It Ain't Easy Being Downy
Friday, February 12, 2010 So, I have a question for all of you, but, first, a story.
Ever since I can remember, I have had a pretty fuzzy face. It's not hairy so that I have to comb it or anything, but it's definitely fuzzy.
When I was in grade four and the weather had just warmed up enough for us to have Phys. Ed. outside, we set up the high jump bar on the strip of grass next to the gymnasium and lined up to take turns hurling ourselves over it and onto the big rectangle of foam that broke our falls. Up north here in Saskatchewan, the sun still doesn't climb that high in the sky in early spring, so the sunlight was hitting us at an angle that makes it look like evening for hours.
It's the kind of light that makes everyone look more beautiful than they normally look, but, apparently, not me, at least that day. The kid behind me in line poked me on the shoulder blade and said "Hey, you have really hairy earlobes."
Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that this fuzz extends right over my earlobes. They're very soft.
"What?" I said.
"Your earlobes. They're really hairy," the kid said again.
"You could braid them," a second kid said.
A third kid reached out a finger to stroke one.
I wanted to die. I took two steps to the left where the gym's shadow hid my fuzziness.
Despite early pressure to feel shame about my fuzziness, I've never done much about it. Once, when I was about 25 years old, I borrowed my roommate's razor and shaved everything from my eyebrows down. It looked and felt pretty good until it all started to grow back in a couple of days later.
I waxed my upper lip a couple of times, too, but now I prefer to individually pluck out the darker hairs rather than go through what feels like tearing a band-aid from my tender flesh.
Maybe it's my newfound insecurity these days, or maybe it's a factor of being in my late thirties, but I swear that my whole head is getting fuzzier. In fact, I'd say it's getting downright downy.
I was going to provide a picture example of my downiness — which, again, isn't really all that bad, because it's not like I'm growing a beard here — but do you know how hard it is to capture the sun coming through your itty bitty face fuzz when it's cloudy out? It's hard, and it looks to the neighbour walking by your window like you're tonguing your camera lens. Hi, neighbour! Me and my camera are getting married!
Here's a picture I took three years ago that captures just a touch of the fuzz of which I speak, although barely:
So, here's my question: are any of you fuzzy, or even downy?
And here's another question: what do you do about it? Wax? Shave? Avoid bright sun? Twist it into tiny cornrows and decorate the ends with seed beads?
Reader Comments (26)
I have very dark hair, and have always had a lil lip hair, but no one has ever complained, and boys still like to kiss me. I think all women have this to some extent.
I have in my 30's noticed that I do get more stray dark hairs that need plucking, on my chin!! I do know that this is a huge concern for many of my girlfriends, and many pay ridiculous sums of money to be hair free. However I think it's normal and I won't waste good beer money on waxing.
I read a book about Marilyn Monroe that said one of the keys to her beauty was this light peach fuzz she had all over her face. It was blonde and when it caught the light, it made her look luminescent.
So, work it!
PS Love the strips on the new masthead. Dream design strikes again!
Since I hit my 30's I've developed a fairly impressive peach fuzz goatee. The only bits I trim down on a regular basis are the 3 or 4 bright red billy goat hairs that have taken up residence on the underside of my chin. The downy blonde stuff is really only visible to me, so I don't sweat it much.
-Robin
I am a downy fluff girl as well. I was always very happy that it was soft and clear not bristly and dark like my girlfriends had. I always thought it looked cool when the light caught it. It's like my personal halo for my face and arms.
-RobinM
I'm downy and proud of it. My Granny says I got it from her, and that is makes me look soft. Hey! Real life Gaussian blur! :)
p.s. My captcha word is 'feard.' Is that like fear+beard? Too funny.
p.p.s. I have always thought you were beautiful. Like, pure natural beauty and stuff.
I've met you IRL and I hafta say, fuzzy did not come to mind when I saw you.
Anyway, Nair for faces on the upper lip - don't leave it on too long, but it usually takes a minute longer than the instructions say.
I'm fuzzy and have been since childhood. A kid in my high school science class used to call me sasquatch. For years I would pluck, shave and wax as much as I could to hide it. Now I'm in my 30s and I don't really care anymore, although I do wax my eyebrows. I'm too vain to surrender to my natural unibrow.
Once again reading your blog has made me feel so unalone in the world. Yeah I'm a little furry. For the most part it doesn't bother me but sometimes I get self conscious about my side burns. I don't know if I should trim them or just continue to igore their existance. Ignoring existance seems to work with most things.
I've always had peach fuzz all over my face and it's always sort of bothered me. I don't think that anyone else really notices, but in my mind, it's noticable.
I remember as a kid asking my mom if I could get my entire face waxed (fyi: she said no and I'm really glad!). Years later I became an esthetician and, while going through school, was tortured by other classmates practicing their waxing techniques on my upper lip, legs, underarms, cheeks and chin...OUCH!!! My feelings about the results of the facial waxing were mixed. On one hand I had gorgeously smooth skin free from hair, but on the other hand OUCH! and a day or two later I started breaking out in little bumps that looked like pimples and felt worse than the waxing. I don't religiously wax, but I do have a wax pot at home that I dip into when I'm feeling like I need to be a little less hairy...
I have dark hair and very pale skin. Every hair shows.
I used to use a chemical hair remover on my lip, but I haven't in a while. Oddly enough, I'm less hairy in my thirties than I was in my twenties. (Or possibly it's just turning gray.) I don't find it as irritating as waxing, but it does sting a bit and it definitely smells.
http://fuckyeahbeardedladies.tumblr.com/
I begrudgingly shave my legs and pits, mostly because I like smooth legs. Oh well.
I'm not fuzzy on the face, but I'm fuzzy on the arms. So much that I decided to shave them when I was a kid, my arm and leg has was dark, dar, dark...not a good idea to shave them. So I spent summers in long sleeve shirts all through my twenties, always conscious of when the temperature would go down and give me enough of a chill to make my arm hairs stand up on end. It was humiliating as a kid. Sasquatch, Harry and the Hendersons (I was Harry, obviously), all kinds of names. My mother tried to make me feel better by telling me about the time when met Miss Wisconsin and "Boy! Did SHE have some hairy arms!!"
"Whatever, Mom. She's Miss Wisconsin. And I'm NOT!"
Anyway, I now spend so much time at the beach that my arm hair isn't so dark...and the chills that makes them stand on end? A classic party trick. People are all like, "Whoa! That's kinda cool!"
Now my daughter has the same problem on her arms and legs. I'm buying her an electric razor when she's 10. Humiliation didn't build character. It just plain pissed me off.
I am really fuzzy. I was at the dermatologist's office and she sent in an electrolycist as part of an introduction thing they were doing. I didn't even ask her about my peach fuzz - she brought it up herself after checking me out. She said she tended to discourage women from getting rid of it because she felt it softened their features in a pleasing manner. And she meant it.
So, I don't know. I don't embrace it, but there are so many things I dislike more actively that I can't get worked up about it.
I have a friend who has the peach fuzz and I swear it makes her the most photogenic person I've ever known... it's like her own gauze on the lens or something. And it it not noticeable in real life unless you're looking for it.
I am fuzzy as well, and have mostly given up on fighting it. I will wax/pluck what isn't the short, soft fuzz (from time to time I just seem to sprout a few massively long hairs as sideburns, and normally ths wouldn't bother me except the hair is dark. So I guess every six months I notice the bastards and set upon them with vengeance and a furious anger.
Women in Georgia often have noticeable mustaches which they seem to accessorise with red lipstick. True story.
I AM fuzzy. I was made aware of it by a close friend. Thereafter self-conscious, I began shaving it with a double edged razor. I use a fresh razor every time I shave, usually about once a week. The fuzz grows on the side of my face. I'm told I shouldn't shave, that it will cause the fuzz to grow in thicker but I've been doing it for years and the hair has stayed the same. Shaving works very well for me.
Robin
I am totally fuzzy, or fuzzy-plus, even. All over the face, and my arms always look like I have goosebumps! Part of my Italian descent, I guess. And like you, it bugs the shit out of me, or has in the past, but not so much as to actually do much about it. I've waxed it or naired it irregularly over the years, for special occasions like my wedding or whatnot, but what a pain in the ass. Plus waxing makes me break out in tiny pimples a couple days later, so I have to time it just right, and then be braced for a beard of zits instead of fuzz. So let it be...you're beautiful!
A black guy I used to know told me that this only affects white people. He used to paint children's faces, and he said he couldn't figure out why the special paint crayons they use didn't work the same on the white kids as they did on the black kids. He was amazed to find out, as he put it, that "white kids are fuzzy."
"So, here's my question: are any of you fuzzy, or even downy?"
It just so happens that I was reading about Marilyn Monroe the other evening, and a photographer who worked with her mentioned that part of her "glow" was that her face was unusually downy.
Fancy that!
Oh! Now I see Savia has beat me to it. Sorry, shoulda read the comments before commenting.
I'm especially downy as well. Always have been, and sometimes I'm self-conscious about it, like when I find an especially long hair on my chin or cheek bone(only happened twice in my 22 years). I don't really think about it-- I kinda like it, I think my skin feels softer, like a baby's ass is my face.
I agree with Savia-- I'm super blonde and I've noticed the same thing.
The Chained Maiden, I never noticed your fuzziness! I am becoming more and more convinced that no one else really notices it but our own obsessed selves. In real life, you looked completely fuzzless to me. It's true.
Yeah, I'm downy too! I pluck out the ones that are really asking for it, but waxing would be weird... where would I begin?
I'm not fuzzy, but my daughter is. She's in grade 4, and I dread the day when somebody will mention it to her. What will I say? Will I help her remove it? Or will I encourage her to live with it. I'm still undecided. All I know is that it all from her father's side of the family! Maybe I should just let him deal with it....
I don't know why I feel free to share this with the world of Schmutzie, but here you go.
I shave every day that I leave the house. Face only. If I didn't I'd have the scraggly beard of a 15-yr-old boy. Except I'm a 36-yr-old woman with PCOS, one of the side effects of which is hicrsutism.
Lucky me!