Depressing firsts time

TMI alert for anyone who wants to believe I am a perfect fairy princess who always looks sooooper-feminine. 

I had been scrutinizing my upper lip the past few weeks in the mirror, asking myself, "Does it look a shade...darker....than it should, or is it my imagination?"

(The lights in my bathroom are v. unforgiving, but I like it that way).

I peered closer at it and yeah, dangit - the hairs always there have come in a bit darker of late. 

Finally, the other day I decided: yeah, the very fine hair that's there (nearly all women have it, guys, it just usually doesn't show) had darkened enough that I could notice it, and maybe other people could too. So it had to go.

I debated one of three paths:

1. bleach
2. going to Ulta and having one of the women there do it (which would make maintenance more tricky, or I'd have to find a salon here in town)
3. waxing it myself.

I opted for 3 even though a previous experiment with using hot wax on my legs (I was tempted with the idea of not having to shave every day in the summer) led to burns and unpleasantness. (I didn't heat the wax so much this time).

And yeah, I'm probably being perfectionistic and overzealous. It's not like I looked like Mario the Nintendo Plumber or something, but it was enough to bug me, and I don't need ANYTHING extra to make me self-conscious.

And also, if I weren't so pale that I'm practically phosphorescent it probably wouldn't show. (Maybe this summer, when I get a little sun, I won't have to worry about it as much. But then, ironically, I won't be teaching so I won't be around people as much)

So I did it. It's not fun, it doesn't feel good, it's like ripping off a really big Band-Aid, and I slapped some aloe on there immediately and I am really, REALLY, really hoping my super-irritable skin doesn't decide this is a good thing to hive up in response to. (I had to mostly give up plucking my brows to shape them because on a bad-skin day I'd get hives from it). But I did have success in the sense that the darker hair is now gone.

But yeah, it does look better. Well, right now it looks pinker, but it will eventually look better.

here's hoping I only have to do this once a month or so, and that maybe the hair comes back paler next time.

I said it before, I'll say it again: getting old is a heck of a trip. I'm sure this is related to hormonal shifts caused by being within a stone's throw of 50.