Why I shouldn pluck my facial hair

Miss Understanding

Honestly, I'm sick of the ****ing emphasis on hairlessness when it comes to the female appearance. Females dont shave under their arms in France and french guys apparently dont find it offensive. And yet!, here in snobby little Ireland the less bodily hair the better. I'm affected by this too - I mean I judge people. And its pressure - do u know how much time I'd have saved if i had never to shave my legs, pluck my eyebrows..all in the name of looking 'presentable' - what the..?! Should I stop caring? Hygiene. sure thats what its all about. hmm..right

Amalgam

If you want to discuss the societal issues surrounding women and the removal of hair, you might get more active and better dialogue in:

The Ladie's Lounge Forum

Dord

Moved from Facial Hair & Hats forum.

Hope you don't mind ladies. *tips hat*

Pembily

Miss Understanding wrote: »

Honestly, I'm sick of the ****ing emphasis on hairlessness when it comes to the female appearance. Females dont shave under their arms in France and french guys apparently dont find it offensive. And yet!, here in snobby little Ireland the less bodily hair the better. I'm affected by this too - I mean I judge people. And its pressure - do u know how much time I'd have saved if i had never to shave my legs, pluck my eyebrows..all in the name of looking 'presentable' - what the..?! Should I stop caring? Hygiene. sure thats what its all about. hmm..right

Underarm hair to me is icky as I sweat alot so I don't like hair there as it makes me sweat more - totally hygiene!!!

I love the feeling of smooth legs - kinda like baby skin, not hygiene more the feeling for me and maybe some guy if I am bothered!!!

Facial is a big thing with me though as I had a bit and I got electrolyisis as I was quite conscious of it, yes its a peer pressure thing but I don't do it for other women only men judge too!!! Mine wasn't dark or very obvious but if you were up close it was noticeable so to make me feel more comfrotable I got it removed with electroylisis!!!

Sadly everything we do is judeged on our apperance...

I say do what ever makes you most comfortable!

The_Minister

If you want to walk around with hairy armpits or furry legs then that is your right - but don't expect me to be in any way attracted to you.

Macha

The_Minister wrote: »

If you want to walk around with hairy armpits or furry legs then that is your right - but don't expect me not to be in any way attracted to you.

Ladies, you have been duly warned of the terrible fate that will befall you if you fail to conform to today's standards of hairlessness.

Chinafoot

The_Minister wrote: »

If you want to walk around with hairy armpits or furry legs then that is your right - but don't expect me not to be in any way attracted to you.

You know that statement means you will find her attractive, yes? :P

The_Minister

Chinafoot wrote: »

You know that statement means you will find her attractive, yes? :P

*Head-desk*
Goddammit.

Me fail English?

That's unpossible!

amz5

Pembily wrote: »

Underarm hair to me is icky as I sweat alot so I don't like hair there as it makes me sweat more - totally hygiene!!!

I love the feeling of smooth legs - kinda like baby skin, not hygiene more the feeling for me and maybe some guy if I am bothered!!!

Facial is a big thing with me though as I had a bit and I got electrolyisis as I was quite conscious of it, yes its a peer pressure thing but I don't do it for other women only men judge too!!! Mine wasn't dark or very obvious but if you were up close it was noticeable so to make me feel more comfrotable I got it removed with electroylisis!!!

Sadly everything we do is judeged on our apperance...

I say do what ever makes you most comfortable!

How long did it take with electrolysis?

I too find hair under my arms kinda gross. I feel cleaner with it gone. I also like the feel of my legs when they're soft and shaven.

vicecreamsundae

i sometimes think underarm hair looks kind of pretty, and when i see a girl with it it always makes me looks twice and kind of think.."i love how she's comfortable with her underarm hair, that's hot!". but when mine grows a bit i definitely feel a bit sweaty and ick. -plus you have to get past the ugly stubble stage to get to the nice bit of hair stage haha.

as for my legs, i like the idea of rejecting norms and all that and admire women who do grow it, but it's not for me. again it's like, i sometimes see girls with lovely tanned legs and blonde hairs and think it looks nice but when i get my black stubble on my white legs i just think "delete! delete!"

when i was younger body hair removal was a big deal to me. just part of being a teenager i guess, but i was super conscious and a bit obsessive about it. but i'm not at all like that anymore. i probably shave my pits and legs about every three to four days, half the time i just use water or whatever im using in the shower and it takes literally two minutes altogether, so i can't say much of an effort.

red herring

I love waxing, personally. love how smooth skin feels after it, I'm kind of addicted to it! I wanna get my legs lasered for my next birthday, even though the hair is already really fair and very fine.
I do think hair removal is a personal choice. No woman should have to have no hair/some hair/mini forest on her body just to suit some man. I choose to be hairless but thats because I love feeling soft and smooth, I love rubbling my legs together and feeling soft skin. But- equally well, if I loved having a mini forest on my body then I'd damn well have one! I wouldn't conform to a male OR females opinion of the ''right'' amount of hair because its MY body and I shall determine how much hair I shall/shan't have, thank you very much! I love having smooth baby-soft hairless skin, but if I started seeing a man tomorrow who was into unshaven legs/arms/etc thats fine, but don't expect me to grow my hair to please him!

Jules

Underarm hair gets done in the shower, its habit at this stage. Legs, meh.. im fortunate that i dont have very hairy legs more sparce but if im wearing a skirt which never happens then i would do it more often. But i do have hair on my face due to having crap genes.. thanks mum.. and i get this sorted every 6 weeks. I started doing it for someone else but then i noticed i feel so much better about myself when its gone and i kept on doing it even. It changes how i see and feel about myself. Don't do it for anyone but me these days!

ScottStorm

OK.... from a guy's perspective.

everything is relative:

a fine whisp of underarm hair is absolutely fine; however a dark bush of brillo pad coarseness should be shaved.

And so it continues, when My fiancé doesn't wax her legs it bothers her more than me, she has fine hair and after waxing the growth remains quite soft and hardly noticeable.

As for the nether regions, If a man likes you he likes you. But if it's spilling out the sides of your underwear you might consider trimming.

And finally regarding facial hair, unfortunately this is a no no, whether its the fuzzy eating disorder kind, a dark mustache and sideburns combo, neck hair or anything in between.

Please do not take this as an assault on anybody I am purely trying to give a male perspective.

Thank you for reading.

princess-lala

I shave under my arms for me! I wouldnt like to see a girl with hairy pits so why should anyone see mine :eek:

My legs are done when and if Im wearing a skirt, if Im not then they arent overly done, they only get a quick going over maybe once a week

If Im with someone and they feel my hairy legs and dont like them thats their problem not mine!

Thankfully I dont have facial hair as of yet - dad has a beard and mams not too far behind him :rolleyes: If and when the time comes that I do have a hairy face I will sort it for me! Nobody else but me!

I de-fuzz my body for me, would never do it for anyone else! Theres more to life than a few stray hairs hanging about but I still dont want them on me

Truley

I'm female and have loads of friends who don't shave and I think it looks fine, especially the Italian and French girls I know because they are gorgeous anyway and very tanned.
That said I would die before someone saw me unshaved especially my legs, I would feel very unconfortable but that is my issue not necessarily a result of external pressure. I actually find that I sweat alot less when I don't shave my underarms.
Used to get the regular six weeks brazilian but stopped because of the expense and hassle. To be honest I really don't have an issue with pubes, I'm happy to just keep it closely trimmed, but I've gotten a few not-so-subtle hints that men have a different idea :rolleyes:

Jumpy

Miss Understanding wrote: »

Females dont shave under their arms in France and french guys apparently dont find it offensive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3y3QoFnqZc

My wife is French. This is not true at all.

SugarHigh

Pembily wrote: »

Underarm hair to me is icky as I sweat alot so I don't like hair there as it makes me sweat more - totally hygiene!!!

No it doesn't. your hair absorbs the sweat that's what it's for. I read about a guy who shaved his ass cheeks and then since there was nothing to absorb the sweat his arse cheeks rubbed together like 2 balloons.:eek:

Dudess

My hair is black as the ace of spades - ain't no way I'm leaving it, other than curtains and carpet (and the latter only to a minimum, although no Brazilians either). Whether that's socio-cultural pressure, I don't know - for me personally, I would have thought it's simply because I don't like how it looks and I would feel uncomfortable with it. I imagine I wouldn't be as concerned if I had blonde hair.

It can cause skin irritation too, inverted hairs leading to sebaceous cysts etc.

Nature isn't always "right" - take bras for instance: one could say these are preventing the course of nature's way, that a woman's breasts should be down to her knees after time/pregnancy/breastfeeding, but aren't bras a good thing for women with big boobs whose backs would be in bits without them?

That said, I consider it very unattractive if men wax, unless it's for medical reasons such as skin irritation. So maybe I'm caving into gender stereotyping/expectations, but I'm cool with it.

Jules

Very mature and grown up there Jumpy, AH is that way ^^^^

Try and keep it civil.

Pembily

SugarHigh wrote: »

No it doesn't. your hair absorbs the sweat that's what it's for. I read about a guy who shaved his ass cheeks and then since there was nothing to absorb the sweat his arse cheeks rubbed together like 2 balloons.:eek:

Oh I know scientifically its needed but I think it makes me sweat more and if I do sweat a bit during the day, if i was hairy, I find I would smell more!! It freaks me out too :rolleyes:

miss5

I think women do it for themselves to, I don't think any girl would want
hairy underarms/legs.

Morgase

vicecreamsundae wrote: »

when i was younger body hair removal was a big deal to me. just part of being a teenager i guess, but i was super conscious and a bit obsessive about it.

I was the same. It started for me when I started at an all-girls secondary school. The skirts were just above the knee and I was paranoid that I was furry so I started shaving my legs almost daily.

These days I don't really wear skirts but in the summertime I like those long shorts so I get my legs waxed at the start of the summer (must book an appointment soon!).

I wax my legs for me, and if I'm honest, other women who may judge my hairiness. Not for the boyfriend; he says leg hair doesn't bother him.

seenitall

I wax the legs (societal pressure), shave the armpits (feels better) and bleach any facial here there is (not much there, but better safe than sorry, societal pressure again), and I wax or shave the bikini line when needed (you guessed it - s.p.).

What I draw the line at though is Brazilian - no no NOOOOOOOO!

Up to now I have been lucky enough that no boyfriend has demanded (or indeed preferred, AFAIK) pubeless or Brazilian crotch, but I can honestly say if anyone did it would be a big no-no and a turn off for me because I feel that it is taking the porn industry's view of "normal" too far into our lives and I am simply not willing to conform in this case. It is also the height of hypocrisy:

"Oh boy-frieeend... wanna do back, crack and sack every 6 weeks or so, just for my benefit..? No? Then shut up about Brazilians, hmmmm?"

Miss Understanding

Ok guys thanks for sharing(feeling kinda self-conscious now)

I take your point 'Minister' and thanks Pembily may look into the ole electrolysis one day:)

Oh and I'm with you on the brazilian Seenitall.

MU

Miss Understanding

hahahha:) love scrubs Jumpy! I think I knew that really just wanted something to support a point of view

panda100

I stopped shaving two months ago because I was just sick of it. Its expensive and there's just absolutely no reason for me to be hairless.

Its really taken me time to get used to my hairy self.I'm so used to having smooth pins that its weird when I rub them and there all soft and furry. I've become so conditioned to be hairless that the first month I was just looking at my legs like they belonged to someone else. I had completely forgotten what it was like to have hair.

There's been three real positives since I've given up my Venus razor. First, is the expense.No need to buy pricey shaving foam and razors. Two, I find that when I exercise my legs cool down a lot quicker. They used to get quite sweaty and clammy but I haven't noticed that since my hairs grown back.Three, Im fairly tall so shaving takes a good twenty minutes and cramps my back,so its saving a lot of time and hassle.

I haven't ventured on a night out with a short skirt since,but its just taking me a bit of time to get used to it again before unleash my natural state on the rest of the world.

IvyTheTerrible

All the French girls I know shave their underarms...

Asphyxia

red herring wrote: »

I love waxing, personally. love how smooth skin feels after it, I'm kind of addicted to it! I wanna get my legs lasered for my next birthday, even though the hair is already really fair and very fine.
I do think hair removal is a personal choice. No woman should have to have no hair/some hair/mini forest on her body just to suit some man. I choose to be hairless but thats because I love feeling soft and smooth, I love rubbling my legs together and feeling soft skin. But- equally well, if I loved having a mini forest on my body then I'd damn well have one! I wouldn't conform to a male OR females opinion of the ''right'' amount of hair because its MY body and I shall determine how much hair I shall/shan't have, thank you very much! I love having smooth baby-soft hairless skin, but if I started seeing a man tomorrow who was into unshaven legs/arms/etc thats fine, but don't expect me to grow my hair to please him!

You have read my mind! I feel the exact same way... I love having smooth skin, to me it feels a lot more cleaner and nicer. I love waxing! At the moment I am waxing and using Bioxet and so far my hair is a lot more finer and growing back slower and fewer. I have been using for 5/6 months now and it's brilliant stuff but It can get expensive depending on how many areas your using it on though as there is different jars and tubes for the different parts of the body each one being a nice hefty price unfortunately. I would definitely recommend it.

panda100

Pocketfizz wrote: »

I love waxing! At the moment I am waxing and using Bioxet and so far my hair is a lot more finer and growing back slower and fewer. I have been using for 5/6 months now and it's brilliant stuff but It can get expensive depending on how many areas your using it on though as there is different jars and tubes for the different parts of the body each one being a nice hefty price unfortunately.

How can anyone love waxing??
Its really,really painful!Life is too short to be in that sort of excruciating pain every couple of months.
Why waste your money on torturing yourself?

Personally, I haven't noticed any difference in my cleanliness since Ive stopped shaving. I've always regularly showered and thats what keeps you clean,not shaving off body hair.

Asphyxia

panda100 wrote: »

How can anyone love waxing??
Its really,really painful!Life is too short to be in that sort of excruciating pain every couple of months.
Why waste your money on torturing yourself?

Personally, I haven't noticed any difference in my cleanliness since Ive stopped shaving. I've always regularly showered and thats what keeps you clean,not shaving off body hair.

Pain tolerance is different for everybody though, waxing never bothered me to be honest. I have never had thick hair anywhere except my head so that probably helps as well. Don't get me wrong I don't enjoy the feeling of waxing but it has never been that bad to not go through with. I love waxing in the way that it makes me feel beautiful and fresher but that's just me and everybody is different... Some people like some don't. :rolleyes:

Cheap Thrills!

I am quite far from a girly girl but for some reason I am fanatical about hair removal...

I have never even seen my own underarm hair, never, not even once, it's been shaved since it arrived which is many a year ago!!!!

It has never been let grow, ever, not even once. It gets shaved every single day without fail. It wouldn't enter my head to let it grow or even skip shaving it!

Everything gets shaved every day, legs and 'herself' get clean shaved every day too.

I would shave my arms if I was going to a formal occasion, they're not very hairy but it just looks more finished with a tan etc

Eyebrows get plucked and even nose hairs get a terrible death with the tweezerman!:pac:

Cheap Thrills!

Cheap Thrills! wrote: »

and 'herself' get clean shaved every day too.

How do you not end up raw with irritated skin

Cheap Thrills!

bluewolf wrote: »

How do you not end up raw with irritated skin

I'm not really sure. I use shaving foam and I go with the grain (never against) I only use each razor once and always start with the erm....bikini area so the razor is pristine fresh.....

I go on to the underarms then legs....

ToniTuddle

bluewolf wrote: »

How do you not end up raw with irritated skin

Skin gets used to it! Plus I'd say she exfoliates and all that carry on too which helps.

rantyface

If you're sweaty, hair actually helps because it increases surface area for sweat to evaporate from and draws moisture away from the skin. You might notice if you get a hollywood wax that you have far more vaginal discharge and blood in contact with the actual skin because the hair usually draws it away from the skin. I still think it's worth it.

Bikini waxing is only painful if the beautician is crap and cheap and uses strip wax. If you go somewhere good they use hot wax and no linen and you can barely feel it and it shouldn't leave the skin red or sore.

I don't think underarm or leg hair is unattractive at all on other people. It's no dirtier than hair on your head. If you're dressing up for a fancy night out it looks a bit inconsistent though.

panda100

rantyface wrote: »

If you go somewhere good they use hot wax and no linen and you can barely feel it and it shouldn't leave the skin red or sore.

Your getting your hair ripped out from your skin,it always going to be sore. If you can't feel it then you're senses have become numbed and anesthesised with the constant waxing and that is not a good thing imo.

jdivision

Miss Understanding wrote: »

Females dont shave under their arms in France and french guys apparently dont find it offensive.

No French woman I know has ever had underarm hair - it's always been shaved or waxed

cynder

The_Minister wrote: »

If you want to walk around with hairy armpits or furry legs then that is your right - but don't expect me to be in any way attracted to you.

I sat next to an all natural woman on the plane and OMG:eek: she didnt even wear deo and had this short vest on, each time she moved her arm i could see this big hairy mass:eek:, and get a stong wiff of BO :eek::eek::eek: yuck, i was nearly sick....

*im a woman too and in no way attracted to women but that was really unsightly:eek:....

quickbeam

I only shave arms and legs if they're going to be on show, which isn't often. Rest of the time they're au naturelle and I'm happy with that. Only reason I shave at all is due to confirming to social norms - I'd rather not to be honest. Bikini area I remove on occasion as the inclination arizes.

rantyface

quickbeam wrote: »

I only shave arms and legs if they're going to be on show, which isn't often. Rest of the time they're au naturelle and I'm happy with that. Only reason I shave at all is due to confirming to social norms - I'd rather not to be honest. Bikini area I remove on occasion as the inclination arizes.

Same! I think smooth legs and armpits look nicer so I shave or epilate if I'm wearing something skimpy. Shaving them all the time for me would be like staying in all day wearing a full face of make up.

I think it proves the cliche "women dress up for other women, not men" because I'd never shave my legs or armpits for my boyfriend.

Everyone seems to think that underarms hair makes you sweat more which isn't true at all- it actually draws hair away from the skin and gives it a greater surface area to evaporate from. It's part of the cooling system. Having said that it's pretty redundant under a t shirt and a jumper.

It's the same when you have a wax down below, you notice a lot more claminess from vaginal discharge and blood against your actual skin because the hair normally draws it away. I like waxes because they increase sensitivity for me, not because it looks better!

enda1

jdivision wrote: »

No French woman I know has ever had underarm hair - it's always been shaved or waxed

Well at least we now know why she called herself "Miss Understanding" :rolleyes::p

Sound Bite

IMO, its a necessary evil. A total time consuming pain in the ass but one I wouldn't dream of avoiding.

Even society for some crazy reason decided that hairy was newly socially acceptable. I wouldn't be changing my ways. I like being hairless and i do it for me not for anyone else.

Armpits & legs done religiously in the shower every morning. Down below is keep very neat but I do draw the line at very day because my sensitive skin cannot hack that and face, nose etc is always always hairfree.

The only one I don't bother with is shaving arms (armpits yes, but arms no), the hair there is so light there's no need.

Girls, am I alone in thinking that there's no (well very few) sexier feeling that when your legs are smoth and silky and your all tidied up down below....it makes you feel clean, sexy & confident.....until now I thought everyone felt like this

Gyalist

Interesting discussion. Blame Harper's Bazaar.

I knew if I procrastinated long enough on this often-asked question somebody would eventually do the legwork for me. Sure enough, Pete Cook of Chicago has sent me a 1982 article from the Journal of American Culture by Christine Hope bearing the grand title "Caucasian Female Body Hair and American Culture."

The gist of the article is that U.S. women were browbeaten into shaving underarm hair by a sustained marketing assault that began in 1915. (Leg hair came later.) The aim of what Hope calls the Great Underarm Campaign was to inform American womanhood of a problem that till then it didn't know it had, namely unsightly underarm hair.

To be sure, women had been concerned about the appearance of their hair since time immemorial, but (sensibly) only the stuff you could see. Prior to World War I this meant scalp and, for an unlucky few, facial hair. Around 1915, however, sleeveless dresses became popular, opening up a whole new field of female vulnerability for marketers to exploit.

Who decided women should shave their legs and underarms?

Hair or Bare?:
The History of American Women and Hair Removal, 1914-1934

rantyface

panda100 wrote: »

Your getting your hair ripped out from your skin,it always going to be sore. If you can't feel it then you're senses have become numbed and anesthesised with the constant waxing and that is not a good thing imo.

Constant waxing! I've done it four times! Including one time with linen strips, where I fainted from the pain and only had two strips done, leaving me looking very funny. The first time I had a hot wax it didn't hurt. She doesn't even yank very hard, the hair seems to slide out of the follicle. It's less painful than plucking my eyebrows.

SoundBite- does anyone shave their arms? Does it not grow back stubbly?! I think the main reason I leave my legs alone is that I was never able to afford waxing and the stubble after shaving drives me mad. You either have to be dedicated and do it with a good blade every single day, or forget about it unless your legs are on show, which is what I do.

jam_mac_jam

I would never ever shave my arms, that sounds crazy to me. Under arms, every day without fail, I cant imagine having underarm hair, leg hair gets shaved as well but I am quite fair so if I am not wearing a skirt a few days growth would not bother me at all.

I also think the french women thing is an urban myth, any French girl I know either shaves or waxes.

I like being hairless but it's so damn time consuming and frustrating. I have a lot of hair and it grows back so, so quickly that it feels like I'm constantly shaving, waxing or plucking. I get annoyed when people make comments about me letting things go a bit, if I leave my eyebrows a few days or whatever. I already get my eyebrows threaded every 2-3 weeks, pluck every 2-3 days, shave my legs and armpits 3-4 times a week and various other things. I refuse to do more than that because I would feel it would be OTT. I do not want to start shaving arms or anything like that, I'd never have time for anything else. If I'm really busy I will just leave it all sometimes, but I personally don't really like the feeling of having hairy legs and it would look awful under tights. I often think I'd love to be blonde because it's so low maintenance!