Hey guys, I saw someone mentioning the "dead years" on another post and I thought I would pose this question to those "in the know".

My son is fortunate (at least in this business) to actually look a good bit younger then he is. He is not only short for his age (14) but he is thin with small face, features etc. He probably looks more like 11 or 12 then 14. Now my question. He has a little bit of a peach fuzz mustache that is pretty noticable since he has very dark brown hair and of course his facial hair is dark too. He is actually quite proud of this fuzz even though in my opinion and that of my 17 year old son it looks kind of funny. Now of course I would never tell my son that it looks a little goofy and I have no problems with him having it except I am worried about him going on auditions with it. Please bring on the opinions. Should he shave it for auditions or not? It's probably more noticable to me then to others but I just don't know. Bring on the opinions!

My son actually had to start shaving in the 7th grade because his moustache was very dark, so being your son is 14, I would have him do it. Good luck!

I once heard an agent from Abrams say she had to tell a kid with a unibrow to get it waxed if he wanted to go on more auditions so i would say yes, having a mustache at 14 would be a problem for auditions if he is going out to play younger.
I know for girls it's a similar situation when they start to develop. Once the boobies start to become noticeable, those younger roles are gone. There are just some things you can't fake or hide no matter how young your features may be. So again, "yes" and at least it is something he has an option with. He can shave and still manage to look younger.

Im so glad to hear this subject from others. My son is only 11 and has been waxing his unibrow for months now. Sometimes the women at the salon are so nasty like"Can u believe that mom is making her kid wax his eyebrows" and others tell me what a cool mom i am to make sure my son is taken care of in that area. He is also getting a very small amount of hair on his lip and if it becomes any worse i will wax it as well.My son is small as well, hes 11, but his age range is as young as 7 or 8 so i know kids that age do not have mustaches, lol. Its something hes used to and knows why it has to be done. Your not alone.

I would start with bleaching the mustache and see how that goes. if you start to shave it will come in thicker.

I'm going to ask the 'stupid' question - in the hope that maybe we'll get a smart answer.

Can boys wax their facial hair? Or, maybe the question is - is there a reason why boys should not wax their facial hair?

Wow, thanks for all the responses. I pretty much suspected that he would need to shave/wax/bleach, whatever but I guess I wanted to make sure that I was doing the right thing asking him to do that. I know that being so small for his age has been hard on him and the mustache, for him anyway, is a way to feel older. Fanmom, when my son was 11 he would looked around 7 or 8 too. How does your son handle it if you don't mind me asking? If mine had been doing this sort of stuff then it might not have been so hard for him. For years I have been telling him that God made him the way he is for a reason and that he has given us all talents and such. Of course that never really made him feel any better when he's given crayons and a child size drink at restaurants. That still happens by the way and he hates it. He's done plays since 4th grade (Daddy Warbucks in Annie in 5th grade and Annie was bigger then he was! lol)but just started with film and stuff last summer. Anyway, that's why it's hard for me to say he needs to get rid of it. But telling him others on this board have dealt with it should make it better and of course he needs to decide how much he wants to do this and I know he REALLY wants to!

Would you believe that lately all the parts I'm seeing need him to look more his age rather then younger. In fact, I submitted him for a part of a 14 year old that I'm hoping they give him a chance at. I think he could do the role really well but of course he does not look 14. It seems parts for 11/12 year olds are about as few as older teen roles. I think he's just past that 10 year old age although he did a student film for that age this past summer.

Singin4mom--make sure he knows that his size and look give him a huge advantage in the business. My DD curses the day she started "developing" because she knew what it meant showbiz-wise.

Thanks showbiz. I have told him but so far that really hasn't been his experience. He did get several student film jobs that he probably wouldn't have gotten if he looked his age but we've only had representation since December and the one audition he was sent to needed someone older. I don't even know why they wanted to see him except that he's very skinny and the part was "skinny boy". Other then being skinny he didn't fit because the part was for an older teen, even if he looked 14 he probably wouldn't have fit the part. I think if he starts going out for parts fit to his look he'll start to realize it's true but right now it's only true to him in theory.

Singing4mom, My son HATED being smaller. Wede go to an amusement park and his younger cousins could get on a ride that he still wasnt tall enough, or kids in his class were so much taller. Then when we started really getting into all this with auds etc. and he was told how great and how lucky he was to be smaller and look younger he finally felt like he 'belonged' somewhere. He found his nitch. Hes now thrilled about his height and his looks. Hes so funny, he looked in the mirror this morning and said'oh gosh my eyebrows really need to be done" and my husband did a double take, lol.

Ah yes, the amusement parks....that was very hard for Mike too! OMGosh, he HATED not being tall enough! Especially since he was a daredevil and had no fear what so ever about any ride! I remember this one water ride he changed into swim shoes for and suddenly he wasn't tall enough. He had to change back into sneakers to make himself tall enough and ride with those! Thank goodness those days are over! Thanks fanmom, it's great talking with someone with the same issues!