Help Desk: Arm Hair. Ignore or Eliminate?

on March 31, 2010 at 7:00 AM

Here's a great help desk question from a reader who wishes to remain anonymous:

I am 38 and part Italian. As part of my Italian heritage, I get a nice olive like complexion, but I also get hair. Yep, hair! Not just on my head, but well, all over the place - chin, face, legs, arms. Yes, I know all women get hair in all of these places, but my hair tends to be of the abundant, dark, dark brown variety. I can take care of the hair issue for most of my body (No Tom Selleck moustache for me, no thank you!), but I wonder about the arm hair issue.

Yes, that is my burning question: the arm hair.

For most of my life, I never gave much thought to the hair on my arms. It's there. It's part of my reality and I was unwilling to wax it off. I have several female family members who have talked with me about all their efforts to get rid of their arm hair. They shave. They professionally wax. They home wax. And well, it all seems somewhat excessive to me. Yes, I shave my legs. I shave my underarms, but do I really need to be removing all my arm hair too? At what point did society dictate that women must be hairless in all spots but their heads? I don't want to do it. I have enough to worry about, thank you very much. But I also do not want to be exposing myself to a HUGE style faux paus. (No one wants people to snicker behind their backs over a little arm hair.)

The more my family members mentioned the issue to me, the more self concious I got regarding the state of my arms. I asked a close group of girlfriends and they all said they do not wax or shave the hair on their arms. But, their arm hair tends to be lighter in color than mine.

So I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on this, ahem, very important issue.I totally get this because I had hair on my forearms as a kid and was horribly, horribly embarrassed by it. My mom wouldn't let me get rid of it, insisting that it wasn't very noticeable (and she was right- it wasn't), but in my mind, I was practically Teen Wolf. I still have it as an adult and never even think about it- It's so faint that I assume no one notices it, however I'd never let hair grow on my legs, so should I be getting rid of my arm hair as well?

Now I'm feeling nervous.

Anyway, Anonymous, my advice is to go with your gut. If it's not bothering you, I wouldn't worry about it. Lots of women have arm hair. HOWEVER, if it is bothering you, there's a very, very easy way to get rid of it that doesn't involve painful waxing or scratchy shaving:

Nair.

Seriously. I think Nair should have been marketed specifically for arm hair. Arm hair is so fine (compared to underarm or leg hair) that Nair knocks it out with no problem and it takes several weeks for the hair to grow back, and as it grows back, it's even finer for a while and looks totally natural. And yes, I say that from experience. I used Nair on my arms before I got married because I wanted to look "perfect" for my wedding- and I was so pleased with it that I used it on my forearms for a while longer before I got bored with dealing with it and quit.

That's my advice; what do you all think about forearm hair? Is it a no-no, or a non-issue?

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Comments (12)

Nonmember comment from ClassyFabSarah

on Mar 31, 2010 at 4:15 AM

Be sure to try out Nair on a small patch of skin before you try it all over - you could be allergic and go into anaphylactic shock like my BFF in the 8th grade. NOT KIDDING! I am blonde and therefore have nearly hairless arms... but I would suggest creme bleach for lightening the hair.... it wouldn't get rid of the problem but it would make it less noticeable.

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Nonmember comment from Liz

on Mar 31, 2010 at 5:08 AM

I have long dark hair on my arms too. But I think it looks weird to have NO hair. So I use my husband's mustache trimmer to 'trim' the hair. It takes no time at all and I do it every few weeks.

Nonmember comment from FireMomofStopDr

on Mar 31, 2010 at 5:31 AM

I'm hairy. (Now there's a sentence to knock my self-image down another peg. Sigh.) Sometimes my arm hair annoys me. But I also have insanely sensitive skin so shaving, Nair, waxing and other options make me cringe. It's bad enough on my legs and other areas. I can't endure the thought of having to deal with sensitivities on my arms as well. I mean, right now my arms are so dry that my elbows cracked and bled. Ah, my self-image is now completely obliterated. Swell. In short, if it's REALLY bothering you, do what you want with it. If it's just something that you occasionally think, "Oh, wow, I look hair today," but then don't think of it for a few weeks, I'd leave it. In fact, if I saw a completely hairless arm, I'd notice it more than a really hairy arm. I promise.

Nonmember comment from KEPM

on Mar 31, 2010 at 5:33 AM

I was very self-conscious of it as a kid - and I don't even give it a second thought now - but it is light and there isn't alot of it. When I wanted to get rid of it when I was younger, my mother always told me it would grow back twice as dark and long (total wives tale I now know!) so I never did anything about it!

Nonmember comment from darthdoc

on Mar 31, 2010 at 5:35 AM

It's an issue of self-consciousness and hair volume in my opinion. If it is a tremendous amount, or it bothers you, it probably should go. I have no solutions, obviously, with depilatory strategies.

Nonmember comment from jodi_momfavorit

on Mar 31, 2010 at 5:50 AM

I used the bleach my arm hair, but now I'm doing laser hair removal. It's really a matter of personal preference.

Nonmember comment from suburbanturmoil

on Mar 31, 2010 at 5:55 AM

My mom did the same thing! HA! She was right about not getting rid of it, though, at least until I was 13 or so. Shaving would have made my arms feel weird and I was too young for Nair.

Nonmember comment from Amber

on Mar 31, 2010 at 6:16 AM

If it doesn't bother you, don't bother. Otherwise, I ditto the Nair, which I do when I want to look super smooth.

Nonmember comment from Jill

on Mar 31, 2010 at 6:20 AM

Agreed. I also notice completely hair-less arms more often than hairy arms. And I always think, "wow that is completely weird looking".

Nonmember comment from kittenpie

on Mar 31, 2010 at 12:39 PM

My arms are relatively fuzzy, but since the hair is lighter, it's not visible enough to bother me. If it does bother you, there's always bleach or nair.