Hairy Situation

I've been listening to way too much NPR lately. The liberal bias has gone to my head (I think I'm voting for Obama--don't tell my family or they might institutionalize me, but that's another post entirely). But, there was a snippet the other day that really disturbed me.

The economic crisis? The election? No, this little piece was all about children, oh and waxing. Apparently there are salons out there that recommend and perform cosmetic hair removal on young girls. And mothers who take them up, nay insist upon it.

One terribly disturbing point made by a salon owner was that apparently virgin hair waxing begun young enough, say at the age of 6, often requires just 2 or 3 waxing session before hair removal is permanent. This, she pointed out, is such a great idea because it saves thousands of dollars in waxing fees over a woman's lifetime.

This brings me to two questions:

1) What is so wrong with body hair?

2) Have you considered that not every girl will choose to remove her body hair for the rest of her mortal existence. (maybe in 10 years hairy legs and pits will again be in fashion--think of the women you know who plucked out their eyebrows in response to a trend and to this day have to paint on scary clown brows).

It reminds me of the time I learned of the Brazilian wax. (Overshare warning--skip the rest of this paragraph if you're disturbed by graphic descriptions of OB-GYN visits). I was in my gyno's office, stirruped up, undergoing an unusual procedure. You see, I have the bad luck of being born with moles in unfortunate places. After a scarring experience with mole removal from my nipple region as a teenager, I opted to have my OB take care of the removal of the two scary moles residing in my nether regions. As she shaved the hair necessary for the procedure, she mentioned the new trend she'd begun observing in femail hair removal--the Brazilian wax. Which, as most of you I'm sure know, involves complete hair removal down south. This disturbs me.

My husband's family has serious issues with body hair. I recall his little sister one time mentioning that she'd had her forearms waxed. Her forearms? I also unfortunately overheard that my mother-in-law had a bikini wax. A bikini wax? For a mormon woman in her mid fifties? That's just all shades of wrong.

I remember my teenage years when I had low self-esteem and wanted to fit in and began shaving my legs. Prior to this I had fine blond hair on my legs. Funny thing happened once I started shaving it. It began to grow back in dark and coarse. So I stopped and eventually it mostly softened back up. Though it's still a bit patchy. I like to think of it as my own little forest.

I must admit, since then I still do occasionally shave. I like to think of it as my Christmas and/or Easter ritual. But even that has become fairly inconsistent (especially since moving to Fairyland--you see, fairies aren't concerned with body hair). And, my body hair is relatively sparse. Though I don't see that had I been given thick, dark hair, that I'd be rushing off to the salon for a bikini wax.

I dunno, I suppose I understand the desire to get rid of unsightly facial hair, and even the non-obsessive level of leg and pit shaving if that makes one feel better. But it seems really excessive and somewhat sadomasochistic to regularly strip in front of strangers and pay them to pour hot wax on your naughty bits. But that's just me.

I'm glad I have boys.