Wax on. Wax off.
Mar 25th 2009
Rachel GibsonOn Writing! & Rachel Gibson
I have a killer migraine and so I’m going to blog a short public service announcement and I hope it’s coherent.
Did you know that March is national chronic fatigue syndrome awareness month, national colorectal cancer awareness month, national eye donor month and national kidney month? March is kind of crowded but I think there is room for one more cause.
National mustache awareness month.
During the month of March, I think every woman should set a day aside to wax her top lip. I know you are all beautiful and don’t have mustaches. Do it anyway. Seriously. Sally Hansen’s microwavable face wax is only 7 bucks at Walgreen’s. Go buy a pot, spoon it above your top lip, wait until it cools and rip. Really, you’ll feel better about yourself and I won’t have to stare at the hairs above your lip. It’s distracting for people like me who have the attention spans of two-year-olds. You could be telling me the most juicy piece of gossip, like author x just got busted for keeping ghost writers chained up in her basement cranking out bestsellers, and I’m not listening. I’m staring at your mustache.
So please, like Mr. Miyagi says, “Wax on. Wax off.”
Update: Don’t use the Brazilian bikini sugar wax on her face. It doesn’t work. Not that I would know.
46 Comments »
46 Responses to “Wax on. Wax off.”
Ayse on 26 Mar 2009 at 2:53 am #
Hope you feel better Rachel.
I’ve never had much hair to begin with (Thank God)… and what little I did have I had removed with electrolysis.
Karen Hawkins on 26 Mar 2009 at 4:01 am #
Poor Rachel! Hope the headache is better soon.
I had no idea this is International Mustache Month. My guy has one and I adore it – he has one of those neat goatee combo thingees and keeps it very trim. He looks like a college prof . . . what’s not to love?
I do hate a guy with a bushy beard, though. The whole Joaquin Phoenix thing doesn’t really work for me.
Lisa H on 26 Mar 2009 at 5:40 am #
The only thing that relieves a bad headache for me is sleep. I hope you can squeeze in a short nap, maybe you will feel better when you wake up.
I agree with mustaches on women being distracting, why would they want to keep them? Do they thing no one will notice?
Facial hair on men, oh yeah!
Cail on 26 Mar 2009 at 5:54 am #
poor Rachel. I had one of those on Monday. Made going to class and driving quite problematic. Don’t know how I did it in retrospect. Pop some meds and get some shut eye. If you’ve got anyone around make them squeeze that pressure point on your hand between your thumb and pointer finger. That helps a little.
As for unwanted facial hair, it does bother me quite a bit to look at it. I’m the queen of do it yourself waxing, so you needn’t worry about running into me and being distracted, although I don’t have to worry about the lip, luckily. I suppose my legs might get distracting while I’m waiting for it to get long enough to wax again…
LisaK on 26 Mar 2009 at 5:57 am #
Get better soon, Rachel!!!
Facial hair on women. *shudder* I can’t say more to that.
Like it on a guy who looks good with it. Not so much the “real” mustache fan, but a five-o’clock shadow is SIGH…
Kari on 26 Mar 2009 at 6:36 am #
Talk about giving a girl a complex about her she-stache. Mine is very light/blonde. I never thought it was noticable, though. hummm. I guess if I’m doing the eyebrows might move down to the lip area as well.
I only like a mustache on a man when it is a combo package with a goatee. Otherwise, I think of Tom Selleck and Magnum P.I., and not in a good way. I don’t know why but I’m just not a fan. Don’t get me wrong, many men can look great with them but it’s just not my cup of tea.
Hope everyone has a great Thursday!!!
nancyg on 26 Mar 2009 at 6:42 am #
oh, Rachel! Hope you feel better soon – nothing worse than a migraine!!
I remember one of my best girlfriends in high school, of Middle-Eastern descent, had her mom talk her into bleaching her upper lip facial hair. It turned blonde, which made it even more noticeable against her olive/brown skin tone. Poor thing – no one had the heart to tell her.
I’m with Karen H. on the Tom Hanks/Castaway facial hair out of control. I’m more of a clean-cut type gal. My husband had a mustache when we met, sported it since high school. I had him shave it off so I could see what he looked like without it. Took off 10 years, and it’s never been back! Turns out he had a small scar on his upper lip, courtesy of an older brother, he was self-conscious about. Stubble-face? Love it – for 2-3 days…
I’m with Cail – going in for waxing next week.
Claudia Dain on 26 Mar 2009 at 6:42 am #
Hope you can kill your migraine before it kills you, Rachel! Last week, Big D came home from work at noon with one and went straight to bed. Six hours later he’d killed it.
No mustache on me. I don’t have enough hair to make one. Big D has 5 o’clock shadow about 30 minutes after shaving. He finds it annoying. I find it sexy. On him. On me it would be tragic.
Sabrina Jeffries on 26 Mar 2009 at 6:44 am #
Okay, this is just weird. I’m headed off for a waxing/haircut appt. in about an hour (after which I have to go to the Mac store to get my IMAC looked at). How did you know?
When I complained to my friend Suse about the fact that the waxing doesn’t last as long as I like, she recommended that Sally Hansen stuff, so I got some. I haven’t used it yet, though.
I saw a young girl at a check-out counter the other day with a serious mustache, so I know exactly what you mean. It was hard not to notice it.
I love mustaches on men, though. And beards. And just about any kind of facial hair. Yum!
elsiehogarth on 26 Mar 2009 at 6:44 am #
Rachel, I feel your pain. I also suffer from migraines and have been having them on and off for the last week. I hope you feel better.
Facial hair on women are very distracting. I was at a party and a friend came over with someone for me to meet and I never heard anything the woman said because I couldn’t stop looking at her sideburns. I also saw that she beard shadows around her face,
Karen H.: Goatees are so sexy. I have to say that I like Oded Fehr and George Michaels goatees. Real nice.
Pesky on 26 Mar 2009 at 6:51 am #
Feel better soon.
*Note to self* Schedule torture session with Kristopher. Brows: There should be two, Moustache: There should be none…..
Done.
Freshechelle on 26 Mar 2009 at 7:04 am #
And while you’ve got the wax out, hit your chin too please. Rachel, from your mouth to God’s ear. I can’t think straight when I see this; too busy fighting the urge to blurt out “don’t you have a mirror at home?”. Keep tweezers in your purse for follicular emergencies.
Hope you are in a dark, quiet room. Feel better.
P.S. February is Frozen Food Month. Mark your calendar for the big celebration next year.
Connie Hettler on 26 Mar 2009 at 7:04 am #
Poor Rachel, I too suffer from the “my brain is going to explode” hate them, but good drugs and a nap and I am in the pink in no time.
I hate to see women with facial hair of any kind, especially chin hair, gives me the willies, the lip is bad enough, but then you get a sideways glimpse and they have enough peach hair to be a 14 year old boy. Come on ladies find a good Esthetician and wax it off.
JudyPatooty on 26 Mar 2009 at 7:14 am #
I hope by now your migraine is history, Rachel!
I tried waxing the upper lip once (at a salon) and said “Never again!” I ended up with the reddest, most irritated upper lip you ever saw. It stayed irritated for several days. It was worse than the bit of moustache I had.
Now I use a facial depilatory, though! It’s much kinder to my skin.
I’m big on tweezing the chin whiskers, too. I inherited quite a few of those from my mother and grandmother. I’m seriously thinking about trying the laser hair removal for them or maybe electrolysis. Something so I don’t have to keep tweezing every single day for the rest of my life.
nancyg on 26 Mar 2009 at 7:25 am #
Sabrina -
Good luck at the genius bar – hope your laptop feels better soon!! Did you book your appointment online? *love* the Apple Store – they have it together…
I have to go in over the weekend to get my iPhone looked at – it keeps popping up “password” to access my voice mail, but I never programmed a password. I just want the screen to go away. I have people calling me, telling me my mailbox is full – UGH!!
Louisa Cornell on 26 Mar 2009 at 7:37 am #
Sympathies and commiserations on the migraine, Rachel. For me the only thing that works is going to bed in a cool, dark room with an ice pack on my head. I hate it!
I’ve never really done the do it yourself wax stuff. In Europe I had standing appointment with a big Austrian woman named Liesl who abused the hair right off my face. OUCH!
Here I have a tiny, gay, Korean guy who denudes my face with great gusto! Double OUCH !! And if he sees me in the grocery store he looks very closely and says “You need come see me soon. Look like lumberjack.” isn’t he sweet?
Ayse on 26 Mar 2009 at 7:56 am #
Rachel, one of my favorite heros of yours is Rob from The Trouble With Valentine’s Day
Love the fu man chu
Rachel Gibson on 26 Mar 2009 at 8:22 am #
Thanks everyone for the sympathies and commiserations on my migraine. It’s still hanging out, but at least I can see out of both eyes today.
Ug, I forgot about the dreaded chin hair. How could women NOT see it.
Kim on 26 Mar 2009 at 8:51 am #
Poor Rachel. Hope that headache is completely gone soon.
Kari-its not noticeable at all. Don’t worry!
Sabrina-let me know how that wax works for you.
Rachel-I’m not telling you anymore gossip until I tweeze and wax. You haven’t even been listening to me!
LauraR on 26 Mar 2009 at 8:56 am #
How could you not *feel* chin hair. I remember some comedienne saying ‘chin hair are migrating eyebrows.’ My electrologist assures me that those pesky dark hairs are not growing back, they’re new… ack!
I once tried the pro-waxing of my upper lip. OMG she burned me! Never again.
get better soon Rachel.
LoriHandeland on 26 Mar 2009 at 9:20 am #
Sorry about the migraine, Rachel. If you have to have a splitting headache it should at least be because of the champagne!
We are a very hairy family. Luckily I had boys. Who are very hairy. Some day I’ll show everyone the pic of my youngest when he didn’t shave from Aug. to Nov. and his gramma started referring to him as “her grandson, the prophet.”
Sadly they got it from me. But I have attended to my upper lip since I was young. No mustache for me! I don’t think.
Wait. Are you trying to tell me something?
Freshechelle on 26 Mar 2009 at 9:23 am #
lori, “the prophet” so funny!!!!
Gannon on 26 Mar 2009 at 9:34 am #
Sorry you’re fighting a migraine, Rachel. Hope you win soon!
I don’t have a mustache problem, but it is a distraction on women, I must say. I really love facial hair on men, but not the Grizzly Adams look. My dh has a mustache and goatee, and I think it’s verra sexy!!
Sarah on 26 Mar 2009 at 9:40 am #
Wax is my friend… all I’m sayin’. Oh and that in between you can get the Nair razor sticks for touch ups.
There was some discussion between beauticians on some show about how women who have to worry about annoying facial hair also seem to be the ones with the nicest, thickest head hair. Says she who has too much thick curly head hair
Kim on 26 Mar 2009 at 9:58 am #
Doesn’t that wax hurt though? Especially on your lip??
Sarah on 26 Mar 2009 at 10:02 am #
The first couple of times…. yeah, it does. I was better if someone else did it… My hair lady taught me to pull my lips tight right before (tuck them in) because then the hair comes out easier. Also have a cool cloth on hand and hold with pressure. Frankly my lip hurts less than my eyebrows… and waaaaay less than plucking my eyebrows.
Never had it done, but I heard sugaring does not hurt.
Rachel Gibson on 26 Mar 2009 at 10:11 am #
Kim–of course it hurts. Buck up you whiner.
Ayse–I loved Rob too. It shocked me how many women didn’t love his stache.
Fresh–Frozen food month. Really? Who know?
Love the Goatee. Mr. G has had a mustache since the 3rd grade. A few years ago, he shaved it off and he looked so weird it freaked me out. He grew it back in three days.
rachel
evlqn on 26 Mar 2009 at 10:17 am #
Rachel, hope your haddock (we have kids with their own language) has left the building. Unfortunately I think it made it’s way to my house about 3 am. I had to resort to drugs also, I hate when that happens.
I have only had two rogue hairs crop up on my face, one eyebrow sprouts a 3″ hair near my nose and one hair pops up on the end of my nose. That’s it for facial hairs for me, I pluck them ruthlessly and I’m good for several months. After a certain age in our family the hairs that used to need harvesting just give up and go away, so I haven’t had to grab the grim-reaper in years.
colinfirthfan on 26 Mar 2009 at 10:47 am #
I did both electrolysis and laser on my upper lip and I don’t do anything to my face anymore, oh- except the eyebrows wax. That I go for every 6 weeks. Wish they’d laser that too. I used to go every 2 weeks for the brows so I am very proud that I have got it to 6 weeks.
I CAN”T wax the upper lip or the eyebrows by myself. Shudder. Hurts too dang much.
Has anyone tried to thread their eyebrows?? Mine are so thick it hurts like the devil. Of course you do eventually get used to it. I only wax now though.
Don’t like ’staches on my man. On others – maybe. Depends. Might be OK with a goatee but he doesn’t want one.
Karen Hawkins on 26 Mar 2009 at 12:34 pm #
What’s the diff between laser treatments and electrolysis? They’re both permanent sorta, right? I’ve never used either and I’ve always wanted to ask and along come Rachel and viola! I can ask!
Anyone know?
evlqn on 26 Mar 2009 at 12:42 pm #
Karen, I googled that question and found this http://www.laser-treatment.com/laser-vs-electrolysis.asp , I didn’t know either.
Kim on 26 Mar 2009 at 12:44 pm #
It hurts?! I dunno, I’m not into pain at all. I’ve never tweezed or waxed my brows. (No comments about “obviously”, k?) Can’t we all just whine and/or pretend to not see those extra hairs?
Colinfirthfan-what’s threading?
Ayse on 26 Mar 2009 at 1:59 pm #
Hey Karen,
I’ve had both. Laser treatments are done with a laser and kinda feel like you’re being hit with a rubber band. They only work on dark hair and you can’t tan for a while. You also can’t do it if you have dark skin because it can mess up your pigment.
Electrolysis is done with a needle and works on all kinds of hair, but it takes longer (electrocute the root of the hair one by one). Its not too bad if the place you get it done is good… a bikini wax hurts more if you ask me.
Both laser and electrolysis can scar if not don’t right so you should definitely look into a good place if you want to get it done (the 1st time I went to a well known place and the guy hit on me ick). You can also ask for numbing creams beforehand if you’re really sensitive.
I’ve also had my eyebrows threaded. It lasts longer than wax, but still hurts. I stopped because threading also picks up small fuzz and that turns to hair. Don’t ever let anyone do electrolysis on your eyebrows.
Good God I sound like a own a salon
Madeline Hunter on 26 Mar 2009 at 2:03 pm #
rumors that I have heard:
—blond hair doesn’t respond to laser due to no pigment. Major bummer.
—almost all women develop facial hair as they, um, “mature.”
—blond hair does not respond well to electrolysis either. Really major bummer.
—waxing hurts big time on the upper lip, no matter what color your hair.
—It is said that medications to numb teeth can be used to numb skin briefly too.
I have no personal knowledge if any of this is true, you understand.
Rachel, I hope the migraine is much better by now.
Madeline Hunter on 26 Mar 2009 at 2:05 pm #
While composing that last email, Ayse posted that blond hair works with electrolysis. Really? I’ll file that away—-should I ever need to know
Madeline Hunter on 26 Mar 2009 at 2:06 pm #
what is treading?
Madeline Hunter on 26 Mar 2009 at 2:06 pm #
I mean “threading”.
Ayse on 26 Mar 2009 at 2:16 pm #
threading is hard to explain so heres a link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIeHYNt-rl4
My blond cousins have had electrolysis and its worked. The needle is inserted into the root so it doesn’t matter what color hair you have, but a laser can’t find the root of light hair. It does take a lot of sessions though.
oooh I almost forgot.. with a laser they shave first so its sucks if you need it on your face. I would freak if somebody tried to shave my face.
Judy F on 26 Mar 2009 at 2:25 pm #
HOpe you are feeling better Rachel.
I am with you on the upper lip. I don’t see how people can’t see it or the chin area. I also get a few strays by my ears. GROSS. I pluck mostly, or do the bleach stuff.
There is a lady in my buidling at home that has a terrible mustache. She is visual impared, I would say something but I know her only to say hi. Not something you say to someone you barely know. But she has caregivers that come over, why don’t they help her.
Another thing I work next to a lady that doesn’t know how to blend her foundation. It goes right to her jaw line and stops. I so want to blend it for her everyday.
Judy F on 26 Mar 2009 at 2:26 pm #
Oh and Congrats to the Rita Nominations ladies.
Claudia Dain on 26 Mar 2009 at 2:40 pm #
I think you must get to the point where you get sick of the whole struggle and just let what will come, come. My grandmother hit this point somewhere around 80. (She lived to her late 90s.) Hair (gray and blond) all over her face, stopped “doing” her hair, wore stained clothing. This was about the same time she wore a cardigan sweater no matter the temperature and had her purse over her arm, clutched protectively, even while sitting in my house.
Of course, her daughter, my mother, read her the riot act for all of this. No way was *her* mother going to turn into an un-kempt loon.
I’ve already instructed my daughter, “If I have a stroke, or am lying in a coma, PLUCK MY EYEBROWS.” I know she’ll take care of me. I may be out, but I don’t want to look bad. *g*
Judy F on 26 Mar 2009 at 3:09 pm #
Claudia, I already have my niece lined up when I go to the home, she is to pluck my eyebrows and chin. LOL
Lisa H on 26 Mar 2009 at 5:11 pm #
I have already instructed by best friend and my hairdresser to wig me or have my hair done nicely if I drop dead before either of them. I do not want bad hair in the coffin.
Freshechelle on 26 Mar 2009 at 5:51 pm #
My mother and I used to work together and we had a male client who wore a ratty fur coat which she always described as “that damn coat made from his mother’s chin hair”. Mom’s good people.
Kathleen on 27 Mar 2009 at 5:16 pm #
Gee I already did mine a couple of weeks ago. I am lucky that I am very,very fair on my upper lip, so it takes very little maintainence. But I will put it on the calender for next year.
And I did not know that this was Chronic Fatigue Awarness month. For which I suffer.
Feel better Rachel!! Mirgraines are a bitch!!!
Carole on 21 Apr 2009 at 3:55 pm #
Rachel,
I get migraines. I am now using a prescription (Treximet) that seems to work pretty well. I’ve tried other prescriptions but got rebound headaches the next day. Most of the time I have to freeze it away with an ice pack and rest in addition to the drugs. I also use Phenergan for nausea in extreme cases. That knocks you out for hours, but sometimes it’s necessary. Just thought you might want to check into this.
I own all your books and am looking forward to next Tuesday very much. I have a new book strategy: I reserve copies online at a BN store I pass on the way home from work. That way I can get them the day they come out with a quick stop – they are waiting for me at the register. (Next week is a bonanza: you, Suzanne Enoch, Nora Roberts, and Mary Balogh. I can read a book in one evening so that will only hold me until Friday, but then I’ll reread them all.)
Madeline, I own all yours, even ones I read at the library first. I read on your website that you are switching publishers. Does this mean that you can’t mention the characters again in any of your new novels? Nora Roberts said that happened to her when she switched a few years ago. I hate that!