Some women might greet the arrival of full-blown facial hair with horror. I try to look at the bright side. It's bound to draw attention away from the crow's feet, right? And in this age of economic uncertainty, there's got to be a circus side show that's down one bearded lady.

In the spirit of this project, I decided to take the tweezers to the old 'stache. Although the hairs are notably dark, they are too fine in texture to remove with wax or sugaring. And I'm not about to take a razor to my face. I know the old ball and chain does it, and I've seen how brutal that can be.

Using tweezers for more than random single-hair removal requires a steady hand and a certain sense of detachment. Although it's possible to yank out more than one at a time, it's no easy feat. I found myself plucking strand after strand only to see that the dark shadow of a mustache still remained. After a while, the skin was too distressed to pluck any more.

After the expected redness and swelling had dissipated, I tried to start up again. By this time, I had removed most of the long hairs near the side of my mouth. I ran into another obstacle: the hairs above the lip, while still pleasingly dark, were way too short to grasp with the tweezers. Besides, the sensation of yanking the hairs out made me want to sneeze.
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