I have hairy monkey arms. Thankfully, it is blonde and not noticeable. I have shaved my arms exactly once, and was so displeased with the stubble and regrowth that I decided it was stupid.
If she were embarrassed about hair on her face, would you let her remove *that * somehow? If your answer is yes then my opinion is you should let her do her legs too.
My mom taught me how to bleach my moustache once I started getting teased about it at about 8 or 9 and I have been removing or lightening it since. I hate hate hate it (but am too cheap to lay out for permanent removal). If someone had teased me about my leg hair instead of my facial hair back then I might hate my leg hair instead. As it stands my facial hair is the only body hair I do anything with – I can’t be bothered to fuss with anything else. I don’t even pluck my eyebrows and everyone I know does at least that…
Twiddle
Ok…I’m going to show with this hijack that I’m a completely clueless man :
Do women usually need to shave their legs more often than once a week??? How often is the “average”?
I shave my legs a couple of times a week. I know other people who do it every day, or every other day. I’m lucky in that most of my hair is blonde (I’m a redhead), therefore it doesn’t show.
To the OP: I asked the question “How old were you when you started shaving/depilating your legs?” in two Live Journal communities. It appears the average is around 12. Do with that information what you will. I don’t imagine it’ll harm her, but I personally think she’s too young to have to fuss with that sort of grooming.
As I was shaving my legs this morning, I started thinking about this thread. I’m not a parent, but may I suggest a compromise?
I have, and have always had, terribly hairy legs. I’ve also never had much motivation to shave them. So, for different reasons, I’ve been like your daughter and wearing long pants in the summer.
About a year ago I found Aveeno Positively Smooth lotion. I find that I really do shave less often with this lotion. Perhaps you could agree to let your daughter use an electric razor twice a week, provided she uses this lotion daily? I know it’s not your preferred solution, but if a loss seems imminent this may work. You may even get “Cool Mom” points on both sides of the fence if she’s the first one in her group to show it to the other girls.
I looked on my bottle and didn’t see that it was contraindicated for any group of people, so I doubt it will be a problem for your daughter. The catch is that it’s the soy proteins that are supposed to make it reduce leg hair, and that might be due to the phytoestrogens in the soy. I understand that there’s some doubt if phytoestrogens really affect humans, but it’s something you may look into while trying to talk to her about your other concerns. Then, if you think she’ll just start shaving without your blessing, you can try this compromise.
That’s my thought.
Well, I’ve talked to my daughter at length about this, and I think we’ve reached some sort of agreement. I told her I would show her how to shave her legs, and she is responsible after that. I’d rather not buy her an electric shaver right now, and I’m still uncomfortable with her using a razor on her legs, but I think if I show her the proper way to do it, she’ll be okay.
I know this will help her confidence, but my original concern was the fact that she’s only eight and shouldn’t be bothered with these things yet. I don’t think I started shaving until I was eleven or twelve. Also, I took a long, hard and unbiased look at her legs, and didn’t see anything but little blonde fuzz. It just really bums me out that she’s so concerned over this tiny thing. 
I think you’re doing the right thing. Chances are she’ll do it a couple of times then get bored with it and stop. That’s what happened with my daughter. I let her start shaving when she was in about 4th grade and was worried about her fuzzy legs. She didn’t really shave with any regularity until she was in about 8th grade.