to say my daughter can't shave her legs?

[Iwillpopthekettleon]

My DD1 is fed up with her "hairy legs" to be honest I don't think they are that bad, but then what do I know?! She is 12 and certainly things are happening and her body is changing, but doesn't 12 seem awfully young to be starting down that road?

I know she could use that stinky cream stuff and she doesn't have to slice her legs to ribbons like I remember doing ( and always when I was just about to go out!) but she seems so young.

I am not ready for this yet!! Has anyone else had this come up ?!! Help!!

You have to let her do it. Others will notice, trousers or not, they still get changed for PE. They will mock her.

You might not care about that, or you might not want to think about her as growing up, you might think she is too young, but clearly she is not! If she has the hair then puberty is under way and you have to accept it.

She will resent you and remember and then swear not to make the same mistake with her children. Show her how to do it properly so she doesn't try a dry shave

shiney - yes.

yabu

They're her legs

I would advise wax though

You can inflict pain on her under the guise of being a caring mum helping her with her grooming

Got same situation with my DD who's coming up to 12. Has anyone had their D's legs waxed at this age? She's quite a baby when it comes to pain - I can imagine she'll pass out or choose to leave half way through. I'd like to find an alternative to shaving - she seems too young and unspoilt for stubbly legs.

Let her.

I'm fair but still remember a boy laughing at my hairy legs when i was about that age.

As others have said - buy her a nice razor and gel and show her how to do it carefully.

My mum refused to let me shave my legs until I was about 15/16.

I'm 37 now and I still resent her for not just letting me grow up. I didn't get bullied as such - but I did get left out of stuff because I was a bit different / strange, and I couldn't wait to leave school.

IMHO: Don't make a big deal about it, Do get her the right equipment and Do support her.

Shineon - Can I ask WHY a blanket NO?

I mean, why? Do you shave YOURS legs?

Iwillpopthekettleon - this thread is not really about your DD shaving her legs is it?

It is about letting go of your little girl and allowing her to grow up a bit. She will always be your little girl just like my DSs will always be my little boys. One day quite soon DS1 will have to start shaving his face. Its just the same for me - I have to let go of him and let him grow up a little.

He already has to wear deoderant at age 9 and in 3-4 years time he will start shaving. It is sad to think of that and I actually have a tear in my eye thinking about it as I type.

Going through puberty is tough. DD needs your support and letitng her shave her legs will make her feel loved. The school no doubt has rules about makeup, clothing, etc so you are not opening floodgates by agreeing to her shaving her legs.

I think shaving is not the way to go, but an epilator would be sensible. My dd is 10 and i would let her use my epilator if she wanted to.

The Body Shop sugaring stuff is good if they still do it- nowhere near as sore as waxing. I wouldn't encourage shaving, just because she'll have to do it pretty much every day, and the last thing you want is a bathroom-hogger

Primary school is very young to be removing hair unless there is actually a lot of it. I assume most 12 year olds will be in the second year of secondary school by this point - far further along with puberty and much more peer pressure.

Domonique
It's not about 'looking sexy'

Yeauch!

Are you a bloke?

Jo Malone ....

I don't get to enjoy those now!! I have a 15MO and a 2MO and life is more about Dentinox shampoo and sudacrem!!!

wanders off to dream about Jo Malone Grapefruit scent

But shine on..there is a big difference in apreaence between legs with blond hairs and a tan, and pasty legs with dark hairs.

Some people just dont need to shave (my DM being one of them). She would never, ever have bought me a razor, so I had to use my dads.

With hind sight, he wouldn't have been cuffed if he'd known!

When I started shavign at 12, I don't think my friends were shaving thier legs, but then I have dark hair and pasty skin.

And it's not nice to have boys call you spider legs.

"You need to learn ... to wax your bikini line in early adolescence." Really? OMG! Shaving arms and legs I get - but bikini line??? I am so glad that wasn't an issue for me when I was a young teenager.

AFAIK you start secondary school when you are 11 and you have your 12th birthday sometime in year 7. Cutoff in the schools I went to was September and it's only the end of September now, so only 1/12 of the first year have turned 12 (unless their parents have been planning births to all be in autumn ).

I definitely remember buying crappy razors and cheapo 'shaving foam', even though I hardly had anything to shave. Made such a mess.

My DSD2 has quite hairy legs and got horribly teased in Y6 - she asked me if she could shave them and although it did seem young I thought being teased and getting a complex about her body hair would be more damaging to her than shaving. So she now shaves her legs. So OP and Shiney I think YABU.

BTW - what are peoples views on make up - how old is old enough?

YABU. I started shaving at that age. It is all part of puberty, in way

YABU i think. Sorry, I can see your point but girls will take the piss in PE. They did to me. It was excruciating. (The piss-taking.)
I wish my mum had introduced me to waxing too, instead of spending years as a slave to razors. (Not at 12, maybe older. My hair grows super-fast.) She did help me with cream on my armpits and got me a ladyshave for my birthday.