Today, while stuck at a red light, I witnessed a woman plucking her chin hairs diligently at the wheel of her car. As traffic started to move, she continued her plucking — one eye on the road, the other on her sunvisor’s mirror, which I suppose revealed the offending chin hairs that remained, awaiting their final death in the clutches of the merciless silver tweezers. I was stunned and amazed, not because I was disgusted (although sure: that too), but because this meant that there are at least TWO chin-plucking drivers in the world. (You’ll need to scroll down to the February 14th listing to see what I’m talking about.) Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that Los Angeles Chin-Plucker, like Seattle Chin-Plucker, was a middle-aged woman driving an SUV.
Perhaps Chin-Plucker moved.
Hey there. I'm Ariel Meadow Stallings, a native Seattleite who's written my way up and down the Left Coast. Electrolicious is where I post daily randomata, but I also write for a living. My first book, Offbeat Bride, was published last year.
You're reading a page from the archives. Check the homepage for current content.
Anna
April 21st, 2003 at 9:59 pm
I must admit I pluck my chin hairs while in the car, but not while driving. Outside light reveals hairs the soft bathroom light hides, and sitting in my car in the driveway seems less exposed than standing in the middle of my yard with a mirror held up to my face.
blake
April 22nd, 2003 at 5:55 am
What were you disgusted by, the chin hairs, the plucking, or the driving? People have a right to groom themselves.
Ariel
April 22nd, 2003 at 8:23 am
Blake, I certainly am not disgusted by chin hairs. Hair is hair and sometimes it shows up in unexpected places.
I think what gets me is the personal grooming while in a public space…while moving. Anna covers her butt by doing so in her own driveway (semi-private space) in a non-moving vehicle.
You’re right: people have every right to groom themselves. But I also have every right to be a little amazed by the site of someone plucking their chin hairs, picking their nose, flossing , q-tipping their ears, or giving themselves an enema at an intersection.
blake
April 22nd, 2003 at 8:47 am
Well, I wholeheartedly agree! My biggest pet-peeve in this category is the middle-aged male nail-clipper. ESPECIALLY the type who carries a little clipper on his keychain and clicp, clip, clips away whenever he feel like it (e.g. while at his favorite restaurant. Yuck.)
ericalynn
April 22nd, 2003 at 11:23 am
wow. *WOW*.
Anita Rowland
April 22nd, 2003 at 11:54 am
I’m with Anna, though mostly I just keep a flashlight in the bathroom and a magnifying mirror stuck on to the medicine cabinet mirror.
leblanc
April 22nd, 2003 at 12:11 pm
i keep a pair of tweezers in the thingy between the front seats of my car (what is that called?) specifically for eyebrow-plucking at traffic lights, and i use it all the time. daily, probably. like someone else said, the outdoor light in my car is way better than the light in my bathroom for hair plucking, and plus it gives me something to do at red lights. i’m sure lots of people think it’s weird when they see my plucking my eyebrows at intersections.
Ariel
April 22nd, 2003 at 12:14 pm
I have to admit that when I was in college, I used to apply my make-up on the #73 bus to the Udistrict. One day, while putting on my eyeliner, I noticed my brows were out of control, and so I tweezed them. There. On the bus. Granted, I was hunched over and my hair covered most of my face, but still! I think this makes me a hypocrite.
Emily
April 22nd, 2003 at 8:06 pm
I pluck my eyebrow hairs in the car, usually while my boyfriend drives and I’m in the passenger seat. I use the lift-up mirror on the sun visor. The light is great. I have also been guilty of putting on makeup while driving and while on a city bus.
monica
April 28th, 2003 at 3:11 pm
THAT was in the top three strangest moments of my life. i was scrolling down, reading some of your recent entries, and i was just finishing the april 22 entries when i got an email from dave schmader. i read it. then i went back to reading your blog, and the title of the very next entry, whcih was the first thing i saw, was, well, you know what it is. and that is just super-cosmically bizarre in an excellent, life rocks sort of way.