My poor daughter

[Hattie05]

My 7yr old has insisted on wearing trousers to school for the past year, despite my pleas for her to put on a nice skirt. Now the weather has turned hot, i insisted she put a summer dress on yesterday - but she burst into tears just as we were leaving and confessed that she wanted to hide her hairy legs!

I let her change and then talked to her about it in the evening - boosting her confidence about it, pointing out that whilst so important to her - nobody else looks at her legs etc, i've offered to buy her some knee high socks. She did agree to a summer dress today and seemed ok with it. But i feel so sorry for her as i remember the same concerns myself - we are very dark haired and pretty hairy on the legs compared to many other children at that age.

Any suggestions what else i can do for her?

I don't know 7 seems a bit young for any method of hair removal. But I guess it would depend upon how much it is bothering her?

Is there any gentle way of lightening the hair (other than bleach)?

I remember vividly a boy at school when I was 5 telling me he didn't like me as I had hairy legs. Do you know if anyone has said something to her about it or is it just her feeling self-concious? Lots of reassurance from my mum that I had nothing to feel bad about and that the boy who said that was very silly helped me feel ok about it.

Doesn't sound that anyone send anything mean to her - just commented on them innocently.

Shinyandnew - I agree to young to remove or anything - not even sure i'd want to dye them as i feel she's just too young to 'need' to do such things yet! i'd rather help her overcome the embarrassment.

Oh, it's hard. I am and was very hairy - especially my arms (dark hair). The only person who ever teased me was my brother. I attempted to shave my own legs, without soap/lotion at 8 (eek!), then hid the fact I had shaving rash.

I finally started shaving at 13.

BUT - I have never removed the hair from my arms. I decided quite early on that is part of who I am and if anyone else doesn't like it - sod them.

M and S has over the knee socks that might help but if she is feeling self conscious about it then maybe you should both discuss hair removal options. I guess it really depends on how you as the parent feels about that option.

PLEASE don't bleach them or tell her she should wear long socks..it will only reinforce that it's something to be embarrassed about. I would just reassure and reassure that her legs are NORMAL and that everyone has hair on their legs and it is OK and she is BEAUTIFUL.

I speak as a hairy mary myself