Forget about your teenage daughter; would you allow your 8-year-old to get a bikini wax? I cannot fathom a mother out there who would give her blessing to such an atrocity. Yet, after reading my previous blog, a friend of mine informed me of a “Today” show piece where a Philadelphia aesthetician was asked by a seemingly sane adult female to book a bikini wax appointment for her 8-year-old daughter. According to the aesthetician, the request wasn’t due to the girl’s early development of hair. Rather, it was about the mother’s obsession with wanting her daughter to be a supermodel.
Take a moment to let that absorb: A mother asking a stranger to inflict pain on her young daughter, all in the name of vanity. And you thought letting your child watch an extra hour of TV was bad.
Sadly, the aforementioned mother’s type of thinking is not uncommon, according to the “Today” show piece. Studies show that an increasing amount of mothers around the U.S. are taking their young daughters (between the ages of 8 and 12, sometimes younger) to salons to get body hair removed. Tweens getting wax jobs (from eyebrows to the bikini line) is the “new normal,” according to salon owners. The International Spa Association also notes that the number of kids 12 and under coming in for waxing services has increased dramatically over the past three years.
So what are the reasons behind the growing trend? Spa owners say some kids have a lot of hair, and to avoid feeling self-conscious about a unibrow or a mustache they get waxed. As for bikini lines, one aesthetician told the “Today” show that she performed the painful procedure on a 10-year-old with dark hair because the girl couldn’t go to camp without getting teased.
According to salon owners, the other group of girls, who receive regular wax jobs are the offspring of overbearing mothers who pressure their daughters to look “perfect.”
I’m sure we all know a few of those, and I would imagine seeing ads for tween waxing only fans the flames of perfectionist moms.
Wanda’s European Skin Care Center, located in New York City boasts on its website that children 8 years and older can get discounted waxing for “virgin” hair: “Virgin hair can be waxed so successfully that growth can be permanently stopped in just 2 to 6 sessions. Save your child a lifetime of waxing … and put the money in the bank for her college education instead!”
Before parents, who allow their tweens to get wax jobs, rail me on me, I should note that health experts maintain that there isn’t any known increase in medical complications when young girls get waxed. Though, it’s not certain if those “complications” are purely physical in nature or the doctors have taken into consideration the psychological impact on young girls, who have their hair yanked out of them at such a young age, against their will.
Would you allow your 8-year-old to get a bikini wax?
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