Aibu to ask what method of hair removal you would recommend for young teens.

[katedan]

My 12 year old twins both have a lot of underarm hair. I don't want to enforce body cousinous so have not said anything but follwing swimming this weekend they both want to remove the hair. I was always told girls that age should not shave, is this a old wives tale? What form of hair removal would you recommend?

With my dd same age I just shave her underarms quickly for her when she goes swimming which is only occasionally as she was self conscious. She has never mentioned hair anywhere else so will leave that.

My dd both use razors, they have rechargeable ones rather than wet razors as I think there's less chance of nasty razor cuts iyswim!

I've just bought 12 year old DD a little electric shaver from Amazon. I showed her how to use it and it works well although she's only shaved her legs with it. It's a small shell-shaped cordless one.

my dd's of similar age shave (they asked about it themselves, i never brought it up)wet shave with disposal razors and lots of shaving gel, no cuts so far.

I use Nair on DD’s underarms. Im afraid she might cut herself with a razor.

I see to use nair/veet at that age...I have dyspraxia and DM didn’t trust me with a razor!

I bought DD a small battery lady shave from Amazon. She uses it as and when she feels she needs to. I never tell her to. She asked me what she should use as she noticed her legs were getting a little hairy and with PE she decided she wanted it gone.

Could you wax it?
It’s so much better than shaving but would depend on the child.

I shaved from that age but would encourage my DD not to when she's older. I would rather her start with hair removal cream and then build up to waxing and threading later. It's much more effective, lasts longer and much less likely to cause cuts and ingrown hairs.

Depends on your skin. My skin is way too sensitive to be able to wax.

10 year old DD was getting very self conscious about her leg hair (particularly dark on her knees) so we used Nair, lasts about 3 weeks ish, cheap enough to repeat that often.

I didn't know they weren't supposed to shave, is that a thing? I can't see any reason why they shouldn't but I'm happy to be corrected if someone else knows.

I would recommend trying an epilator because shaving isn't a good hair removal method. I have sensitive skin and shaving always makes a mess of my skin - ingrown hairs, cuts, rash etc. Not to mention you then end up with horrible stubble. Epilating is much kinder to my skin, but I know some women say they can't bare the sting of epilating their armpits. It might be worth trying a couple of different methods and letting them decide which they prefer?

Shaving is much easier for my dd (underarms only.) She is very immature so she couldn’t do it herself but I do it quickly for her in less than two minutes if she is going swimming. I think it would be cruel to put her through a wax!

Watching with interest as my youngest DD (9) has really hairy underarms. She's not overly bothered by it but may become more so as summer kicks in.

To those people who shave/nair their kids for them - what the what? Surely if you're old enough to have hair and be bothered by it, you're old enough to handle a safety razor??

Eh?

My dd started her period at 10.5. She’s almost 11.5 now and does NOT know how to handle a razor. She is conscious about her body hair and people looking at her as children had have the puberty talk at school and these things get noticed and commented upon. How have you even made that comparison? You CAN be a young child and be bothered by hair, and not know how to handle a razor. ✋

I did say in my post my dd is immature for her age (sn.) Old enough to be self conscious if someone made a comment but it’s quicker and safer for me to do it for her.

She’s almost 11.5 now and does NOT know how to handle a razor

She doesn't know, because you do it for her! Handling a razor is not complicated, and if she is capable of using scissors or a knife and fork, then she has the fine motor controls to run a safety razor over her skin. Do you brush her teeth for her?

You may say "what if she cuts herself?" Well, she may very well nick herself a couple of times - I did, way back in the days when I started shaving my legs. But that is not exactly the end of the world, is it?

It just seems so odd and like you are really babying them. Even in the case of sn, unless the child in question is also not capable of loads of other aspects of personal care, it seems a strange one to be off limits. Hair under the arms is a sign of growing up and becoming an adult - it seems a bit weird to be like "let mummy take care of that nasty hair for you, you're still far too young to be trusted".

I cannot believe the number of parents that insist on shaving their preteens for them. I agree, they don't know how to handle a razor because you don't let them. You explain and demonstrate, then let them do it. So what if they nick themselves, they learn to be more careful next time. Short of SEN, this is baffling helicopter parenting.

I have DS’s so I might not be the best to advise.. but fwiw as an experienced beauty therapist I’ve learnt that the earlier you start waxing the less the hair will come back .. I used to shave my legs and last year I broke the cycle and started getting monthly waxes and now my hair hardly grows back and any hair that does grow back is like baby hair!
I think if I had a DD I would always encourage waxing over shaving .. what age that would be I cannot comment ..

My DD (14) shaves. Has been since 11. There's no way she could tolerate waxing, and she's really hairy.

Thank you for your comments. I will get them some hair removal cream and see how that goes. Hopefully it will be a few years till the pubic hair removal becomes a issue for them as that is another minefield!

I would just buy one of those nice lady razors. They can't cut themselves if they do it properly.
If they use a foam it only takes a couple of strokes of the razor. It's so easy.
There is much more risk of a rash/soreness from using the creams I think, because of the rubbing off of the cream afterwards etc.
Similar for waxing.The shaving is much less invasive on the skin overall.

My nearly 14 year old daughter has her underarms and legs waxed. Started last summer when she became really self conscious about the dark hairs during PE at school.