I have a new obsession. Or is it a compulsion?
Either one, I'm rather WTF about it.
Because, Hello! My name is Mommy Needs Therapy and I'm obsessed with my chin hairs.
And neck hairs.
So now do I not only pull at my eyebrows when I'm stressed and/or nervous and/or bored, but I obsessively check my neck and chin for rogue hairs.
But not only in the mirror, which I do at least twice a day. OK, four times a day. Minimum. Shut up! But I find myself doing this half stroking, half plucking/pulling motion with my fingers along my chin and neck all fucking day long.
Sitting in a meeting: I'll be stroking and pulling.
Sitting at my computer working: stroking and pulling
Driving: stroking and pulling
Watching TV: and I'm stroking and pulling.
Because I'm certain, that even in the hour since I last checked in the mirror, that a super fast growing hair has sprouted and is about to wrap itself around my neck and choke me.
I've started to stock up on tweezers, so I have them and can easily access one, rather than trying to hold on to the offending hair all the way upstairs to the bathroom where the tweezers reside. When I do this I most often lose the hair during transit and then can't find it when I have the tweezers in hand and a mirror at my face. I'm half convinced they are actually retractable hairs, and that when I pull on it long enough it springs back in, just before I can actually pluck it out.
The crazyest part is that I'm now yanking all day long at the normal body hair on my neck (called vellus hair if you are interested) so half convince myself at times that I'm growing a fucking beard.
I have made Rich promise me multiple times that he will immediately inform me if he notices any crazy hairs on my face or neck. Of course that means he actually has to be looking at me, so I don't exactly consider him my first line of stray hair defense.
There are a lot of things I'll accept semi-gracefully as I get older, but whiskers are not one of them.
I obsessively rub my earlobe. I recommend it.... It's a little less um... intrusive.
ReplyDeleteI have a rather large mole on my neck that likes to pop out little black hairs. I spend most of my day obsessing about it and pulling at the hairs around the mole! Take solice in the fact you're not the only crazy one!!!
ReplyDeleteI got my first chin hair when I was 16 ot 17. I think it was b/c I went on the pill. I have dark hair... so not good. I have to do random chin hair checks now and then, and sometimes I forget and I'll have 2 or 3 and I want to kick myself for not being more vigilent in checking.
ReplyDeleteYou're not alone. Those of us of a Certain Age do a lot of stroking/checking/tweezing. And, added bonus: Wait til you visit the personal grooming section of Target, as my college roommate recently did, to purchase your own nose hair trimmer. That deserves at least a phone call to your best friend while you are in process.
ReplyDeleteSecrets your Older Sister/Cousin/Friends never told you!
www.commonsense-dancing.co,
I thought about chiming in on shit that I do that's a little weird... But I read this post twice and all the "stroking and pulling" turned me on. A little.
ReplyDeleteStroking and pulling all day, everywhere you go...are you sure you're not growing a penis?
ReplyDeleteGo get threaded. It hurts like hell but all the hair goes away for a good while.
ReplyDeleteThose little effers DO sprout up fast, though—like overnight fast—so as far as I'm concerned, you're totally justified on checking for chin hairs!
ReplyDeleteI get the random hair once a month and it drives me INSANE!!!!
ReplyDeleteI pluck my chin hair all the time. And I can't stop touching my chin no matter where I am. I get extremely anxious if I can't find my tweezers or if they are not working very well. Once I had my boyfriend staying the night and I normally pluck my chin hairs after he goes to sleep but I couldn't find my tweezers. Normally I would just turn on my lights and tear my room apart to find a pair of tweezers but since he was there I left in the middle of the night to go to the drugstore to get new tweezers. Waxing or threading is not going to do the trick for me because if I can feel even one hair I will be obsessed. It doesn't matter if I can see it or not. I will just continuously pick at it. I get infections sometimes in my chin where I will get bumps that swell up and then have puss because sometimes I know there are hairs under the skin so I just keep picking at it.
ReplyDeleteWhat a relief to read this! I am also obsessed - searched for "chin hair obsessed" and this was the first hit. I am very much like the last commenter in that if I can even *feel* (forget whether I can see it) the tiniest bit of a hair I will not rest until it's gone. I just hate the way the wiry hair feels, and I too am secretly stroking my chin all day long. So even if the hair is way too teeny, I still tweeze as soon as I feel that sprout. (Does anyone else love the feeling of landing a good grip on the hair and the thrilling "yank" when you've finally captured it?) But I do sometimes get red & swollen bumps along my lower jawline, which I then have to cover up with makeup. It's driving me nuts! Now that I've shared, I'm going to try to find a way to distract myself. Threading isn't even a remote possibility, because don't the hairs have to be at least a fraction of an inch long for threading to work? (I pluck at millimeters.) I need to find something to take my fingers off my face. I see this is an old post with old replies, so don't know if anyone is reading -- but if you have any ideas, I'd be grateful.
ReplyDeleteI'm the exact same, I'm 19 and I can't stop! The red bumps and pimples from touching my chin all day is so embarrassing, my boyfriend picks up on me picking and gets annoyed because my chin gets so irritated. I know I'm making the hairs worse by pulling them out. I'm considering lazer hair removal to get rid of them or at least soften them. It's the hard little wirey stumps that drive me up the wall. I wish I had a way to distract myself :(
DeleteThis post was quite relieving to read. The female beard isnt exactly something people tend to want to talk about.
ReplyDeleteI remember when I was wee, I used to laugh at my mum when she would drive me to school 'cause at the red lights she would check her chin in the mirror and then start plucking, she'd always be "stroking and pulling". I used to think it was funny my mum had chin hair, had a wee lady beard. Then... THEN, 2 years ago when I was 22 I started getting them. First one I saw I just gave out a slow sigh and said "...fuck." Since then it's just got worse and I find myself stroking my stubble all the time, but I'm ever viligent with my handy tweezer case so everyone else is none the wiser. Like yourself I'm checking in the mirror about 4 times a day and I never fail to find yet another rogue one. I also find that if I can't get one out and I keep pulling, it seems to retract! What the he'll?! Drives me insane.
I'm of Italian heritage so my mum and I have dark thick hair... everywhere.
The plight of the dark haired woman.
You know what they say? Like mother like daughter.
#HairyGenes
I have probably broken 6 pairs of tweezers this year trying to control this compulsion. In the past, I have always gone and purchased a new pair within a week or a week and a half. I have lost a lot of quality experience in life wasting time on chin and cheek hairs. I can really fixate. If it interferes with your normal life and your relationships, then it's a disorder. I'm speaking to people who spend hours at a time going after visible and invisible hairs. I'm more disgusted now with the behavior and its personal consequences than the actual hairs, so now I'm just trying to get back hold of my life and work on my overall health and outlook and seek effective treatment for the obsession and compulsion. I don't want a beard, but if I have to have one in order to move on with my life without this form of self-injury, then I will and if people don't like it, then they can back up, be repelled, go talk to someone else, talk about me behind my back or whatever they need to do for themselves. All this suffering is simply not worth the time and energy.
ReplyDeleteOh my God I can't believe I have all this company in this pisar obsession I do it all the time and I love the feeling of pulling one of those thick wiry hair time it is so satisfying I am the same with the tweezers the worst thing I ever did was buy a magnifying mirror so now I can see them when they're just starting and I pluck pluck pluck away until I get them I have to stop I'm getting welts on my chin from where I do it I also love when I feel one but can't see it and I just I'm so good at tweezing I finally get it and it's a hard stiff white one! Clearly we need a support group someone suggested wearing mittens so I couldn't check for hairs and drive myself crazy all day
ReplyDelete