Itchy & Scratchy

Sometimes there are really interesting (though odd) things that go along with transitioning, and one of these occurred to me recently. I’ve been getting electrolysis treatments for the past 4 years or so, and FINALLY there seems to be some sign of decent progress. At this point in time I have very little visible hair left on my cheeks and on either side of my face. My chin is also starting to thin out, though there is more hair there than on my cheeks.

The hair that is remaining on my chin, however, has gotten softer and softer from the treatments. This hair also seems to be the hair on my face (when there actually is hair on my face... as I SO strive to be turbo-clean shaven at all times) that I notice the most. It’s the hair that I have the most contact with, because I tend to touch my chin more than any other part of my face (and I suspect most people would as well, but I have no idea if that is so, and I certainly don’t have the means nor the patience to conduct a comprehensive study on the topic).

Anyway, this thinner hair also comes in contact with my mouth. There’s that bit of hair – the “soul patch”, if you will – that sits right under the bottom lip, which, when the mouth is closed in certain ways, will rub against the inner part of the top lip. For those of you who have never experienced this, it creates an odd sensation, and it's actually very pleasant on a tactile level, as in it “feels cool”.

Over time, this sensation changes. It's smooth when you are younger, then you get a bit older and you start to feel that “peach fuzz” forming there. That’s a whole new sensation. Then every few years I guess, from the constant shaving, it getting rougher and rougher, which produces a whole new set of sensations until it finally levels off a bit a some point, then it’s just sort of "the way it is" for you, and it's not really noticed too much after that.

Recently, however, all of this has been disappearing for me. This feeling of constancy resting just below my bottom lip is going away.

Now this is a good thing for me. I DO want it to go away. This is not to say that I won’t miss the sensation sometimes. Additionally, there is no better a place to scratch an itch on the palm of your hand, or even an itch on the back of your hand, than on the round part of your chin. I am CERTAIN that I’ll miss this little trick... like when I actually have that itch and don’t know what to do to make it go away, because THAT is one. dogged. itch.

The weird thing about all of this, is that with these things going away and the hair on my chin getting softer and softer, it’s almost reminding me of being younger – of being in high school and things like that. The sensation of soft hair on my chin makes me thing of early adolescence. I wonder if no hair will make me think of childhood, if it’ll help me recall more of it.

Then, years from now (and almost ironically), the clean chin will become the feeling more identifiable with the post-40 age than with the childhood age, and the days where I had the interesting stubble on my face will fade into my past and become “when I was young”.

Hope you’re having a good day.