My daughter is 11 years old. She has fair skin and dark brown hair ( I think she’s beautiful!)
But she recently entered 6th grade and has become very aware of the hair on her upper lip and developing unibrow. The hair above her lip is very noticible. So I am seeking advice for the safest and most efective way of removing it. Being she is so young I do not want to do anything that would cause damage to her skin or make matters worse.
any advice would help
thanks
rie
I cannot answer what you should do in your case, but My daughter who is 10 has been noticing the unibrow creeping in, and as the older girls at school have started shaving, she has noticed her legs are hairier than she wants… I do think Electrolysis is the best option for permanent removal, but I worry about having to make them suffer something potentially painful, and to try to make them see it is for their own long-term good…
I am just going to have my daughters eyebrows done (plucked) professionally, so she can see the difference and decide if it something she wants… As for her legs, I am just putting that one off for now…
I can see that an upper lip would be more urgent, and more noticeable for her… Anything like waxing, plucking etc is going to be a temporary solution…
Good luck,
Keep us posted on the results of her treatments…
David
It would be best if you discussed this with your daughter. What ever will be done, or not done should be something that she wants to happen. Should she decide that she wants permanent hair removal, she will also believe that what ever temporary discomfort is needed, is also worth it.
If you have a good practitioner, you have nothing to worry about. The hair will be removed, the skin will be flawless in a short period of time, and she will be able to keep it that way for the rest of her life. If you start now, she should be able to get full clearance in a few appointments spread out over a short time. Maybe 15 to 30 mins a week over 6 weeks. After that, she may need only 15 to 30 minute touch ups every 6 to 12 weeks for the rest of the year.
The most important thing is to find the best practitioner in your area. You personally should take a consultation and sample treatment form everyone you can find in the area, and you will know who is the best from that. Once you have taken one for the team this way, you will know who to entrust with your daughter’s face. I might also advise that you do your consultations on either your legs, or the area that is in shadows from your chin to your neck. At least there you will get a good idea of their face technique, while having what ever work they do out of the sight of most who look at you.
As for IHH, don’t worry about the leg work. It is actually easier to do legs than it is to do faces. The hair is usually easier to reach, and can be removed in thermolysis without much discomfort. I could not see why she could not be bare legged at first clearance in 3 to 4 appointments. The only reason it would not be 2 appointments is she would get restless and bored sitting for as long as it would take to clear it out in 2 treatments.
TAKE YOUR DAUGHTER TO THE DOCTOR!!! This seems like an obvious step to me. I hope you’ve done it already. This hair could be a sign of a serious illness that will affect her for the rest of her life.
While unwanted hair can be a sign of a medical condition, it is almost always a simple matter of heredity. Usually unwanted hair is accompanied by other issues like glucose intolerance, PCOS, or weight gain when it’s medical. This is probably only about 2% or less of people with unwanted hair.
As James said, it is ESSENTIAL to find the very best person in your area, to avoid side effects and skin damage. Take your time and do your homework on this one.
</font><blockquote><font size=“1” face=“Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif”>quote:</font><hr /><font size=“2” face=“Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif”> This is probably only about 2% or less of people with unwanted hair.
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size=“2” face=“Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif”>Well, I can’t disagree with that because there aren’t any reliable stats out there. But when ten and eleven year old girls are showing hirsutism it’s important to discuss it with a doctor.
Hair only gets worse as we age. It will be a waste of money to “permanantly” remove hair that will continue to grow in for the rest of her adult life. Unless you’re prepared to do it every couple of years, it probably won’t help too much.
The hair we remove is gone and gone for ever. Even if one were to have a problem that was destined to recruit all follicles available over the course of a lifetime, electrolysis would still be the best option because it would remove those hairs for good, and one is only removing the new hairs in the new follicles and although one might have an appointment every year, the duration of the appointment and the frequency would vary. The only way to wait till all the hair that is going to grow to grow is to wait till you die to have it removed.
I have two daughters, 11 this year and 8 this year… both have darker hair on their lower legs, not too dark, but noticeable… and soon they (and boys) will notice… both have a creeping eyebrows (not a full-on unibrow), not really noticeable… but I am aware of it… but there is nothing wrong with their development any other way…
I know that they are likely to get some extra hair, or heavier coverage than other girls who say had two blond parents… If they end up with hair all over and start growing facial hair, then I will be worried, but at this point, I believe they will just be dark haired and I do, and they may, feel that it is a cosmetic problem, rather than an endocrine issue…
As James states, you could wait for ever and a day to get it all done… but a perfectly healthy 20 year old male could get it all done, and still need more work in 5 years time, and 10 years etc… it is the maintenance phase… get all you can now, catch the others as they come through… easy and faster down the track to be rid of those you can now…
David
rie,
As I told David in the other post, I think it is important to wait until they come to you for help, so as not to inadvertently force your hair insecurities on a perfectly happy kid.
When I was a child, I had always known that my mother had received electrolysis on her upper lip. I was aware of the electric razor in the bathroom and my grandmother’s use of it. So I guess I always knew of the genetic hair issues I would eventually deal with. Discussing your own hair issues might help open up the topic to your daughters, without them feeling a need to discuss their own.
I’m sure you have a pair of tweezers in the bathroom. When I decided I’d had enough of my unibrow, I simply picked them up. Eyebrows are a relatively small area, so I wouldn’t be concerned over more drastic removal unless your daughter wants it.
As for upper lip hair, when I told my mom I didn’t like it, she waxed the area for me. I’m not sure why we chose waxing, but probably because my older sister was already using that method. I found that waxing worked fine for me. I actually bonded a bit with my sister and mother during those times, and it lasted longer than shaving but without the embarrassment of going to a professional. Now that I’m older I simply wax myself. It takes me no longer than five minutes and I can do it whenever I need to, without having to make an appt. Furthermore, I feel no pain in that area.
I hope I haven’t rambled, but my point was that it should be your daughter’s decision, and all you need to do is provide her with the information and support she needs. As she gets older she will have to make more and more decisions about her body, so it is important to let her know that it is her body and her choice – no one else’s.