Sustainable forestry management aka the loveliest leg hair ever.

August 2, 2013 10:20 AM

How do you keep your hairy pins (and bits) in tip top condition?

I'm blessed with relatively fine, pale and contained body hair. I also believe that ladies' bodies are just as lovely with hair as without and admittedly, I couldn't give a rat's arse about regular hair removal.

What I am interested in is keeping my underarms, legs and pubic hair as beautiful as possible in a relatively natural state. You know, the type of beautiful hairy legs, which when exposed would inspire women to a life without waxing and make partners nudge their ladyfriends and tentatively ask "Would you grow au natural for me?."

For the record, my husband is already supportive of my hairy legs and bits, I'm happy to do selective trimming and yes, I am one of those pesky feminists.

posted by pipstar to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (14 answers total)

This may sound odd, but I pluck my bikini line. Yes, it is a huge pain in the butt and takes a while the first few times, but you get the smoothness of waxing without the price or risk of burns, and after the first few times it only gets easier as the hair naturally thins.
posted by sevensnowflakes at 10:26 AM on August 2, 2013

I am also a hairy-legged female person, and I think keeping your legs really well-moisturized makes a big difference. I love Lush's Dream Cream (pricey but worth it, I think, as someone who spends no money on those kinds of things usually). Yay, body hair.
posted by sabotagerabbit at 10:29 AM on August 2, 2013 [2 favorites]

I believe the search term you're looking for is 'manscaping'. Basically keeping it all trim.
posted by Dragonness at 10:29 AM on August 2, 2013

Conditioner.
No, seriously. It's hair. Keep it soft!
(You could also eat raw eggs for a glossy coat!)
posted by windykites at 11:23 AM on August 2, 2013 [1 favorite]

Coconut oil! It will soak in quickly and it's, uh, edible. Also suitable for dry ends of head hair.
posted by kmennie at 11:44 AM on August 2, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I do four things for my (also fine, pale, and sparse) leg hair.

• Exfoliate
• Moisturize
• Talk about my leg hair whenever other people mention shaving theirs.
• Wear skirts

For my underarms, I just wash them, wear antiperspirant for women (whatever I can get buy one get one free at Publix), and when an armpit is occasionally visible I don't freak out that other people see the hair. Which I guess is to say, I don't flaunt it.
posted by bilabial at 11:57 AM on August 2, 2013 [2 favorites]

make partners nudge their ladyfriends and tentatively ask "Would you grow au natural for me?"

Not gonna happen. But I did stop shaving for about two years in uni. A sexy tank top can complement some pit hair quite nicely.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:59 AM on August 2, 2013 [1 favorite]

if you can handle the horrible pain, then waxing your armpits a few times might be nice! I waxed mine twice in college (horrible, horrible pain) but since then they've been blonder and finer hairs which don't grow in so crazy.

before I just started shaving them, I used to have leg hair that poked all around in different directions (I think from wearing pants!), but I found that conditioning my legs and sort of like.. smoothing the hair downwards all the time seemed to help that a bit.

definitely moisturizing, and maybe a tan?
posted by euphoria066 at 12:13 PM on August 2, 2013

Make sure that you use an antiperspirant/deodorant that doesn't leave any white residue.
posted by radioamy at 2:24 PM on August 2, 2013

Not gonna happen.

Ahem. Could and did!
posted by Room 641-A at 2:41 PM on August 2, 2013 [2 favorites]

I've never had to do anything with my leg hair, but sometimes trim pubic hair/pit hair as needed. Nothing fancy, just a pair of scissors. Pubic hair is easy, pit hair is more complicated and usually just ends with me saying "meh, fuck it," and having slightly uneven underarms until they've grown out some more. I do occasionally wash my armpit hair with shampoo, especially if I've been using a lot of deodorant. It helps me feel more clean, even if it doesn't actually make much difference over actual soap. Plus, the lather is fun.
posted by naturalog at 3:31 PM on August 2, 2013

Mod note: This isn't really the place for discussing if a partner would ever/never like body hair. Let's just stick to the question. Thanks.
posted by taz (staff) at 12:40 AM on August 3, 2013

Make sure that you use an antiperspirant/deodorant that doesn't leave any white residue.
posted by radioamy at 5:24 PM on August 2 [+] [!]

I just want to come back in and say right now I'm using Degree (again, because it was on sale) and sometimes I use Dove and other times I use the Publix brand version of Dove. These are all stick antipersperant/deodorants. Sometimes they leave a white residue on my clothes, but I've never noticed blobs of deodorant in my pit hair. I don't have copious amounts of it.

I did use spray deodorant/antiperspirant for about a year or two in my early twenties. The overspray really bothered my lungs, so I'm surprised I used it that long.
posted by bilabial at 5:32 AM on August 3, 2013

Best answer: Not directly related to your question, but this may be of interest: Armpits4August.

I use hippy all natural deodorants. More expensive, and sometimes I re-apply if I'm going out in the evening. But it keeps my pits from getting that gloopy, sticky feel, and has even made a marginal improvement in dryness level for my armpit hair. If I cared more about it, I suppose I might try some moisturizing mask like for top-of-head hair. The dryness level of my various body hairs seems to be the determining factor in how nice it feels and looks.
posted by eviemath at 5:56 AM on August 3, 2013 [1 favorite]