When should girls be allowed to get their eyebrows waxed?

Ok just to specify, I'm moreso talking about girls with shapeless, less 'feminine' looking eyebrows. I sometimes see girls around the pre-teen age with huge thick eyebrows and I wonder to myself when do people start letting their girls get their brows tweezed/waxed?

By the way I didn't get my first wax until I was 18 and going to prom (2000)

as soon as the have the common sense and good taste to not make them so thin they look stupid, or shaped so they always surprised. ;)

ETA: i've never ever touched mine.  and i've only gotten compliments/people ask me "where do you get them done?" hahaha..

My mom didn't let me shave my legs until I got my period for the first time. I was 12. The eyebrows (and I was one of those totally shapeless caterpillar girls) at 15, but not thinned, just shaped. I think that was pretty reasonable....

My neice(she's 11) has a bit of a unibrow.  She said something about it once when we were in a mall bathroom and my sister told her that she could get it waxed whenever she wanted to...but explained that it hurts quite a bit, especially at first.  She has no desire to get it waxed yet.  Her mom hasn't really had to restrict her from much.  When she actually wants to do something, she's allowed.  So far, it's worked well and she hasn't done/wanted anything crazy(the only makeup she wants is lip gloss).  But, she is beautiful, healthy, intelligent, confident, and happy.  Probably not the most typical pre-teen. 

i wasn't allowed to shave my legs till 6th grade, and i have to admit, it was mortifying at times. a "friend" of mine started calling me Grape Ape. Remember Grape Ape?

not cool.

basically, if my little girl had a giant unibrow, was in middle school, and wanted me to fix it for her, i would. there are definitely lines to draw when it comes to make-up, certain clothes, etc. but if my kid came to me and says she feels uncomfortable or embarassed because she has bushy brows, i'd let her tame them.

i really hope my kids don't start worrying about that stuff before 5th or 6th grade though...but with the way things are going...

*shudder*

Maybe I'm being dense, but can someone explain the rationale behind NOT letting your daughter shave her legs, wax her eyebrows, or do whatever beauty ritual they want to do (I suppose I would understand not wanting your 10 year old daughter to get a brazilian, tattoos or nonnormative body piercings).

When I started growing facial hair, which was unfortunately quite a bit earlier than most of my schoolmates, my parents gave me an electric razor.  They didn't tell me I was too young to shave and force me to walk around with unsightly, whispy, patchy, pubescent facial hair.

IIRC, many VERY YOUNG girls get their ears pierced.  Heck, b/c of cultural norms, my DW had hers pierced as an infant, but wasn't allowed to to shave her legs until she was already very embarrassed and self-conscious.

When a girl becomes self conscious about her eyebrows or legs, why not let them "take care of it."  Do parents  think it will lead to sexual activity at too young an age?  do they think it's bad for their body image to allow them to "artificially" change their body hair (as opposed to forcing them to  maintain a body hair that society says is not ideal).  Am I really just missing something obvious here?

I didn't get to shave until 9th grade. (and i had to beg her to let me before my birthday in november)

I didn't start my period until I was 15, so that wouldn't have helped me much.

I was not popular in school.

I first got my eyebrows waxed for my wedding in 2002.

They waxed out the middle half of my right brow.

I need a wax like no tomorrow ATM.

ETA: in 7th grade, my 2 older (male) cousins were making fun of me in the car and said "Aunt ***, you really need to let her shave those things"

still, nope.

Yeah- I don't understand what the big deal was either. My mom would not let me wear bluejeans to school until the 9th grade. I don't even know why, just some nebulous bullshyte about being lady-like.

Original Post by haunted000:

Maybe I'm being dense, but can someone explain the rationale behind NOT letting your daughter shave her legs, wax her eyebrows, or do whatever beauty ritual they want to do (I suppose I would understand not wanting your 10 year old daughter to get a brazilian, tattoos or nonnormative body piercings).

When I started growing facial hair, which was unfortunately quite a bit earlier than most of my schoolmates, my parents gave me an electric razor.  They didn't tell me I was too young to shave and force me to walk around with unsightly, whispy, patchy, pubescent facial hair.

IIRC, many VERY YOUNG girls get their ears pierced.  Heck, b/c of cultural norms, my DW had hers pierced as an infant, but wasn't allowed to to shave her legs until she was already very embarrassed and self-conscious.

When a girl becomes self conscious about her eyebrows or legs, why not let them "take care of it."  Do parents  think it will lead to sexual activity at too young an age?  do they think it's bad for their body image to allow them to "artificially" change their body hair (as opposed to forcing them to  maintain a body hair that society says is not ideal).  Am I really just missing something obvious here?

 Part of the problem is that when you let girls start shaving too young, they lack the common sense to do it properly.  Younger girls will pluck their eyebrows off entirely, or shave off their shinbones (and I have the scars to prove it!)

My friend had a little sister with dark arm hair (I think she was maybe 11 ish?).  She was embarrased but didn't want to ask for advice, so she shaved her arms! 

why in gods name would your parents not let you shave your legs or get your eyebrows done?

Our youngest really got the "Italian" features...read this as she is very hairy!

she stared begging us to shave her legs before she was 8.  She was so self conscious...we let her when she was almost 10.  She has cut herself twice...I 17 year old cuts herself 2x a shower...sigh

I started waxing our daughter's eye brows this year at 11...they aren't thin, just cleaned up a bit. 

It depends on how hairy their eyebrows are! Thanks to my lovely Eastern European heritage, I was a bit...um...precocious in the whole hair growth aspect of puberty (had hairy armpits when I was 9 or 10 - waaaaay before I had anything even resembling a chest). When I told my parents that the other kids were making fun of me, my mom helped me shave a couple times, and then just showed me the right way to do it. In middle school, when I realized that I had a unibrow, I plucked it on my own accord and it came out fine.

Seriously, if a girl has a unibrow or gorilla legs or whatever, it is much better to just help her remove it, regardless of age, rather than subjecting her to the ridicule of her peers. When she is older, she can decide to shave or not shave or whatever, but adolescence is tough and a positive self image is critical.

I truly hope that any future daughters of mine do not inherit my hairy genes, but if they do, I'll be there to help them pluck, bleach, shave, wax, or whatever it takes to keep them from being the school sasquatch. It isn't an issue of "oversexualizing" a child in this case - just helping to prevent future trauma!

Original Post by melodrama1:

 Part of the problem is that when you let girls start shaving too young, they lack the common sense to do it properly.  Younger girls will pluck their eyebrows off entirely, or shave off their shinbones (and I have the scars to prove it!)

Note to self: Allow shaving and/or waxing, but SUPERVISE (or get DW to).  

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Hmmm... That really doesn't help me understand.

Thanks for the well wishes though.

Original Post by haunted000:

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Hmmm... That really doesn't help me understand.

Thanks for the well wishes though.

 (hon, I don't think that was meant for you! ;) )

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WOAH WHAT THE ****? I was asking a simple godamn question.

Original Post by jackattack07:

Original Post by hayleymajayley: Quoted text has been previously moderated and therefor cannot be displayed

WOAH WHAT THE ****? I was asking a simple godamn question.

 Looks like you don't have a monopoly on trolling. ;)

Original Post by crazydiamondchrysalis:

Original Post by haunted000:

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Hmmm... That really doesn't help me understand.

Thanks for the well wishes though.

 (hon, I don't think that was meant for you! ;) )

My apologies for my snarkiness, if it wasn't intended for me.  I think I'll go back to lurking.  It feels a little hostile in chatworld today.

Original Post by haunted000:

Original Post by crazydiamondchrysalis:

Original Post by haunted000:

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Hmmm... That really doesn't help me understand.

Thanks for the well wishes though.

 (hon, I don't think that was meant for you! ;) )

My apologies for my snarkiness, if it wasn't intended for me.  I think I'll go back to lurking.  It feels a little hostile in chatworld today.

 

It's all the jesus's and copycats running around.

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 Yah, I'm following you around now!

Oh man, I had a unibrow (still do if I let it grow!), and no matter how much I begged she wouldn't let me pluck it. So one day I took a razor to it, shaved off half of one of my eye brows and freaked out. She let me pluck it after that. My parents were/are noobs though, they didn't let me shave anything either, not even my armpits. I started doing it all myself when I was 16.

In my opinion, kids are cruel. If someone has a unibrow and she is 10/11, believe me, they are making fun of her/him. My mother used to do my little brother's eyebrows when he was little (unibrow family ftl), so he wouldn't get bullied like me. As for shaping eyebrows, I say around 15/16, usually around their they begin to do things on their own naturally. For shaving legs, if she's going to be wearing shorts to school and the hair is noticable... teach her to shave (if she wants to).

I was never taught and I had to learn everything the hard way. I didn't even know women got armpit hair and I was so scared and didn't know why I had it. I remember using scissors to trim them (I didn't know you even shaved there...) and then later I used my mother's razor.

The best bet is if the child starts asking if she/he can do this, let them.