AIBU to think that it very sad that young girls

[fartattack]

nowadays seem to believe that all hair on their bodies must be waxed off entirely.

I know some people say they prefer it but IME young girls ALL seem to think it's normal to be totally hair free. WHY??

AIBU to think this is terribly sad that they are put under this pressure to wax it all off all the time.

Oh and so we can even it up.
Dh trims his pubs, he hates loads of hair. Plucks, the very few chest hairs he has and trims his under arms because he feels sweaty when he doesn't.
My dad shaves his pits in summer, dbro trims them short in hot weather.

I suspect dh trims to make 'it' look bigger.

' It's a culturally expectation. If everyone around you talks about female body hair with disgust, as dirty or unnatural. If ALL famous women clearly have no body hair, hair removal ads are everywhere taking about feeling confident. All this adds up to an intense pressure that to fit in, to be clean and normal you must depilate.'
That's what I said earlier. Twas pages ago though

Has anyone linked to this article in The Independent yet?

A quote from above link,

"Emily Gibson, a family physician and head of a student health centre, called for an end to the ?war on pubic hair? claiming it is increasing the risk of infection and of sexually transmitted diseases amongst young people."

I always thought the famous people thing was due to the camera's up their hoofs whenever they got out of the car.

Not to be flippant but if you're surrounded by people telling you pubes are dirty or unnatural you're hanging around with a bunch of idiots and perhaps they aren't the best judge of society or culture. See the dick who flipped the poster upside down then made a comment. If someone revealed my pants in public I'd feel assaulted.

I'll be honest here, I do wax for personal reasons. I do a load of sport, I sweat a lot, I tend to wax so it doesn't cling to my pubes and wear a tena to absorb the sweat (and the wee when I overwork myself which I also worry about clinging to my hair while I work out) which I can change half way through. I do a contact sport where it is not unusual for someones head to end up between your legs so I do think I am a minority with that problem and do not think pubic hair is dirty.

I can see where it says her opinion but not any studies to back that up...

I sent the link to this thread to my friend who is a doctor she laughed.

Any personal grooming takes time. Time that is consequently not available for doing anything else. Things that might be fun or enrich someone or healthy or an act of kindness to someone else..... I agree with the OP. Maybe hair removal is just a fashion, maybe not: either way it's usually done in addition to other grooming, not instead of it.

AGilchrist

What is the relevance of mentioning your friend being a doctor? Are you referring to the link or this thread?

"usually done in addition to other grooming, not instead of it."

Not sure if that was in reference to me and the sports thing or not. I do shower before and after. But 3 hours of grappling on the floor with periods of standing waiting for your next turn does mean sweating, sweat drying as the body cools and repeating. Obviously fresh sweat doesn't smell but stale sweat does and I just wanted to give it as little as possible to cling to. I go out half time to change my pad. I don't just do that instead of washing.

If that wasn't in reference to me, then I'm sorry!

I'm not personally told that but people talk in front of others about female body hair. It's very much unquestioned. It is talked about if someone has hairy armpits or legs. Not just (some) of my friends but people at school, college, uni, work etc.
If you look at celebs on stage outfits for example it is very obvious they don't have any pubes. And none have leg or armpit hair, if they do it is thought of as thoroughly shocking eg Julia Roberts and pixie Lott

All famous people do not get rid of their pubes leg and underarm hair. How would you know anyway?

Only on MN do people care about other peoples pubes.

Sometimes I have a full bush usually more in winter, sometimes im all bare. I love the feeling of fresh clean sheets and hairfree all over when getting into them.

Sometimes I grow my bush and think about dreadlocking them.

Also the more you shave or pluck any hair from anywhere the more it will come back, that is a fact not a urban myth.

I don't care what young teenagers do with their pubes.

Yes it is an urban myth. Show me any evidence? Shaving is the same as cutting just very short. So why doesn't head hair get crazy wiry?
Unless a celebrity never wears dresses, skirts or short sleeves then You can see that they remove hair!
I only care because I think it is wrong that girls should have to change their bodies (often in painful ways) to fit in, been seen as acceptable. There should be freedom to have your body hair however you like it but there's not when teen girls are bullied for having hairy legs.

Well I haven't took before and after pictures to show you, but its obvious to me. I would say everyone I know agrees once you start you cannot stop because its thicker and darker.

Not all famous people wear body exposing clothes. Or they might wear opaque tights once again how would you personally know?

Yes you should be able to have your body hair however you like, that includes shaved and waxed without being told you shouldn't!

Its not painful to shave your legs.

There's an awful lot of bias towards the feelings of young girls here

As has been pointed out earlier...boys also shave their pubic hair, chest hair and back hair.

The 'mono brow' is also generally a no no and the cause of teasing.

Let young people do what they want with their own bodies without judging them or being overly worried about why they choose to remove it (if indeed they do)

I agree that peer pressure can be an awful thing but it's certainly not limited to body hair.

Parents can put just as much pressure on their teens to see things their way, as peers can...and that can be just as bad.

"Do I remove my own personal hair because I want to, or will my Mum be tutting and throwing me a disappointed look because it wasn't like that in her day?"

I don't think it's just peers who need to back off and stop piling pressure on.

Removing hair does not make it grow back thicker, darker, faster or more of it. Plucking can damage the hair follicle over time which may stop hair growing back

Nor does shaving, it just looks that way when it is growing back

Shaved hair just looks like it grows back thicker and darker because it has a blunt cut edge instead of a fine point. The root doesn't "know" that the top of the hair has been shaved off, so it isn't going to start making thicker darker hair as a result of being shaved.

I used to have a lovely almost hair free belly, what hairs where there were blonde. I shaved it once for some unfathomable reason and now there black and thicker. I know what evidence I can see on my body.

My friend once shaved her arms they to used to be blonde, now her arm hairs stick up are thicker and darker, once again evidence I can see with my own eyes.

Not really the point of the post though.

It feels thicker because it is blunt. It also won't have been bleached by the sun so may be slightly darker until it lightens again.
www.mayoclinic.com/health/hair-removal/an00638

Shaving does not change the hair follicle, you don't even get close to the hair follicle so how would shaving change anything. Change in hormone levels can alter the appearance of hair.

I shave or pluck my pubic hair, dp takes it really short or takes it all off depending how he feels.

No Debeez, not in reference to you at all. I just meant that plucking eyebrows, straightening/curling hair, putting on make-up, exfoliating, moisturising; they all take time that could be spent on something else (more worthwhile).

Not all boys have chest hair or back hair anyway. All girls have leg hair and armpit hair.
It is only certain groups of boys that do male grooming whereas it crosses all classes, races, styles and social groups with girls.

The hair on my arms is usually darker in the winter