Hairy Child :)

This is a solvable problem. So yes fix it. It is so sad a little girl would feel this way about themselves.

I have a friend with a husband of Middle Eastern descent. Her daughter is the same age as yours. Her arm hair bothers this child as well, and, yes, sadly, she got teased about it.
Her mom uses those beard groomers with a guard? It will really thin it out making it much less noticeable.
Yes, in a perfect world, we would all be cebrated for our diversity, but this isn't a perfect world. I'd trim it for her, if I were you!

Have you talked to her pedi to find out if there is a medical reason for the excess hair?

At 7 yrs old, can she wear long sleeves to school and be comfortable? I don't think shaving or laser would be helpful for a 7 yr old. However, I do know some girls who had laser hair removal beginning in 5th grade (age 10) for excess arm and leg hair.

You can buy a small battery trimmer and hopefully that would thin it out for her.

Kids can be cruel and I sympathize with your daughter. I am in the classroom often and kids are mean. When we see it happening, we stop it immediately but teachers can't see 100% of everything that goes on.

I admire you for listening to your daughter and trying to come up with a solution instead of blowing her off. This obviously effects her self esteem and body image so it is something that needs to be addressed.

Best wishes to you.

Could you use a grooming kit and shorten or trim the hair? I think that removing it all together would be a lot of work and a trimmer might be a better solution.

My daughter also has hairy arms and has always been self-conscious about it. Finally we shaved her arms.

I was on the lookout to see if shaving her arms would solve the problem (indicating an end to it) or if she'd just focus on something else (indicating a bigger problem at hand). Fortunately that was the end of it! We shave them about once every month and she seems perfectly happy about it. No more tears, no more wanting to wear long sleeves, etc.

I wouldn't assume that shaving her arms means self-esteem issues or any sort of invalidation of her beauty. It may just mean that she feels self-conscious about her arm hair!

I would shave it off and see if that's the end of it. If so, great! If not, then you'll need to look into bigger self-esteem issues.

I doubt it will affect her skin. I was afraid if we shaved her arm hair off that it would grow back thicker, but my SIL, who is a esthetician, said it would not on her arms, and that it may even thin out more as she grows older.

A note on beauty: Feeling beautiful should come from within, and just having someone like your mom tell you that you are does not do much. Instead, be an example to your child and accept YOURSELF the way you are. Do not talk about your faults or losing weight etc. Find the beauty in others and in other things and point them out. Be less critical of others. This is how you teach a child he or she is beautiful, and he or she will never need others to validate it.

Remove the hair, if it bothers her that much. It's easy enough to do.

I remember being hairier than most of the other girls. Must be the American Indian in me. Anyway, I got teased for it. I remember at a young age, not as young as 7, but pretty young, sitting with scissors and cutting my leg and arm hairs because my mom wouldn't help/let me do anything about it. It always made me so upset that my mother wouldn't listen to me and/or help me, so I commend you for doing so.

I don't see the harm in removing the hair, IF that is what she wants to do. While I am all for teaching a woman she is beautiful no matter what anyone says and she shouldn't have to change herself, we all know that only works to a certain extent. I am a very confident woman, but I still to this day get my arms waxed - makes me feel that much more confident!

She's likely being teased. So, I would remove it. Simple solution. Now, if she comes home next wanting a nose job, I think we should revisit. =)

Good luck mama

She already... has self-loathing.
She already has said, she hates herself.
She is waking up daily, with angst about this.
She already is emotionally troubled and burdened by it.
She already is, probably... getting teased about it in school.
She already is very self-conscious about it.
She already is crying to school daily.
She already is constantly hiding her arms because of it.
OF COURSE, she is being affected by her arm hairs and its excess. It is so obvious. AND she is TELLING you. She is telling you because, she wants and needs Mommy to solve it for her. A young child cannot do it on their own.

LET her, remove her arm hairs.
There are many suggestions about it here below.

You have a choice:
1) To allow your daughter to be continually & negatively emotionally affected by this and her self-loathing gets worse. And perhaps the teasing that goes on in school.
2) you listen to her angst about it, and let her remove her arm hair excess.

She is MORE than feeling "uncomfortable" about this.
Do you see that?
She hates, herself.
Talking to her about loving herself is one thing, but she is young and her arm hairs is causing a BIG emotional problem for her. It is an Albatross around her neck.
Telling her that "no one care about that", about her arm hairs, is not true.
Because, in school... kids NOTICE.
And as she gets older, it will become more of a big deal.

If the hair is bothering her that much, then I see nothing wrong with removing it. As you say, it will probably help her to forget about it and focus on school.

Do not use any drugstore hair removal products or home remedies, though. Those can be ineffective and cause scarring/worsen the problem. I would suggest you go straight to your pediatrician and/or dermatologist to see what solutions they might have. I have an (adult) friend who suffered from excess hair caused by PCOS, she was prescribed a cream that eventually stopped the hair growth. So you see, there are many solutions out there!

Where & when I grew up, hairy arms were sought after. Go figure!

Sometimes it is hard to be a little different but reassure her that this does not define who she is and how wonderful she is. What bothers me is how aware she is of this enough to bother her. At 7 I would think children are more accepting and tolerant. Was she being teased about them? Is it a constant subject of conversation at home/school? I mean, when did she become conscious of them?

I would personally not touch them at this age. I may be wrong but I feel like it will be a gateway to self esteem issues. Like fixing it would be a validation that that part of her is somewhat skewed. Instead I would tell her that sometimes we just have to be a duck and let all things negative be like water and let it slide off our backs.

My Chickpea is a hairy little girl. She has seriously hairy legs and a unibrow. As soon as the hair bothers her, I will remove it. However, she's half-Ashkenazi Jew and all of her brunette girl cousins on that side are equally hairy so she's unfazed. In fact, she scolds me and her sister for removing our body hair. Ehh, maybe she's just a hippie.

Either way, Nair comes in a gentle formula. Or you can bleach it.