Nicole Scherzinger was ''very hairy'' growing up.

The 'Poison' hitmaker might be perfectly polished these days, but she claims she was teased as a teenager because her mother refused to let her shave her legs.

She told heat magazine: ''All I know is I'm traumatised, because my mum would never let me shave my legs. She was very strict till a later age, and I was very hairy growing up, so everyone made fun of me for having hairy legs.''

However, Nicole quickly got over the taunts.

She said: ''There's worse things to be made fun of. Shave your legs and it's gone, you can't make fun of me any more.''

The 36-year-old singer - who has just released her new single 'Your Love' - also admitted that despite her strict exercise regime to get in shape for her music video, she doesn't always feel at her best.

She said: ''I work very hard for that body. I trained a month in advance. I wanted to be fit and strong. Toned, lean and mean. I go through fluctuations, just like every woman. You gotta work for that bikini body, honey! Gotta do them squats get that cardio in!

''If you look online, where I'm not glamorous, don't have make-up on and I don't know the paps are taking pictures... nobody's perfect. We gotta work on this.''