Ugh, same problems...

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#1

I am a 19yr old female who has a mexican father and a caucasian mother. Because of this I have light-ish skin but dark hair…

Well, I’ve always been aware of my dark hair but it was when I turned 11 that my mother had shown me how to shave and when my self-loathing started. I always repeat in my head “if only, if only”. If only my mom would have actually said “now, the hair does grow back, only shave your legs! no where else!” because I didn’t really know at age 11… I didn’t realize it grows back thicker and darker.

I just had to shave my upper lip. I just had to shave my tummy area. I even went and shaved the hairs on my fingers, below the knuckle, y’know? I look back and realize if I didn’t do that I wouldn’t be as self-conscious and scared of my body as I am today. I got to the point, concerning my upper lip, that I stopped shaving it because I was just scared and alone feeling anyway. I stopped shaving my tummy area, and my breast area, but it was too late. It was darker and a bit thicker than the area around it I didn’t shave. I never show my torso to others. I’ve never worn a bikini during the summer, I never changed in front of my sisters.

Sorry for the rant. I just feel so cheated as I blame my hair problem on the fact I never got close to others during my teenage years and am now too much of an introvert to change my loner ways.

Hopefully I can afford electrolysis soon (I’m joining the military in January and oh no I’ll have to show my body around other females but I’ll just have to deal…) and get rid of this problem. Thank you for this forum. In just the few minutes I’ve spent reading threads on this forum I know this problem can be fixed and much more cheaply than I thought. Thank you.

#2

Shaving doesn’t do anything magical to the actual follicles and has NO effect on how thick or dark hair is. This is not your fault.

It often feels more coarse afterward because it’s got a blunt end instead of the tapered tip of an unshaven hair. The old wive’s tale that shaving makes hair thicker was disproven a very long time ago by numerous scientific studies that were very detailed and thorough. Unless something affects the hair’s root/follicle (like plucking or waxing), it can’t affect the quality of the hair. Cutting the ends doesn’t somehow nourish the hair into a bigger one, or else all the balding men out there would use it as their miracle cure. :stuck_out_tongue:

The reason your hairs became thicker and darker is because you were going through puberty (or were about to at least), and the hairs reacted to your hormonal changes. This would have happened anyway, I promise. So don’t blame yourself!!