One of the things that still hurts me deeply about hair removal culture is the loss of innocence. I was sitting in a shopping centre today having a drink and I saw this little girl, maybe around 8 or 9 with her mum and older sister, I think Turkish, and she had this glitzy little tank top on, probably dressing up for he last day of school since it's school holidays now. She had visible dark hair up to her shoulders and on her lower back and she was running around playing with her sister without a care in the world, just looking so happy and free and I felt a pang in my heart, I was both so happy and so sad for her. I thought about the last time I was unaware of my body hair or of my body at all, and I can't even remember it. I remember being 7 or 8 and messing around with the sink when washing my paintbrushes at school and one of the kids pointed out how dark the hair on my arms was when it got wet. And since then I couldn't stop noticing it and how much darker and more visible it was than everyone elses, even the boys, especially whenever I had to put on a tshirt for P.E. or a dress in the summer. And I remember going home one day and trying to cut all my arm hair off with a pair of craft scissors and my mum found out and was so angry because she thought that I since cut the hair it was going to grow back even thicker and darker and that I was going to look like a freak (her exact words - thanks mum). So she started waxing my 8 year old arms with hot wax even though it burnt my skin. Then when I was 10 she started waxing my legs. Then my underarms, then my bikini line, and when I was 17 she tried to persuade me to get a brazilian wax.
The world is just so messed up for little girls, it's like no one cares that you're a child, you're a female first so you have to fit the standard of beauty from childhood at whatever cost. It's like a curse, as soon as you become aware of some new 'flaw' you can't unsee it or stop thinking about it and you're expected to 'fix' it. And it's getting even worse with the rise of even more ridiculous beauty standards and procedures and social media and now we're seeing 14 year olds with anti aging routines. I genuinely feel like the destruction of innocence as a girl is such a scarring experience, you stop being a relatively carefree and happy child who is unaware of the expectations of beauty and start having to become a 'girl'