it's the season to de-fur
Apr. 26th, 2004 12:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lobelia321It's that season again. That season when women of the Anglo-Saxon world shave off, wax or otherwise pluck out their body hairs (not on their heads, I should add; most women in the Commonwealth and the US of A tend to keep their head hair on).
Now, when I was living in Australia (1970s and early 80s)where the plucking and the waxing was in bigtime I never took part. I was contrary, I was stubborn, I took a feminist line, I was lazy, I wore overalls with my father's shirts and was generally contra-contra-contra (the teenage version of Jed/Kiran, if you like).
Then I lived in Germany where, in the 1980s, not many women shaved. So it was hair and don't care, and I didn't. Until I got contrary again and started to shave simply *because* everyone else around me wasn't. Also, some women were doing it in order to be cool and 'American', and I wanted to be cool and American, too.
Then I moved to America (United States of), and all the women were eggs. I immediately became so contrary that I left all my bodily nature to grow wild and haywire. I did not de-hairify once during my sojourn there, and it did not make me any less attractive to the sex I was then interested in (on the contrary, omg).
So now, middle-aged and *sigh*, respectable and sort of keen to fit in and not be noticed, and *especially* keen not to be *mocked* by students, I do do the shaving thing in a desultory way and only when the sun's out.
Well. The sun's out. Bugger.
Now, when I was living in Australia (1970s and early 80s)where the plucking and the waxing was in bigtime I never took part. I was contrary, I was stubborn, I took a feminist line, I was lazy, I wore overalls with my father's shirts and was generally contra-contra-contra (the teenage version of Jed/Kiran, if you like).
Then I lived in Germany where, in the 1980s, not many women shaved. So it was hair and don't care, and I didn't. Until I got contrary again and started to shave simply *because* everyone else around me wasn't. Also, some women were doing it in order to be cool and 'American', and I wanted to be cool and American, too.
Then I moved to America (United States of), and all the women were eggs. I immediately became so contrary that I left all my bodily nature to grow wild and haywire. I did not de-hairify once during my sojourn there, and it did not make me any less attractive to the sex I was then interested in (on the contrary, omg).
So now, middle-aged and *sigh*, respectable and sort of keen to fit in and not be noticed, and *especially* keen not to be *mocked* by students, I do do the shaving thing in a desultory way and only when the sun's out.
Well. The sun's out. Bugger.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-26 12:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-26 12:58 pm (UTC)Damn my abnormally hairy gene pool.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-26 01:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-26 01:03 pm (UTC)Though I did inherit the incredibly evil uni-brow from my dad, which results in plucking constantly, as well. So I suppose we're even.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-26 01:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-26 09:32 pm (UTC)How does one pluck it? And does it make a difference? Do you look *better*? I think I plucked mine twice sometime in the 1980s.
Hm.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-26 01:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-26 09:34 pm (UTC)Speaking of chests: I have hair there, too. (Not that you were but lots of people have tattoos on their chests and I was just imagining them all disappearing, like daffs among weeds.)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-26 01:34 pm (UTC)*laughs* That sums it up perfectly. I hate shaving dearly, nevertheless I do it. Not to be not mocked because over here people still don't care that much, but because *shrugs shoulders* I think it simply looks better.
Middle-aged and respectable ... *sporfles* ... that is such a funny concept. I don't feel I have to look respectable to be respected.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-26 09:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-26 02:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-26 04:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-27 08:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-26 09:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-27 08:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-28 06:30 pm (UTC)Please, *goes down on bended knee*, tell me how to achieve this?
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-03 03:30 pm (UTC)Plucking eyebrows is quite simple when you get used to it. First of all you need to decide what needs plucking. So, to start with, you take a pencil (no, not to draw on yourself.) You hold it so it runs from the edge of your nose to the inner edge of your eye. This is where your eyebrow should start. Then from the edge of your nose to the outer edge of your eye. This is where it should end. Do it for both eyes, then you know what can go from between your eyes. From the centre you can take everything out, as long as you don't go past this imaginary line, or you'll look a bit bald.
To shape them, DO NOT PLUCK ABOVE YOUR EYEBROWS! This will change the shape more dramatically. I mean, I do it, but I've been plucking them since I was 11 so I'm a bit of an expert. Just concentrate on getting rid of strays underneath first, then look carefully at the natural line. I find the parts nearest the centre can usually lose a bit of width to look more polished. But it's better to be cautious at first so as not to be permanently 'surprised'.
You need good tweezers (not necessarily £12 ones) and lots of patience. And a high pain threshold. (Numbing it with an icecube in a tissue is supposed to help, but I've never tried it. A magnifying mirror is useful, too.
And that's more than you ever wanted to know about plucking your eyebrows!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-03 10:41 pm (UTC)On the contrary: it is exactly as much as I ever wanted to know about plucking my eyebrows!
Thank you most kindly! I have already started to do the measuring but then we had dinner guests so I had to run off, bushy-browed. Any particular reason why one must measure with a pencil?
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-04 08:56 am (UTC)I thought, oh, I could give more specific advice, let me just look at your pic to see what your eyebrows look like, then spent, ooh, a minute peering at a picture of Dom holding a fish before it dawned on me that that was not, in fact, you, and would not help at all.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-04 05:34 pm (UTC)As far as regards me: think Frida.
Except I hide the Kahlo-brow behind spectacles.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-26 05:57 pm (UTC)Still don't shave my armpits, though! Go me!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-26 09:36 pm (UTC)I still remember a certain young person asking about this aspect of your personality...!!
*giggles*
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-27 06:52 am (UTC)Bless his little cotton socks! And wasn't your response somethng along the lines of, "We really must have the talk about appropriate topics of conversation." hahahahaha
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-27 03:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-28 06:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-29 04:11 am (UTC)