Wednesday, January 9, 2013

When To Wax

I have a horrible confession.  I used to watch Teen Mom, like the very first ones, when they came out.  I was pregnant with Annika at the time and lazy so I would sit and eating my brownies and watch the show.

There's one mom that I've seen online recently that waxed her 3 year old's uni-brow.  I guess it's causing a huge "outrage".

I don't get it.  If Annika came to me at 3 telling me someone made fun of her because of the hair inbetween her eyebrows I would remove.  Crazy?  Maybe.  But let me tell you why I'd do it at any age for her and for Annabel.

When I was little I had huge, bushy eyebrows.  I had kids make fun of me for them from kindergarten until 8th grade when I finally plucked the crap out of them all on my own.  I had a horrible time letting them grow back in, re-plucking them, and generally making a mess of them until my 20s when I finally let them come back in and then I plucked only underneath and in the middle so it wasn't so difficult to maintain and so I didn't have thin weird looking eyebrows.  I still feel like they're a mess sometimes though.

That along with the dreaded mustache.  My mom finally allowed me to bleach mine around 8th grade, then I would wax it when I was in my early 20s and now I attempt to pluck hairs as I see them because my skin is too sensitive for waxing.

We are hairy people!  Annika has inherited the hairy gene, poor girl!  She has a little shadow of a mustache already, a slight uni-brow and way too much back hair for a little girl.  She also has lots of hair on her legs and arms already.  Josh and I have actually already talked about waxing the back of her neck and possibly her lower back because it's so bad!

Since I wasn't allowed to wax or do any hair removal when I desperately needed it I see nothing wrong with doing it, even if it is a child.  Maybe 3 is slightly too young but I have a feeling once Annika reaches an age where kids start noticing things like that we'll be waxing her too!  To me it's about keeping her self esteem up and making her feel comfortable with herself.  I don't feel like hair removal is an extreme thing (now wearing make-up or dyeing her hair is going to wait for a LONG time, like at least 16 or 17!).  I also want the removal to be done correctly (I don't want her trying to do it herself like I did and making a mess) and I've heard if you wax at a young age sometimes the hair stops coming back.

What is your opinion?  Would you wax your girl's uni-brow at 3 years old if you heard people making fun of it?  What about other body hair?

3 comments:

  1. I've only briefly heard of the story you are talking about, so I'm not sure of the circumstances surrounding that particular instance. But I think if a child was old enough to feel uncomfortable about something, or other kids were making fun of him/her, I would defitely try to remedy the problem for my child. But, I don't agree with parents doing something like that for the parents benefit (like the parent doesn't like the way the child looks, etc.)

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  2. I don't think there's anything wrong with that if she's being made fun of. Ella's birthmark on her face is technically called a congenital hairy nevus for a reason. It grows very dark thick hairs. Since she's had laser treatment to hers it took care of the dark hair and now there's just soft blonde hairs that grow. Over her eye though and between her eyes they couldn't treat with lasers and the dark, thick hair grows. We have a little hair trimmer and I trim the hairs when they get too long. The nevus skin would be too sensitive to wax but the trimmer works well. There are enough things that kids make fun of these days and if we can prevent that then I think we should.

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  3. Since waxing is painful in most cases, I'd probably try to find an alternative solution first, but I would certainly not force my child to endure years of torment over what is essentially nothing but a cosmetic issue. However, I would also do a lot of reminding about how every person is different, and being different isn't a bad thing. I tell my girls all the time that they are beautiful and it's completely gone to Karina's head but I don't care. I'd rather her start school believing fully that she IS beautiful than questioning herself the first time someone says something about, I don't know, her hair style or something. I'm not a big fan of doing painful things to my kids that aren't medically necessary, but I also believe that every parent has to make the decisions for themselves and their children that is right for them. What works for me might not work for other moms. Nothing wrong with that. We're all different. :-)

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