Sometimes you come across a story that you just can’t believe, and here is my gasp-inducing story for today: From the Today show (hat tip to poynter.org, every journalist’s must-read) comes an amazing story about increasing trend of pre-teen girls getting BIKINI WAXES! OMG, it’s bad enough when you’re a grown-up to have to worry about “unwanted hair,” but how many ways can we come up with to make our daughters feel bad about themselves? There’s even someone quoted in the story about how if you wax “virgin hair” (can’t believe I’m even typing those words), you can get rid of it permanently in 2-6 treatments. That means waxing has to start at 8. Gawd.
I know that the place I get my pedicures has “Little Ms. Diva” manicures, and though I get why they are fun, it still seems like trying to make little girls into big girls too soon. But this? Can you imagine letting your tween daughter get a bikini wax? Maybe I’m just out of the loop … what do you think?
Responses to “Too young to, uh, WAX?”
August 20th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
I have to say that I’ve heard other Mom’s talking about waxing vs shaving, but more in the context of legs, and yes, shaving much younger! When talking to a group of girl Mom’s last week, they were trying to ‘hold off’ on shaving until 10. Geeze, I was thinking 13, but certainly don’t want my girl to be a dweeb.
But no, I won’t be putting my ‘child’ under hot wax any time soon. And I plan on holding off as close to 13 for shaving as I can. She has plenty of time to be a grown up.
August 21st, 2008 at 9:46 am
I have been worrying for the last couple of months about when to start letting my daughter shave her legs. She is a cheerleader and most of the other girls already shave or “Nair” their legs, but isn’t 10 1/2 just too young. I simply can’t imagine allowing her to wax anything. I have let her get her toes painted at the salon while I was having a pedicure, but it was a quickie paint job that they didn’t even charge me for. It was something fun and definately not the norm.
August 21st, 2008 at 7:31 pm
This isn’t so much a new thing as a locale thing that’s moved to Memphis. When I was 10, I went to a fancy horse riding summer camp attended by mostly very rich girls from Palm Springs. All of them had shaved for years and they mocked me endlessly because I didn’t. I came home and demanded to know why my parents hadn’t told me I needed to start shaving (yeah, I’m sure I was attractive to be around at that age.) My parents were a little shocked but they bought a razor and that was how I started shaving.
Speaking as an outsider, I think when a girl reaches that age where she has visible “furry” hair on her legs instead of being invisible like a child’s leg hair, she’s old enough. For some girls that happens by 10 but it never happens by 8! And I think if my child asked for a wax I would give her a lecture about how some people are trying to make money off of other people’s stupidity, and she shouldn’t buy into it.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Welcome back, Diva!
I saw an article about this last week, and I couldn’t believe it. It is wrong on so many levels. I agree that we are trying to make our children grow up too fast. My niece, who is all of 14, is already coloring her hair! My sister even helps her do it! I don’t get it at all. Plus, said niece begged and begged a couple of years ago to start shaving her legs. My sister gave in, and now all we hear is how she is tired of doing it already! When I got my pedicure last Friday, a mom and her daughter came in after the daughter got out of school. She was middle school at best. She sat there reading a gossip magazine and remarking about how she COULDN’T BELIEVE that Kenny Chesney was 40 (40! OMG!). I guess we are long past the days when kids were kids and adults were a whole separate species!