My mother didn’t exactly forbid me from shaving (she was all “oh, you don’t need to yet”), but she didn’t get me any of the necessary supplies, either, until I was about 12 or so. I was quite self-conscious. I say let her decide when/if she wants to shave, and teach her how to do it if she asks.
It depends. My 13 year old son has hardly any hair under his arms but has a little mustache going on and super fuzzy legs. My daughter had hair under her arms at around 6, so thinking back, I think it may have been earlier than 8 that we bought that razor, more like 6 1/2 to 7.
It seems to be getting earlier and earlier all the time. Poor thing shaves a lot more often than I do, and I know I didn’t start shaving that early in life. At 6 and 7 I didn’t think about those things.
My mother actually did forbid me from shaving, but she also did the “oh, you don’t need to yet” thing. I think that, in her mind, it boiled down to three factors: As Musicat alluded, I was younger to her than my actual age, much less the age I thought I was; Mom is brunette, so my red-blonde body hair didn’t seem all that obvious to her; and she didn’t want me to try to look more mature than my age (Mom also didn’t let me wear makeup until I was about 13 or 14, even though many of my totally nerdy, high-achieving friends wore it much earlier.) Now that I’m older and a mother, I understand her POV far more…
And aceplace57, armpit hair comes along at about the same time as the change in texture of leg hair. (Girls generally have fine/downy hair on their legs all along, but it typically becomes more coarse when they hit puberty.)
Male here, but I was super hairy everywhere before I started growing facial hair.
I got teased at around about 10-11 about this, and I remember being really self-conscious about it. I’d let her if she was mine. You can get razors which have little safety wires across them which pretty much stop them cutting into flesh if you’re worried about shaving cuts (which won’t stop bleeding on the legs, so I’d recommend it!)…
Bleaching might be an option if shaving leaves razor burn. You can be teased just as equally for having hairy legs, or scabbed up ones.
My personal preference would be waxing - easier on the skin, lasts longer, weakens the hair and minimises being called “Prickly Legs” by anyone you may graze…
Waxing is a lot harder to manage at that age, I think. In my 30s, even, I managed to get a long patch of wax stuck to one of my legs, and nothing but hot water and scraping with a blunt kitchen knife would get it off, and that was very slowly. If I were a pre-teen dealing with that I think I’d be too afraid to do anything to my legs afterwards for a long time.
I think giving her a feminine-packaged shaving gel or foam plus one of those “safety razors” with the little wires, and giving her a quick tutorial/rundown on the dangerous spots (ankles, knees, any little bumps, tendons at the back of the knee if you don’t have your leg stretched out; take your time, etc.) might be the way to go.
I started shaving legs around 10, can’t remember for underarms. I didn’t really ask–my older sister started shaving and one day I saw the razor and decided to use it. My mom bought us Flicker shavers because they were safer (they had some sort of guard or something?). I don’t even know if they still make them but that’s what all us girls started out with.
Get her a styptic pencil at the same time as the razor.
Good god - I didn’t expect the poor little tyke to do it herself! Egad - I meant for her to get it done at the beautician.
If she’s got noticeable leg hair she’s old enough to shave. Me, I come from a hairy family. I started shaving legs and underarms at 8.
I recommend an electric razor to start. Much less chance of accidental injury, relatively inexpensive.
My mom was adamant about not starting shaving until a certain age that she preordained in her head but never shared…it was mostly a “once you start, you can’t stop” kind of logic thing with her, and she cared not for social pressure or teasing. So I started shaving a bit later than I wanted to, and I think my older sister may have intervened. I do remember the summer I started, though I’m not positive on the age…it think it was the summer between 6th and 7th grade, so I would have been twelve…the move to junior high was apparently her baseline.
Because I found the whole thing very humiliating, having to wait, I determined that the minute my daughter became self-conscious and asked, that was the right time to start. So that’s what we did. Don’t remember her age, but she started shaving when she felt the need to. I think that should be the best indicator…unless she’s just totally clueless and really, really needs to…that would be the only time to TELL her to do it!
My mother, bless her heart, didn’t tell me at all about shaving legs. Because she never had to, since her leg hair was as fine as peach fuzz. And it wasn’t she who told me about shaving my pits, but my grandmother. My mother offered no help for my little mustache as well. The first two can be forgiven, but I still kind of resent her for telling me I couldn’t shave my facial hair, because, according to her, it would grow in thicker. Thankfully, I learned that wasn’t true and took upon myself, like around the tenth grade, to get rid of the thing. I really wish I had had the guts to do it earlier. Maybe if I had, I would actually be able to look at my middle school pictures without feeling shame.
I wasn’t self-conscious about the hairy legs, though. I think I was in the 12th grade when someone mentioned, not in a mean way, that I should shave. And I had really really hairy legs too! But it had never crossed my mind. Now that I think about it, I was clueless about a lot of beauty regimine things back then. I still don’t do most of them, but I’m aware of them. (Though I do shave my legs…but only when I’m going to be showing them to the public).
As far as bleaching goes, it wouldn’t really change things much - my daughter’s quite blond, with fair skin. And waxing may also not be a good option. As I mentioned earlier, her skin is very much like mine, and my one experiment with waxing, many moons ago, left me with a big-ass bruise in the one spot that got waxed.
I’m pretty thoroughly convinced to go with my first instinct - get her a razor and teach her about the finer points of shaving. Like any mother, I don’t want to see my little girl grow up too fast, but there’s no point in drawing this particular line in the sand. She feels self-conscious about the hair on her legs, so I’ll teach her how to get rid of it.
I also vote for yes. Even if she doesn’t need to, as long as she uses the razor correctly it does no harm. Yes, she’ll cut herself but she’ll live.
A lot of kids see such things as sign of maturity. Most boys can’t wait to shave. Good grief if I come into some money the first thing I’d do is get laser hair surgery on my face so I’d never have to shave again. And I don’t even have a thick beard.
What she said. To me, if a kid has hair and wants to start shaving, s/he’s old enough to shave. It’s like asking “Is my daughter too young to use feminine hygiene products? She’s starting to have a light flow”, because kids mature physically at different rates, and if a kid needs to shave or wear a pad, then that particular kid is old enough to do so.
Wearing makeup or altering hair color is a different story, and it’s reasonable to say “You can’t wear makeup til you’re 13” or “You can’t bleach your hair until you’re 16”, because nobody NEEDS to wear makeup or dye hair, even though they might WANT to. But if a kid is hairy and self concious about it, then that kid is old enough to have the hair removed.
I’d get her an electric razor, just for the safety reasons.
I also vote let her, and appreciate that you two are able to talk about this sort of stuff. I never asked, or brought it up at all, I just started swiping disposable razors from the bathroom supply closet.
Anyone else use Witch Hazel as an after shave?
I started using it 20 years ago. My allergies give me fits around perfumes found in soaps, deodorant and cologne.
One day I noticed the fine print on the witch hazel bottle. It’s an astringent and after shave is one of the many uses listed.
I love it. Tightens the skin after shaving and doesn’t burn. I haven’t had a shaving rash in years.
I was ten, my daughter was nine. We both have really coarse dark hair. I remember my mom laughing when she found out but she didn’t tell me I couldn’t. I instantly fell in love with that smooth leg feeling. It wasn’t about growing up or doing it because I was embarrassed about the hair, I just loved how it felt to have freshly shaved smooth legs.
My daughter did it without ever bringing it up, never asked just started shaving. I noticed but I didn’t want to embarrass her. I just started buying more razors and cream. The only time I’ve ever spoken up about her personal grooming is when she started over-tweezing her brows. 
I’m the father of a little girl, and I’m a guy who remembers various sorts of childhood awkwardness all too well. For a lot of reasons, pretty much listed already in this thread, I’d suggest you let her shave. It’s part of growing up.