Oh no. A chin hair. The quest for an explanation.

The other day while looking in my rear-view window, I noticed a terrifying sight. It was not a fast approaching tornado ready to swallow up my car, nor was it Jason Voorhees from Halloween ready to slash me. It was a chin hair. Even worse, it was long and it was white. Horrible images flashed through my mind. First, I thought of crazy mediterranean gypsy women, the likes of whom might sacrifice a chicken for good luck. Next I thought of The Stygian Witches from the original Clash of the Titans movie who had scared me to death when I saw it for the first time in 1981. I had been seeing a stray grey hair or two pop up on my head for a few years already, but this was a different story. I then realized that the real scare of the discovery was that I was reaching middle age. There are lots of things a person can do to fight social or legal injustice, but what about aging injustice? I take care of myself. I eat my fruits and veggies. I'm fit. I've even cleansed with the lemonade drink. Why the *#@! was this happening? Although I'm half Italian, in other words, "mediterranean", I've never had issues with dark or unwanted hair growth. I never really had to do any facial waxing, and thought of waxing in general as a barbaric ritual. I really had to wrap my mind around this one, and come to a place of acceptance. I had my twentieth high school reunion not long ago, and I get that I'm not twenty-something anymore, and frankly I'm much wiser and happier being in my thirties. But still, I felt I needed to do some research to see why more facial hair sprouts as we age. Apparently, this is usually part of normal skin changes associated with aging, and certainly can be a hereditary trait. Hmmmm, Nana is Sicilian..... On a more serious note, having lots of excess hair growth can be a sign of hormonal imbalance called hirsutism. It can also be a sign of menopause. If you have irregular periods, hair growth can be one side effect, as androgens, (male type hormones) increase. One hair or two doesn't mean that you're necessarily having a medical issue, but it does make you wonder why does Mother Nature have such a messed up sense of humor. So when I got home that day, I prioritized to get the tweezer and pluck that thing to kingdom come. By the way, it is a wives tale that plucking hairs will make them grow back coarser. So, afterwards, I was hit with a strange touch of guilt. It was the same feeling that had come over me after plucking a few greys from my hair in the past. Was I committing an offense to my rightful hard earned maturity by banishing the grey from my head? Perhaps. But I decided that the chin hair fell into another more dastardly category, and I'd not obsess about the aging process, but simply resign myself to the idea of having to pluck a hair or two from the chin location every now and then. Big deal. I'm trying to keep my eye on the bigger picture these days, reinventing my career, volunteering at my local theatre renovation, and have nearly finished my first novel. I decided I have no time to sweat the small stuff, or an occasional chin hair. The pen is mightier than the sword, but I'll carry a tweezer anyway.