I came across this topic on a web search..leg hair plucking. I have been doing that for about seven years now and before that I obsessed over plucking my brows and eye lashes until I had none. When I was browless and lashless (they have since grown back) I thought it would be best to instead pluck my legs as I would shave the hair off their anyway so that began a new obsession...and for the most part ended the other.
I know its not just an obsession but more like an addiction and I equate it to those women who cut themselves. For that moment of 'plucking' or cutting you are doing harm to yourself and you know it but there is a sense of satisfaction in it.
My legs like everyone else who does it are red and bumby and I tell people its bug bites. I keep saying I wont do it but I keep doing it. I try to figure out what it is I am replacing in my life by doing this and I don't know what it is. I remember in high school I was plucking my lashes and brows...it got worse until like I wrote a few years ago I had nothing on my face and looked like weird.
I cannot shave because I cut my legs due to all the bumps from plucking.
I know everyone does something bad in their lives to themselves. Some smoke or do drugs or drink a lot - I pluck the hairs off my legs as though I were mowing a lawn. I guess we all have our sicknesses. Meanwhile in the summer I use derma blend on my lower legs to cover the bumps.
Wish I could stop but then I don't want to.

Kazze, your story sounds exactly like mine, except I got over the leg hair plucking obsession, and have moved to my face. I'm now into pulling at my eyebrows to get the hairs out. Also, I pull hairs out of my arms that were about to fall out. This is starting to take over my life again!! I guess it's better than plucking and doing damage to my skin...
I am really not looking forward to summer, I thought the red dots on my legs would have dissapeared during winter/spring, but they are as apparent as ever
What is that makeup that you use on your legs? I need to look into investing in cover up for my legs soon.
One more question-I have these 3 little scabs where a hair follicle should be, and they haven't healed in 2 months. They are tiny scabs, but I'm afraid I've done some real damage...has anyone else experienced that?
I almost forgot to mention that I also used to be obsessed with scraping dandruff off my scalp and then peeling off the scabs. My head was a bloody mess, and I avoided getting a hair cut because I was so embaressed. Maybe I need to get medicated, now that I think back on my behaviors I seem less and less sane. Anyone have thoughts on the matter of prescription drugs?
Happy Mothers day to all the mothers out there!

Actually, this type of behavior is frequently a product of lack of Essential Fatty Acid intake. It effects the brain and can cause OCD's. either get a coffe grinder and grind your own flax seeds and have an 1/8 to a 1/4 cup a day (either by itself, or mixed into your food) or get a product like Don Lemmon's Perfect EFA Oil, or Udo's Oil.

One should also make sure that one is getting at least 20 mgs of fiber every day. I like oatmeal and oat bran for this purpose, as one can get the full day's amount in one sitting.

With all the no fat hysteria going on out there, many women are avoiding oils at all costs, and becoming unhealthy because of it. Many vitamins and minerals are fat soluable only, and without good fats in your diet, one simply can't be healthy. Furthermore, the brain itself requires both fat and sugars to work properly. Sooooo, if one were eating only artificial sweeteners, and only hydrogenated fats, or no fats at all, one would become VERY unhealthy indeed, and would also have hormonal problems on top of that.

Hi all, I searched about this topic to see if anyone else plucked the hair on their legs because I mentioned it to my friend and she thought it sounded crazy. I started plucking my eyebrows years ago and then it just seemed I couldn't get enough..so I started bugging my husband to let me pluck his eyebrows. I then started asking him could I pluck some stray hairs on his back. He didn't have quiet enough of them so don't ask me how I did it but he started let me pluck his chest hair. That didn't last long and it wasn't that satisfying because I couldn't feel it. So one day while we were taking a long trip I started plucking my hair legs and I just loved it. I actually will pluck slowly so I can watch the hairs come out. I am really confused why I get ingrown hairs..if you are plucking it all out then why have that problem. I do however love to dig them out. I try not to because I hate scars and my husband has commented on it. I can do it for hours until my neck hurts. I am happy that I am not the only one.

You get ingrown hairs because the hairs have what is called an anchor system, and the hair is more likely to break than to come out whole. When the hair breaks, the hair that remains is left to continue to grow in the follicle, but it has been moved from its normal pathway, and no longer has its sharp point to dig its way up through the skin. This can cause the hair to grow under the skin, as it is trapped beneath the surface, causing irritation and the immune system sends puss to try to expel the now foreign object that is now in a place it should not be, or the dead biomass that is just sitting in the follicle waiting to be shed.

Hello

Wow I have this too I didn't realise other people did this!

I have marks all over my legs at this minute. I absolutely love plucking them, but then feel disgusting when I'm all marked. Mine is a stress thing or if I feel down I reach for the tweezers!

What works for me sometimes though, is I ask my partner to hide my tweezers! Its really the only way I stop.

I realise this is difficult for people who need to pluck everyday. Like hairs on your chin for example, which I do get the odd few of them too and on my belly which I wax when I can, if I've managed to refrain from pluckng it to death that is.

I have been bad lately though and my legs aren't looking too good so it looks like I will have to have my tweezers hidden! I wish I could just bin them altogether but I do need to pluck my chin and eyebrows quite often grrrr

Why not electrolysis on your chin and brows? If the hair isn't there, you can't pluck it.

I used to overpluck my eyebrows - partly the reason I got electrolysis on them. Don't do it anymore! Now I just have to stop touching my skin - I think I replaced the addiction with skin picking

I was actually talking to my roommate the other day as she was heating up some leg wax, and we were talking about all the ways that we have tried to get rid of our leg hairs and turns out she went through a plucking phase too! She's gotten over it through waxing and she said that her mom waxed all the time when she was younger and now she doesn't grow hair anymore. This is something I've heard a few times now, and I was wondering why is it that when you wax, you don't get the discolouration on your legs and your hairs grow out thinner, but when you pluck, it just gets worse and worse? Isn't plucking technically just like waxing hair really really slowly?

Waxing doesn't do anything to the hair. Everyone usually loses leg hair with age. Waxing has nothing to do with it.

Yes, plucking and waxing do the same exact thing. Neither makes the hair stop growing. It's other factors if that happens.