HAIR TODAY
I believe genetics determine a lot about a person. People accept certain physical attributes and traits as being inherited.
So given my heritage and the abundance of body hair on members of my family, I knew I didn’t stand much of a chance of being hairless.
When I was a kid and the body hair started to grow in earnest, I prayed it was an hormonal imbalance. Then I could get some type of injection or treatment, or qualify for a clinical drug trial. No such luck.
Forget about a cure for the common cold. If drug companies really want to make some serious money, all they have to do is identify the gene that turns off hair growth on Chihuahuas.
If they make that into a drug, hairy women all over the world will be desperate to have it. The drug companies will make a killing.
Fighting body hair has been a constant struggle for me. I yearn to live in a place like Italy, where women with full beards and underarm hair (long enough to braid) are considered attractive.
If you go to any drug store the number of products for hair removal is astounding. There’s wax, bleach, depilatories, creams, razors, and tweezers, to name a few. They’re mainly in the women’s section, because it’s okay for a man to be as hairy as a gorilla.
I use all of these procedures. But I don’t like the bleach because instead of a lot of black hairs on my upper lip, I’m left with a lot of blond ones. Nor am I partial to any procedure that’s painful, like wax.
My aunt still uses hot sugar to remove her arm hair, which is the procedure they used in the Old Country. Similar to wax, you melt the sugar and lay it on thick over the offending hair.
After it cools and hardens, you tear it off (along with the hair) in large strips. Since nothing in the Old Country was ever wasted, I imagine they reused the unhairy parts of the sugar-strips in food, like oatmeal.
Personally, I prefer products that remove the hair at the root instead of ripping them out en mass. The latter really hurts and can be counter-productive, causing the hair to grow thicker. The hair even develops hooked roots over time to try and hang on (I’m not kidding).
Contemplating life without access to at least a tweezer, leaves me horrified. I can’t imagine being lost out in the wilderness without hair-removal supplies. I’d never be rescued. A would-be rescuer would take one look at the Sasquatch lumbering his or her way and beat a hasty retreat.
I worry that as I grow older my eyesight will get so bad that I won’t notice the hair. Or, if I do, I won’t have the strength to yank it out. So I’ve tried electrolysis.
This is applied via a needle directly to the hair root. The idea is that a jolt of electricity will kill the root and stop the growth. In my case, all those needles being stuck into my face with electricity nearly killed me — but had no effect on the hair.
Laser-hair removal was a little better, though I had high hopes for it. The laser essentially burned the hair off. This hurt only slightly less than the electrolysis.
After a treatment, my face would be bright red and feel like I’d plunged it into boiling water. And the burned hair smelled like a scorched cat — something they neglect to mention in the brochures.
Altogether I really think I’d like to revisit the genetic thing and order Nordic, hairless genes.
If you're enjoying this over coffee, tea, or whatever, please consider buying me a cup!A NICE REMINDER
I went shopping today. Since I can only get certain brands at different stores, I had to go to three. I didn’t need much at any of them, but to get everything I wanted, I had to make all three stops.
There was plenty for me to do today, including writing today’s post, along with some other tasks related to the website. (A webmaster’s work is never done!) So, I put on my no-nonsense face and set off for the market, purposely trying to shop quickly.
I whizzed down the aisles of the first store, which was quite a feat given that it’s one of those mega-stores, about the size of a stadium. Luckily the checkout lanes were not busy. I zipped up to a waiting cashier and started plopping down my items. I didn’t even look up when she greeted me, I just grunted, “Hi.”
Somewhere between placing bananas on the conveyor and reaching for my debit card, I glanced at the tag on the cashier’s shirt. She had an unusual name. It fit perfect between the tag’s perfunctory greeting and her job title. It read:
Welcome
Anice
Cashier
The reminder that “life” was trying to give me was not lost. Standing before me, efficiently scanning and bagging my items was “A Nice Cashier.” And I had been all but ignoring her.
I snapped back into the present. For the first time I really looked at her. She was a pleasant woman with warm blue eyes. She sported a smile. I could tell by the way she gently set my bananas in the bag that she was a thoughtful woman, too.
I remarked about how nice her name is. It’s then that I really woke up and smelled the roses, as she told me her middle name is “Rose.” She joked, “I’m a nice rose!” I chuckled.
I thanked her when she handed me the receipt. Maybe she thought it was for a job well done, but it really was for the greater service she performed. She helped me slow down my futile race to conquer the future.
It’s easy to get lost in the past or anxious about the future, when we really should be fully present in the now.
That set me back to rights. In my relaxed state, I engaged in some lighthearted banter with a deli clerk at the second store. It wasn’t anything profound, but with the eye contact and smiles, it was two people recognizing the value of touching each other on a personal level.
At the third store, being in the present moment was responsible for me noticing an item I’d been looking for but was unable to find on previous visits. It wasn’t an earth shattering event, but still it satisfied my needs on more levels than just finding the item.
There is no way to know exactly what will happen when we are fully in the now, but the unexpected things we find add tremendous value to our lives. Value that’s easy to miss when we’re looking backward into the past or projecting ourselves into the future.
For me today, being in the present moment fostered some meaningful personal contact, helped me find something I had been looking for, and provided fodder for me to write this post. If I hadn’t met “A Nice Cashier” today, then most likely I’d still be feeling anxious, staring at a blank screen, wondering what I’m going to write about.
If you're enjoying this over coffee, tea, or whatever, please consider buying me a cup!
