Waxing....

...Poetic?
Not so much!

I brush my hair every morning... and every morning I notice there are more and more hairs on the brush, in the sink and on the floor. And on my upper lip.

Is there some magic moment when our bodies decide to do some sort of biological switch and transfer what's supposed to be on our heads elsewhere?

Don't get me wrong - I still have what I consider to be a healthy head of hair. It's graying relatively slowly, which is a relief, and although it's become a lot coarser recently, it continues to cover my scalp nicely, and seems to be growing and replacing what's been falling out at a reasonable rate.

But the hair on my upper lip - and now, according to the lovely young woman who does my regular waxing - my chin -is also growing and spreading at an alarming rate.

Every morning I shove my face as close to the mirror as I can (this procedure must be done before I put in my contact lenses, otherwise my close-up vision is far too compromised to accomplish anything, even with my $9.00 flea market 'readers'), and try to remove the hairs that have sprouted over the previous 24 hours. I never know where these little shoots are going to be - under my nose, on the side of my lip, on my chin or even, as I discovered this morning, much to my dismay, on my cheek. The very worst ones are beneath my jaw: try lifting your head, holding onto your chin, feeling around for the sharp prick of a coarse yet invisible hair while wielding a small pair of sharp tweezers. Then see if you can latch those tweezers onto that hair and pull it out. Without, of course, catching the side of your neck and leaving angry little welts on the skin.

I was able to avoid waxing for a long time. Mostly because I was chicken and didn't like the idea of paying for pain. I succumbed several years ago when during a 'once in a blue moon facial' (it was my birthday present to me) the esthetician convinced me that it was the right thing to do 'at my age.' Who was I to argue with someone who was gently massaging my scalp, neck and shoulders in a candle lit room, with ocean, bird and cello sounds playing softly in the background? I said 'Do it', and she did. Ouch.

However I liked the smooth feel and the look of my freshly waxed vermillion (look it up!), and I decided the pain was worth it. At first, I did it once every 6-8 weeks. The hair, when it did grow back, remained soft and blonde. But then things started to change - just about the time, I now realize - I noticed the aforementioned increasing amount of head hair loss.

So I began to schedule regular appointments. Every 6 weeks. And then, every 5 weeks. You get the idea.

It's not that I mind the pain. Really, I don't. In fact, I almost welcome it, because I know the result will be the removal of those blasted little hairs. I just wish it didn't seem as if each time another chin hair appears, another head hair hits the floor.

My next wax is in 2 1/2 weeks.