To start off, I’m a 17 year old male and all my life I’ve had problems dealing with excessive body hair. According to my mom, I was born with dark hair on my arms and legs which never went away. Even as a toddler, my arms and legs were so hairy that kids in preschool and kindergarten would ask why I was so “fuzzy” and why I looked like their daddy. I think I hit puberty when I was about 8 and by 9 I had about as much armpit hair as I do now, and that’s a lot. I started getting hair on my chest and stomach at 11 and that’s been getting thicker and thicker since. I also got facial hair at 11, which my parents wouldn’t let me shave because I would “cut myself” so for a few years I had quite a bit of beard scruff on my face. At around 13 I started getting back hair which isn’t the thickest hair on my body, but it’s still way more than a teen should have.
All my life I was teased and made an outcast because I was so hairy, I can remember all the way back to my first few years of school people would comment and tease me about it. Once it became junior high it was getting really bad, and it peaked during freshman year in PE. We had to change our clothes before and after class in the locker room, and by this time I had quite a lot of chest, stomach, and back hair and was teased (you could say tormented) constantly. Even now people passing by just stare at me with disgust, even adults, which obviously has had huge impacts on my self esteem.
Now at 17 I feel like the insults and names people would call me (werewolf, gorilla, ape, Chewbacca) are all true. It’s mostly my arms and legs. They’re so covered with long, thick hair, that it’s almost impossible to see skin underneath, as if it was animal fur. The center of my chest and most of my stomach is also the same way. There literally is not even an inch of skin on my whole body where I don’t have dark, noticeable hair. Even on places like my shoulders and back, where the hair is still very fine and short, it’s still dark and noticeable. I feel so embarrassed when people, even family, see me because I just feel like this caveman and the hair is getting thicker all the time. I mean, I know there are some adults with more chest hair than me but at the rate it’s growing in, that’ll change.
Both sides of my family are extremely hairy and I’ve definitely inherited it from both sides. My arms and legs are already the hairiest on both sides of my family that I know of, and the way the rest of my body is progressing I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up that way everywhere. I’ve basically got no chance at a girlfriend, all the girls I’ve met have told me I’m gross and need to shave… which sort of leads me to another problem.
In the past 9 or so months I’ve developed a very severe case of fibromyalgia, which for those who are unfamiliar can best be described as horrifying, excruciating pain all over your body 24/7. I’ve had symptoms for a good portion of my life but it was never severe until 9 months ago. I’ve gotten to the point where I can barely even walk, open a water bottle, and even use a pencil. I can’t think of any feasible methods of hair removal that won’t be ridiculously painful. I have no money (as I can’t physically work) so any sort of laser, electrolysis, anything is basically not possible at the moment. Shaving is horribly painful (it’s hard enough to shave my face, I typically hold out as long as I can without looking like I’m growing a beard), and waxing is just ridiculous to think about. Even running a trimmer over my body hair is too painful to be worth it. My lack of mobility has made me put on 30-40 pounds in the past few years and I just feel like this fat, hairy thing that can’t walk and gets stared at for being a werewolf.
Since there’s no method of removing the hair that’s really worth it or feasible, I’m trying at this point to just get comfortable with looking like this. To stop caring what people think. We have family in town and they want to take us to a pool (which is nice for me because being in water helps me move better since it’s weight-relieved) and I would love to be able to take off my shirt without a care, but I’m just way too embarrassed. I don’t really know what to do.
I did take a picture of my arms and legs, I don’t know if that’s weird to show here or not but I figured I’d hold off on showing them just in case it is weird.
I think I’ve made a little progress on how I feel about myself in the past few months. Still a long road ahead, though.
