armpit hair

i either shave or wax it. i try to rid myself of as much body hair as possible. i would love to go all natural, but i just can't stand the feeling of my body hair.

 

Hey Sus,
Yah lots of ladies (and gents!) don't trim or shave their pubes, I actually used to be one of them. Maybe it's just me and the way my personal body works, but I found that with my period, I feel much more clean when there's no pubic hair to hold dried blood and whatnot against my body. (No, I don't use tampons, I have a medical condition that means I can't, so I have to use pads) For me it's a hygiene thing, I've felt a lot cleaner since then. But like I said, I totally respect women who don't - it's such a personal choice, like anything else about our bodies, like piercings, or hair dying, or whether or not we wear a bra. (ears and navel, tropical burgundy, and totally!) Happy Thanksgiving to you too, sister I love having conversations that are peaceful and respectful...we can all learn new ways to look at things from one another

 

I recently started shaving my legs again and I love it. Although my armpits..theres just something funny not having hair there. I recently read that it was important for women to have armpit hair so the gland could excrete better. I read that if you shave this area you have a higher chane of developing breast cancer. Just thought I would share.

 

Hi Firefingers- I was intrigued by your post. How long did you go without shaving your legs + what prompted you to start shaving them again? You say you love shaving them now- is that the actual ritual of shaving or the end result or both?


As I guy I've always loved hairy legs/pits on a woman, yet at the same time there's something erotic about watching a woman shave hairy/stubbly legs- the water, soaping + seeing razor glide through hair. Yet I soon get bored with hairless legs + can't wait for hair to grow back. My partner has never shaved her pits +don't think she's shaved her legs for a couple of years now- last time was for a job interview.

Do you think you might grow out your leg hair again or you now totally prefer smooth hairless look? I'm intrigued about what makes a woman start/stop shaving their body hair?!

 

are you serious? Where did you read that?

 

Yeah, I'm curious too, firefingers...that is interesting info. If you can remember where you read that, I'd love to see it. Thanks!

 

^^^
Me too...although to be honest, it sounds kind of similar to that whole "antiperspirants cause breast cancer" thing that went around the net a couple of years ago...

 

LOL! Oh Goddess! Whom ever thinks you smell less because you shave-BUZZ! Wrong. You will smell whether you shave or not. The hair's job is to distribute the pheromones more evenly which is why you smell stronger with arm hair. You will be a stinky underarm gal with or without hair based on:

1. Genetics
2. Diet
3. Wearing or not wearing deorderant
4. Cause ya sweat and underarms don't get as much air as the rest of your body does.

So, now that that silly myth is dispursed, let's touch upon another one. Goosebumps are just the tiny nerves in the hair standing it up so you will generate heat. You will feel "goosepumps" shaved or not if you happen to be cold. The body's natural reaction to saving heat lost from the largest organ you have: your skin. I too have heard of that breast cancer from deorderant thingie. I think it comes from all the chemicals in your average container of antipersperant which is why I stopped using them. I either use the deorderant stones which prohibit the "smell" w/o stopping my essential need to sweat or get the more natural herbal based roll ons or solids.

To shave or not is up to the individual. I personally do not shave anything as it will only grow back longer, itchy and well, I don't see a point of me doing so. I feel feminine no matter what so shaving doesn't make me more so just bald. I especially feel clean if I've had a good sauna and shower .

 

If it feels good, do it!

 

Yeah for women that do not shave their pits, or anything else for that matter! Go all natural. Your body, the earth, your valuable time, and your wallet can use a break.

 

I don't shave ANYTHING. It's a stupid degrading standard that society sets for us. What happened to nonconformity?

 

when I was in my teens and twenties, I shaved pits and legs very regularly, a bit less in the wintertime. Society and the media told me that was "normal" , that women are "supposed to" shave. Acutally my older sister first told me that I needed to shave my legs when I was about 12 yrs old. About the same time she told me I needed to wear a bra. Before that, I had no idea that women had these expectations put on them.


Now, I shave the pits and legs a couple of times a month in the summer and about once a month in the winter. When I feel like doing it. I might just let the pits go for a while since I never have completely stopped before, and see how long it gets! My leg and pit hair is dark and coarse. I wonder how long it would have to get to become soft.

My daughter, who is now 10, has had kids at school tell her the hair on her arms is too much or too dark, that she should shave her legs, and that her eyebrows are too thick (oh yeah, my sister told me I needed to tweeze my eyebrows too ). And my daughter has shaved her legs, arms! and tried to cut her eyebrows. She is not too easily influenced by the crowd, dresses like a boy most of the time, etc. So I hate that she is so influenced about body hair.

 

even though i'm a beauty therapist, i still think its a good idea to go natural once in a while, over shaving can make it look twice as bad....


but i don't shave i wax every part of me that can be wax does get waxed..

xxx

 

Beauty THERAPIST??? Ugly people need therapy???

No lipstick is a sign of metal illness?


Its no wonder yarrow sun's 10yr old daughter is worried about the repugnant hair on her arms.

 

i shave. i've always had an obsession with body hair. i used to shave my entire body except my face/eyebrows/head ... now i just shave the usual places/.

 

A holister healer friend of mine told me the same thing. Shaving your arm pits (not to mention wearing a bra and I know you can google the latter to be sure) can help lead to breast cancer. If I wasn't feeling so sick I'd get the links so sorry but someone else please do it if your up for it.

 

I found it here: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4587

Deodorants plus shaving linked to breast cancer

Frequent underarm shaving combined with deodorant use might increase women's chances of getting breast cancer, claims a study based on a survey of over 400 women with breast cancer in the US. It is the first evidence of such a link to appear in a peer-reviewed journal, but it is far from conclusive.

Claims that deodorants cause breast cancer hit the headlines recently when Phillipa Darbre of the University of Reading in the UK published a paper reporting that preservatives used in antiperspirants and deodorants can be found in breast tumours. But this in no way proved that the preservatives, called para-hydroxybenzoic acids or parabens, actually caused the tumours, and most deodorants no longer contain any parabens.

The US study, by Chicago doctor Kris McGrath of Northwestern University, does suggest that deodorants or antiperspirants might be linked with breast cancer, but only together with underarm shaving. And it has too many weaknesses to be regarded as definitive.

The issue first gained publicity in the 1990s when a hoax email was widely circulated. It claimed that underarm shaving creates tiny nicks, allowing unnamed chemicals from deodorants or antiperspirants to enter the body and trigger tumours.

The first, and until now only, epidemiological study was published in 2002. Dana Mirick's team at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle included questions on underarm shaving and deodorant use in a study comparing 800 women with breast cancer with 800 randomly chosen women of similar age. Mirick found no evidence of any link.
Age related

McGrath's study, published in December, was smaller. He divided 437 breast cancer patients into four groups depending on how often they shaved and applied deodorant. He found that the more zealous the underarm regime, the younger the women were when diagnosed with cancer.

Those who shaved at least three times a week and applied deodorant at least twice a week were almost 15 years younger when diagnosed than women who did neither (European Journal of Cancer Prevention, vol 12, p 479).

Neither shaving nor deodorant use alone was linked with a younger age of diagnosis. McGrath suspects the aluminium compounds found in many products might be to blame.

But Mirick says McGrath's study has major limitations. The most serious is the absence of a control group without breast cancer, she says. That means there could be a simple explanation for the findings: younger women use antiperspirant and shave more often than older women.
Hygiene regime

McGrath admits that the study's power is limited. But he claims it is the first to address the intensity of underarm hygiene regimes. "If a disease is from a lifestyle, those exposed to that lifestyle more should have an earlier diagnosis than those less exposed. For example, the more one consumes alcohol the sooner an alcohol-related disease should appear," McGrath says.

"It is a landmark publication because it provides the first epidemiological evidence for a link between the use of antiperspirants/deodorants and breast cancer development," claims Darbre.

Like Darbre, McGrath speculates that the steady rise in the incidence of breast cancers could be linked to deodorants. But in fact the rise in underarm deodorant use seems to parallel or even lag slightly behind the cancer rise, says David Philips of the Institute of Cancer Research in London - the opposite of what you would expect if there was a link.

Darbre cites as another cause for concern the fact that over half of breast cancers occur in the part of the breast nearest the armpit. But sceptics say this is because that quadrant has the largest amount of breast tissue.

Mirick's work has convinced most experts that there is nothing to worry about. But McGrath and Darbre argue that their studies provide enough evidence to justify funding bigger and better studies.

Journal reference: European Journal of Cancer Prevention (vol 12, p 479)

 

I do, when I can be bothered.

 

I do not shave. Shaving my armpits is just too painful, and makes me really sweaty. I personally prefer fuzz to scratchy stubble, which I get just hours after shaving my hair grows so fast. I do, however, trim my armpit hair every now and then with a beard trimmer so it's not so scary. It's thick and black and I think it would grow a foot long if I let it! ACK!