to ask at what age did you allow your DD to

[slightlyunbalanced]

shave her legs?

My DD is 11 nearly 12 (youngest in her year) and she is about the only one who doesn't, her legs are really hairy (although she is blonde) and she says she feels conscious when she wears a skirt and bare legs.

I can't see any harm in letting her (with removal cream?).

AIBU?

The fashion for secondary school girls these days around here is for pumps and black tights in winter and pumps with flesh tights or bare legs in summer. DD has told me she might try short socks but a lot depends on what all the other girls are wearing.
Hair removal is not a vital life skill in my eyes but I have to accept that socially and culturally it is expected and a young girl feels that pressure more than I would. I will be encouraging her to question it. I shave my legs and armpits as they are on show in the summer but don't bother in the winter or indeed anywhere else on my body as I don't think it's necessary.

I might try TheVisitor am scaredy cat though, this one was recommended by three people, I must have an super delicate fanjo!

Oh ffs - we mean teaching your daughter about waxing is important in context. It doesn't exclude anything else! It's in the context of personal care. And for girls who come from hirsute families the method of depilation is one which will carry significant consequences throughout their lives. Shaving my legs and thighs so early left me uncomfortable for years, made doing anything spontaneous practically impossible and crushed my self-confidence. If I'd waxed from the start I have no doubt things would have been much easier. I mean legs are half your body! Always there! And having hairy legs out in public is one of the last societal taboos in terms of physicality. So for some of us it is a big deal. It doesn't mean we are obsessed with it to the point of not teaching them anything else! Like 'I think waxing would be a good thing to discuss with my daughter to the exclusion of providing a moral framework'...yeah right... .

i remember when i was about 13 and my sis must have been 12 our mum bought us each a silky mit - like mild sandpaper for legs to give them a buff and make them soft without shaving. i think it was a mild exfoliator or something.
we used to sit there for an hour rubbing our legs with this thing to make them soft. i think it did wear the hairs down eventually which was the desired effect as we didn't like our hairy legs.

i started shaving my legs properly age about 14 i think as i started to get embarassed at PE with hairy legs. and also even with tights on, the hairs used to go through the tights!

I had v hairy legs, my mother was so unhairy she just had to pluck the odd hair on her legs now and again, I hated it, did not really know about waxing as an optio - early 80s small town up north- and never wore shorts or short skirts cos of it, discovered waxing and then epilady in late 20s - never looked bakc. I have 2 DDs who are 5 and 6 and as soon as they want to I will be helping and advising on depilation. Like it or not, this is the culture we live in and I don't see why we should make them walk around with hairy legs if they do not want to