Perimenopause Is Weird: Can We Please Talk About the Chin Hair?

Brooke Silva
5 days ago
3 min read

no one prepares you about tweezing chin hairs in the HEB parking lot during this part of life.

Nobody prepared me for this.

Everyone warned me about:

Hot flashes.
Mood swings.
Brain fog.
Night sweats.
Hormones doing whatever hormones do.

Fine.

I expected some of that.

What I didn't expect was to wake up one day and realize my body had apparently started making executive decisions without consulting me.

The weirdest part?

In my head, there is absolutely no way I'm old enough to be going through this.

I still feel like, me.

Then life has a way of sharply reminding me.

Like the day I sneezed......peed my pants......and somehow hurt my back.

At the same time.

What. The. Actual. Hell? I wasn't wrestling a bear. I wasn't moving furniture.

I sneezed.

That's it. Apparently that's all it takes now.

And then there was the day I looked in the rearview mirror while sitting in the HEB parking lot. The sun hit my face just right.

There it was. A chin hair.

Not a cute little peach fuzz situation.

A full blown, "How long have you been living here?" chin hair.

Excuse me? Where did you come from? How long have you been there? Have other people seen you? Did Adam know?

Because if Adam knew and didn't tell me...

Actually, don't answer that. I don't think I want to know.

The Daily Tweeze Check

I now own tweezers for every possible location.

Bathroom
Purse
Backpack
Jeep center console
Desk
Travel bag
Probably one hiding in the junk drawer

Because apparently my face has decided this is now a scavenger hunt.

Some mornings there's nothing. Other mornings there's one hair that somehow grew three inches overnight. Scientifically, I know that's impossible.

Emotionally? I remain unconvinced.

Nobody Told Us About This Part

I'm grateful I have a group of women I can laugh about this stuff with.

Because honestly, there should have been a "What to Expect When Your Body Starts Aging" class right alongside sex ed.

We learned about puberty.
We learned about periods.
We learned how our bodies would change.

Then, everyone just wished us good luck.

Nobody mentioned hot flashes.
Nobody mentioned brain fog.
Nobody mentioned that one day your eyebrows would quietly disappear while your chin decided to overachieve.
Nobody mentioned that sleep would become a negotiation.
Nobody mentioned that you'd suddenly need readers in every room.

Or that sneezing could become a full body event.

Maybe if we'd talked about it sooner, more of us would realize we're not weird.

We're just women going through something almost every woman eventually experiences.

The Best Part About Talking

The minute someone brings up perimenopause, every woman has a story.

The hot flash during an important meeting.
The brain fog that made her forget why she walked into the room.
The mystery ache that appeared after sleeping perfectly normally.
The chin hair.
The sneeze.
The random emotional roller coaster.

Every conversation eventually ends the same way. "Oh my gosh. Me too."

And suddenly you stop feeling like your body is betraying you. You realize it's just doing what women's bodies have always done. We just never talked about it.

Maybe that's the gift hidden inside this strange season of life.

The more we talk about it, the less embarrassing it becomes.

The more we laugh about it, the less alone we feel.

My Perimenopause Survival Kit

Over the last couple of years, I've collected a handful of products that have genuinely made this season a little easier. Some I have found, others are things friends have sworn by.