To All The Girls With Facial Hair | Blogtober Day 2

Let’s cut to the chase. I have a moustache. I have a unibrow. I have hair that grows on my neck and I have fluffy hair strands that dress my jawline. I know that I do, but what I’ve always found most weird, was how the other people around me treated my facial hair. 

So here’s another story down memory lane, back to school, where we will be talking about my peers and my facial hair. 

I was a hairy kid. There’s not an inch of me that isn’t Indian, so what else would you expect? The hair on my legs grow back painfully thick; I’m pretty sure there’s not a patch on my face that doesn’t grow hair (well other than my eyelids, even then I wouldn’t be surprised.) And that is completely okay. I just wish the kids growing up with me had the same mind sets. 

Year 7, I’m in German class. Another student is handing out the work books. In front of me, she drops a book that has the name ‘Saimah’ written on it. I look up at her, she’s given me the wrong book. To be honest, it is year 7, so I’m sure she’s still getting the hang of putting everyone’s names to their faces, but there was something a little odd about her getting the only two Asian girls in the class mixed up. “Hey, this isn’t my book,” but she’s already turned her back and headed to the front of the class, dishing out the rest.

There’s a tap on my shoulder. Saimah, has my book in her hand and passes it to me. We trade books as she shrugs and heads back to her seat. I look up at the girl as she comes back up. “Oh sorry, did I get you guys mixed up?” I nod. I wasn’t very confident back then. “Yeah, you did, I don’t know how, we look completely different,” Saimah chirps up. The girls looks at us both, I watch her eyes flick between us. “I’ll remember next time, you’ve got the-” her fingers run under her neck, indicating the place where my odd patch of hair grows, before spinning back and returning to her seat. I sunk in mine. 

I arrive home later that day and my mum is in her room, blasting Alanis Morisette and bleaching the hair on her lip. I watch her for awhile, until she catches my eye. “Want some?” she asks. She grabs my chin and inspects every strand she hereditarily passed onto me. She pastes the white, smelly concoction on my neck and above my lip and boy does it sting. 

The next day, I bump into some classmates at school as I’m walking to my first class. One girl scrunches her face up – she’s confused about something. It’s not until she physically bends down to look under my neck, that I notice she’s wondering where my hair went. 

This isn’t the only story I have at school regarding my facial hair. In fact, there’s a lot of stories where I whole heartedly admit to having facial hair, but my peers were so stubborn on convincing me that I had none. I see that it was their way of not wanting to hurt my feelings, or protecting me, but the best thing that they could have done for me – is to admit it with me and make me feel as if it didn’t matter, or affected our friendship. 

Obviously now, as a young woman, I know how to handle a wax strip. I also have a lot to thank for social media movements, like making it normal for women to grow out their armpit hair and not shaving their legs, for making me feel normal in my very naturally growing facial hair. 

And to all the girls who have facial hair – I really don’t care, and you shouldn’t have to either. It’s cool to not like it, but you’ve gotta accept it first honey because who are we fooling? There will be days where I can’t be bothered to wax my neck, or pluck my eyebrows and you know I will still be leaving the house because it’s natural. It’s natural! Now flaunt those hairs, baby and I’ll be flaunting mine with you. 

Feel free to comment or reply with any thoughts or opinions you have on this subject, I’d especially love to hear any of your facial hair stories. I look forward to hearing from you.

Love always,

AK.

 

A little afterthought…

Hope you liked that one guys! Blogtober this year has been so fun. After not blogging for such a while, it’s great to come back and feel accepted into the community again. I thought I’d start a little thing where I shout out my favourite blogtober posts from the previous day and attach them at the end of the post, so here we go:

Abby // My LifeLines: Day 1

This month Abby is taking on a goal a day, on a vlogtober/blogtober remix. Her first goal was to do something that made her uncomfortable, like vlogging, and it was so cute and enjoyable. I’m super excited to see how her vlogtober progresses and you should watch along too!

Check out Abby’s vlog here. 

Jessica // #FirstDraftLife: Day 1

Jessica has put her own little spin on Blogtober in her day 1 blog. She has created her own goals and achievements, as well as giving herself some opportunities to earn bonus points (which I loved). Her blog was my favourite post to read of Day 1 so far, which is why I wanted to share it with you all to read too!

Check out Jessica’s post here.