My legs weren't this hairy, but they certainly seemed that way!
Image courtesy of: Off Track Planet
I'll never forget the first time the first time I realized that I didn't belong: I was fifteen and on a bus in Mexico on my way to a roller skating rink with my sister and cousins. My capris gave the bus passengers a three-inch peek to my very hairy legs.
The well-coiffed ladies on the bus (hey, this was in Guadalajara, Mexico!), made it pretty obvious that my hairy legs were all together disgusting...and a reason "not to leave the house."
My cousins and younger sister, were also, well, hairy...but we never seemed bothered by it...until then!
Shaving was out of the question. The moment we did, according to our parents, "we would loose our innocence" and enter the scary stage of "adulthood." Something, that according to our parents, "we wanted to postpone as long as possible."
Stepping out of that bus was also stepping out of that childhood innocence. Instead of giggling like the normal teenagers we were, my cousins, sisters and I, suddenly because obsessed with the fact that we "weren't normal." We were "hairy," and somehow "shouldn't leave the house."
I don't know who asked first, but we all eventually asked our parents if we could "please shave our legs"...only receive a resounding NO to our teenage pleads.
Being the teenager I was, I eventually creeped into my fathers shaving kit and found a razor. I waited until I could shower in peace and began to run the razor up-and-down my calves...while watching my leg fuzz being washed down the drain.
Eventually, my clumsy attempt at shaving resulted in cuts and nicks in more places than I could count...while the warm shower water only seemed to aggravate the bleeding.
Once I was done with my first experience shaving my legs, I ran to my room, closed the door to admire a badly cut pair of hair-free legs!
It was liberating!
I no longer had "disgusting" legs. But, my parents were right: it was at that moment in time that my worry-free life as a girl would now be replaced by the beauty worries of a woman.
Ain't life grand?!
I was compensated for this post as a member of Clever Girls Collective. All the opinions expressed here are my own.
