How many women wax their upper and lower arms??

[plinkduet]

I know someone who is always being complimented on her beautifully smooth skin on her arms and it occurred to me she might wax them to achieve that.

Do many women do this? Even if the hair is soft and fairly fine? And how does regrowth?

I don't - but I know a woman who chose her forearms as the first area she to have laser hair removal. Her ambition is to afford to have her whole body lasered so that the only hair she has left is on her scalp. AFAIK she didn't shave or wax her forearms before discovering the laser hair removal.

I had an Asian flatmate who waxed her forearms. She did have black arm hair, but was not - to my mind - unusually hairy. Her legs were very hairy, though.

She said that it was not uncommon among the wealthier families in India for pre-teen girls to have regular, full-body, depilatory treatments to try to reduce the amount of body hair they would grow after puberty.

By hellymelly Wed 03-Aug-11 22:37:39
I never knew that anyone depilated arm hair! Can honestly say I've never seen a woman so hirsute that arm hair removal would seem sensible.Is that because they've all removed it?!

That'll be because those who are really bad like me remove it. Left alone mine are hairier than DHs.

She said that it was not uncommon among the wealthier families in India for pre-teen girls to have regular, full-body, depilatory treatments to try to reduce the amount of body hair they would grow after puberty.

While the above is true, the depilatory treatments aren't anything invasive like waxing or shaving. In fact these are discouraged till about the age of 16. Pre-teen girls usually have a weekly massage with turmeric (which lightens hair) and stuff like gram-flour mixed with milk (which smoothens skin and thins body hair). At the same time, hair is massaged with almond or coconut oil and a face mask of natural ingredients (like honey and yoghurt) is applied to reduce the chances of getting acne in later years.

Just didn't want people to think Indians send 10-year olds to the salon to have a full-body wax

What uninspired said.

What?

it never occured to me to do so

didn't mean to give that impression, either - this was 20-something years ago, and I couldn't remember the details of what she had said!

Didn't think so, but you never know how someone reading will interpret so just thought I'd wade in.

Back on topic though, in India it is very very normal for women to wax/shave/epilate their arms. We have very dark hair, and it is very visible if left to grow, especially if your skin isn't very dark to start with. To be honest, till this thread I honestly thought ALL women did it. But, of course, pale hair isn't all that visible against pale skin! I will look at all pale-haired women with new-found envy now....all that time and energy they're saving [grr]