hair on stomach

[fawncoat]

hello !
im a younger teen, and i'm having some worries about the hair on my stomach. i shaved it once or twice and now im noticing it's growing back slightly darker, similar to the hair on my legs. this is really bothering me, and im unsure what to do. do i just keep shaving it, or will that make it worse? ive seen some people talk about waxing or bleaching the hair but im nervous to ask my parents to buy me the products needed for that. please help a girl out !!
thank you

[Latha]

Hi there, Fawncoat--welcome to the boards!

Shaving hasn't actually changed the kind of hair you have on your stomach. If you've noticed that it looks different, that may be because shaving blunts the tip of the hair at your skin, making it seem less thin and darker in color. So you don't have to worry that shaving will make your hair even more noticeable--it will most likely stay exactly as it is now.

Here at Scarleteen, we don't like to tell people what they should do with their body hair--to frame certain options as being objectively better or worse than others. You can remove it if you want to, if that makes you comfortable, but you really do not have to. Hair is a normal part of your body and it is okay for it to be on your stomach. If I may ask, what makes you want to remove this hair?

[fawncoat]

Hi there, Fawncoat--welcome to the boards!

Shaving hasn't actually changed the kind of hair you have on your stomach. If you've noticed that it looks different, that may be because shaving blunts the tip of the hair at your skin, making it seem less thin and darker in color. So you don't have to worry that shaving will make your hair even more noticeable--it will most likely stay exactly as it is now.

Here at Scarleteen, we don't like to tell people what they should do with their body hair--to frame certain options as being objectively better or worse than others. You can remove it if you want to, if that makes you comfortable, but you really do not have to. Hair is a normal part of your body and it is okay for it to be on your stomach. If I may ask, what makes you want to remove this hair?

thank you for the reply !
i guess it just worries me that it might stand out, but i do agree that shaving is not a necessity. i feel better now knowing that it isnt just that it's growing back in thicker and shaving it wont affect that. thanks again !!

[Heather]

Even if it did stand out, or someone noticed you have dark hair on your belly, all anyone would be noticing is that you have a human body. Human bodies, as mammals, are covered in some degree of hair, and visible hair on bellies is very common among human beings. Even if it doesn't stay darker now, through your life you may find it becomes lighter or darker, or more or less dense, and if someone saw you had hair on your stomach? Who cares? That shouldn't be something you need to worry about.

Sometimes we also need to remind ourselves that only models or celebrities look like models or celebrities, including that a lot of what we see has been retouched, so we're rarely seeing how these people actually look. Two, even when looking at regular people's bodies, we will often look with a kinder, less exacting eye than we might look at our own. <3