the grey and even let the lengths in my hair grow out a little more, I wonder why in the world I hadn't done this all along? Maybe I'll feel that way after I let this other hair grow out and I'll be doing this to myself for doing this for so very long.

 

[ORChick]

I guess I'm lucky in the shaving department. First of all my ancestors all came from Northern Europe, so I have fair skin and fair hair. And then I married a Continental European (the Brits have similar thoughts on shaving as Americans; the Continentals not so much). I used to shave my legs and arm pits, when I was in high school, and hated it. But living in Europe, and with a European, I kind of slacked off; he didn't care one way or the other, so any hair removal was for my own comfort. Now, in winter, I usually wear pants, so I don't bother with the legs. And I've reached an age where I don't feel comfortable wearing sleeveless blouses, so I don't really bother with the pits either. If I know my legs will be visible to others I will borrow DH's beard trimmer, and run it over my legs - no nicks, and my hair is fine enough that the tiny bit of stubble isn't obvious. I did buy a new razor just the other day for the underarms, for my own comfort; It was getting a bit much. (I hid the last one away "safely", and have no clue where ). The price for the razor and blades was atrocious! I will definitely take good care of these.
I somehow missed that window in my early teens where everyone was experimenting with makeup. Every once in awhile I feel that, now that I am a "grown up", I should start to look the part. But lipstick just looks fake to me, and my eyesight isn't good enough anymore to chance putting on mascara. So, since I haven't been in the habit for the last 45 years I can't see any overwhelming reason to change now. As someone (moolie?) said on another thread, not wearing makeup seems to have minimized damage to my skin (though good genes no doubt also help) - I just turned 60, but don't, I am told, look it.
I used to do a henna rinse to brighten up my red hair; didn't change the color, just made it brighter. Useful during the gray days of winter. Now I find that henna does nasty things to the graying bits of my hair, so I don't do that anymore. Every once in awhile I am tempted to put my original red back, but then I see someone - my age or older - who has done just that, and I change my mind again. Somehow, to me, a 60+ year old with dyed red hair is a ridiculous sight, though brunette or even blond doesn't give me that feeling. I don't have too much gray, but <sigh> I can't truthfully say that I am a redhead anymore.