That Pesky Hair

Dear Cecily,

I just tried to shave my legs for the first time this winter and it took forever. The razor kept getting clogged. What do you do to cope with the crazy body hair we women have to endure and get rid of for appearance’s sake?

Sincerely,

Coder Girl

Oh, DUDE. I know, right? For me, one of the privileges of being married is that I can skip the hair shaving in the winter time. I hate shaving. HATE. IT. I think partially because I have my mom’s feminist voice still ringing in my head; she used to say, “You realize, of course, that by insisting women shave their legs and underarms it makes them look like BABIES, don’t you? Why do men want to be with BABIES?”

If only she could have known about the Brazilian waxing craze, because yeah, seriously, it makes women look like babies down under.

I have several issues with shaving, myself. First of all, I’m VERY prone to razor rash. I’ve found a couple of tricks to get around that. First, I found a razor I love (as it’s not a sponsor of Aiming Low, I won’t mention it here, but I’ll tell you in email. Secondly, immediately after shaving I run the coldest water I can stand over my legs. This keeps the razor burn away.

My underarms, sadly, suffer more. I am SO sensitive there that I end up only doing it every few weeks. So in other words, I don’t raise my arms when I’m in a tank top or swimsuit. Much.

In the wintertime, I’ve found an electric razor to be a better plan. I have extremely dry skin in the winter, so the electric razor is less irritating. While I don’t like the way an electric razor shaves for long summer days, it’s perfect to keep my razor from clogging in the shower when I DO need to shave.

Besides, it’s the god damned chin hairs that are killing me. I’m going to have more of a beard than my husband does soon. Getting old sucks.

Got a question for Cecily? Leave it in the comments!