Nair apparent; or, let’s get those children shaving!

The New York Times published a story about new hair removal (sorry, “skin smoothing”) products aimed at the under-15 market. Nair has a new product called Nair Pretty for all those youngsters worried about their stubble.

Let’s be transparent, this is simply about expanding their market & earning more money. I wonder if it is possible for us to have dialogues with our daughters and with each other about the necessity of teaching young girls that the hair that grows on their legs naturally is somehow disgusting. Silly question, maybe, but how come there ain’t a product like this for men? They tend to have quite a bit more body hair, after all…ew, stubbly. ;P

And what do you say?

While I was in Chicago last week for a conference, I had a strange encounter. As I was unloading my luggage from the airport shuttle van, the driver walked over to me and rubbed his finger against my forearm. He said, “Oh, nice. I bet not many men would tell you that.” I’m pretty sure he was referring to the hair on my arm, which is a bit on the dark/thick side. I was shocked, and didn’t respond, but started to walk away immediately.

I felt a bit violated, to be honest; it always bothers me when people feel compelled to make personal comments to complete strangers, anyway, and I couldn’t figure out what I’d said or done to lead to this backhanded “compliment.” I felt self-conscious for the rest of the day; being alone in an unfamiliar city was challenging enough.

Has anyone had experiences of other people commenting directly to you about your hair?

Lost locks

The New York Times has a story today about the huge amounts of hair donated each year to organizations like Locks of Love; apparently, much of it is unusable.

Here’s another interesting post on the topic of hair donation (there’s too much of it, it seems, and money may be preferable) from Shakesville; I do think it’s cruel to coerce a young girl to donate her hair if she’s not genuinely willing to do so.