It will look nice next to our "My cat is smarter than your honor student" bumper sticker.

except here it reads "My black and tan coonhound is smarter than your honor student". I just haven't been able to even think about getting another cat since having to put Anne to sleep 1.5 years ago. Anne-girl and I had been together for 16 years.

I trim for swimsuit season. I've never been inclined to shave or wax for myself, and there hasn't been someone else in a position to have an opinion on my pubic hair for quite a while. I'd probably try it once, if asked.

Unrelated, except for the obvious pun, much kittie health~ma to Laga. And Trudy, I hope they work out some good pain management for your mother.

I remember being fairly appalled when I was skimming one of the other MTV young adult novels (it was a series I nicknamed "Judith Krantz for the teen set") and the male lead was hooking up with a girl for a one nighter and he bluntly said he liked being given oral, but wouldn't return the favor unless she had a Brazilian or at the very least, only a landing strip.

And I'm sitting there thinking, "Wonderful-- teen girls are reading this and thinking they've got to be waxed within an inch of their lives if they ever want to get head, but they'll still be expected to go down a guy, regardless."

What I loved best about it was that it was a guy who wrote these books, under a female pseudonym. I wanted to absolutely smack the shit out of him.

And I'm Cuban, which equals not only hairy, but in my case, hairy and coarse, which makes growing back hideous. So yeah, bikini waxes, but beyond that, nope.

I tried shaving it all off once. I went to a pool party where we went skinny-dipping and the next thing I knew I was being lifted up out of the water for someone to take a picture. I decided that was the last time I was going to do that. Of course, this was back in the early 80s when it was quite a novelty. And the person taking the picture? One of the wives! Freaky.

I only shave my legs below my knees, and then only about once a month. Wish I never started. Back in the day when I wore skimpy bikinis I shaved minimally. I got hair. Never had a man that had a problem with that.

My opinion on personal grooming is that it needs to fit into my 5-minutes shaving in the shower routine or it ain't never gonna happen on a regular basis. Luckily for me I'm hairless enough that 5 minutes can pretty much take care of it. I think it was here at b.org that I learned shaving can take significantly longer than that for some people, bit of an eye opener for me. I finally understood that for some women waxing might actually be a time saver.

for some women waxing might actually be a time saver.

::raises hand::

This is me. Not just a time saver, but also a skin saver in the case of my thighs, since the hair grows in multiple directions. There's never getting them completely smooth if I shave, not to mention the ingrown hair issue is multiplied greatly by the wacko hair growth patterns.

I am super lucky; I'm pretty hairless. I only have to shave to midcalf, and never have to trim. I wouldn't have to shave my pits, except I have about 12 hairs under each arm and if I don't shave, they get so long it looks like I have little antennae.

I get my brows waxed every 5 weeks, tho. Can't stand to tweeze.

Ugh. The expectation that some people have that women should have a hairless cooter is appalling. Really? You WANT me to look like a 10-year-old girl?

No fucking way, man. I'm a 37-year-old woman, and I don't intend to ever even come near the appearance of preadolescent hairlessness.

I understand that many (?) of the men who say they prefer their woman have a hairless beaver aren't trying to live out some pedophilic fantasy, but, as the theoretical hairless one, I would be constantly aware of it, and there's no amount of therapy or drugs in the world that would fix that trauma for me.

Plus, regrowth? Uh, NO.

(And then when I read discussions like this, I wonder -- just how much goddamn hair does the average unshaven cooter have? Because I never shave my bits, and yet the hair is pretty limited.)

(Also again? Being expected to shave my bits falls into the same category of Things Teppy Objects To Being Told To Change About Her Apperarance. You know? It's my goddamn pubic hair, and it's staying where it is.)

I *did* have the conversation once with The Boy about this:

Me: "I hope you're okay with the fact that I will NEVER shave my hoo-hoo."

Him: "As long as you're okay with the fact that I *will* shave mine."

Me: "Hey, they're your bits, man."

Him: "...'hoo-hoo'?"

And finally, I did get a leg wax (not even bikini line; just leg) before vacation. It was my first wax ever, and it hurt only slightly less than getting a tattoo. It was totally convenient, but I don't know that I'll keep doing it. Because (1) OMFG -- PAIN [not the good kind, either], and (2) I don't know that I want to keep paying $50 to have hair yanked out by the roots every 5-6 weeks.

The great thing about waxing is that eventually, the regrowth keeps coming in thinner.

I actually think leg waxing is more painful than the brazilian because there is more acreage to do and it takes more time.