We either have too little in the right places or too much in the wrong ones, That's the trouble with hair. But it's a very important part of our lives. Having noticeable hair in places not normally associated with hair, such as the legs, arms, stomach and back can make a woman feel less feminine and causes intense misery. She might even feel a bit of a freak.

But unwanted hair is said to affect as many as one - 10 women. And is it necessarily so undesirable and unattractive? Lots of men find body hair attractive. You have only to sit on any Mediterranean beach to realize that Continental girls don't bother to shave under arms like the Americans and British.

We all have downy hair on our skins, but blonde down doesn't show and dark down does, Fighting the fuzz is more of a problem to the brunette, and heredity and nationality have a lot to do with the pattern of hair growth.

You may be hairy because your mother or father was hairy. Mediterranean types with dark hair are more likely to get a growth of dark, coarse hair on the body than blonde Nordic types. It's just 'one of those things. Have hormones got anything to do with it? Only in a minority of cases. But there are some diseases which have superfluous hair growth as a side effect.

Hairy legs may upset one girl but not cause a shadow of worry to another. How much of a problem you have depends not only on the number and colour of the hairs, but also on your state of mind. It helps to realize that you are not unique. It's not freakish to get hair round the nipples, on the tummy, at the base of the spine, on the thighs, and so on. What you can do about it depends on the time and money you want to spend, and where you live.

Hair Removal Techniques

Shaving: This is probably the cheapest , quickest and easiest method of home hair removal, but it's best for legs and underarms rather than arms and face because regrowth is generally quick and prickly. This is not simply because shaving makes hair grow thicker (if that were so the baldness problem would be solved), but because the hair is cut bluntly at the skin surface and the hairs' fine points removed. And regrowth tends to be darker and therefore most obvious.

The best kind of razor for legs or underarms hair removal is one with a shaped head using single edged blades to reduce the possibility of accidental cuts or nicks. To get a smooth finish, use plenty of foamy lather a man's aerosol shaving foam makes the job much easier. After shaving, rinse away all the soap and dust on a little talcum powder. Don't apply an antiperspirant under arms directly after shaving because it will sting (at the very least) and may even cause a rash..

Electric shavers? They have different blades for long and short hair and they need practice. Some girls find they can't get a close enough shave and legs are still stubbly. But it even takes men some time to get used to an electric razor. So try to borrow one first to see how you get on before buying one they are rather expensive just to keep in a drawer.

Facial hair removal: Plucking out individual hairs is usually reserved for eyebrows, hair on the upper lip and chin, or for removing the odd hair from around the nipples. But that apocryphal story about Princess Luciana Pignatelli being so bored one holiday that she removed the hairs from her legs one by one with tweezers, is in fact true. It's not true that plucking increases the growth of superfluous hair. It's a cheap if rather time consuming occupation and many women find that it serves the purpose very well.

Permanant hair removal techniques like electrolysis and laser hair removal are commonly used hair removal techniques. Electrolysists are against it, however,saying that plucking stimulates the hair to grow again because every time you yank it out, blood flows in and nourishes the area. Certainly, it is easier to get quicker, better results with electrolysis on 'virgin' hair that has not been plucked, shaved or creamed away.

On the other hand, advocates of waxing hair removal (which is really wholesale plucking) say that eventually the root will give up the unequal struggle and go out of business. You can get evidence for both sides ... the dark coarse chin hair which seems to grow stronger than ever no matter how many times you pluck them out; and the coarse, thick, heavy growth on your legs which grow back sparsely after waxing.