weird whiskers

July 29, 2005 12:31 PM

Wild hairs: Every so often, I get a strange whisker in my beard...

It's thicker than the others, but more fibrous -- it can be squished with a tweaser and the fibers separate. When plucked, the root is different from that of a normal whisker -- less defined, if that makes sense.

Is this something I should worry about? Is there a reason it happens?

posted by me3dia to Health & Fitness (18 answers total)

I get those too, and find them rather distressing. So, what's it all about?
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:37 PM on July 29, 2005

I get the same thing, sort of. Fibrous, undefined root. Mine look like they got bleached, almost translucent, plastic-like (my hair is almost black). I can't answer your questions but I have a feeling this is pretty common.
posted by puke & cry at 12:39 PM on July 29, 2005

Disclaimer: IANAD [dude]. I've seen those on pretty much every guy I've known. I've always thought it was a set of hairs that grew together more at the root level and then grew into one errant mutant hair. I've found that they lend themselves to plucking, they seem really loosely attached, unlike regular whiskers. Others have described this thusly

I have this sort of dire whisker situation where sometimes I get two whiskers trying to share the same follicle, and that doesn't work, so they grow into this gigantic mutant whisker that is like a redwood stump growing out of my face, and it turns into an awful thick ghoul-hair that makes my face all angry, and I kind of have to police my face to make sure that they aren't massing for a revolution of some sort, these horrible Gimli-ish stumpy whiskers that rouse the pus army and overrun my poor, Aragorn-lacking chin. The last thing I need is for Ian MacKellen to show up indignantly on my face, calling for reinforcements.

posted by jessamyn at 12:45 PM on July 29, 2005

I get these too. I was even thinking of posting an ask.me question about it this morning. They're definitely strange, but somehow fun to pluck.
posted by soplerfo at 12:47 PM on July 29, 2005

I get those stumpy whiskers too, although mine are darker than the rest of my beard hair. They drive me apeshit. Once I find one, I can't rest until I've managed to pluck it out.
posted by ursus_comiter at 12:47 PM on July 29, 2005

Response by poster: I'm glad I'm not the only one. And I, too, derive a strange pleasure in plucking them.
posted by me3dia at 12:50 PM on July 29, 2005

same here
posted by puke & cry at 12:59 PM on July 29, 2005

I refer to those as 'hillbilly hairs'.
posted by spilon at 1:00 PM on July 29, 2005

Yup, me too. When I used an electric razor, I saw them more often, since the hairs didn't fit through the cutter screens. Now that I use a blade, I don't see them, as they get cut off at the surface. I imagine they're still there, though.
posted by MrMoonPie at 1:05 PM on July 29, 2005

Could they be ingrown hairs that kind of grow back and forth internally and then finally emerge?
posted by Carbolic at 1:07 PM on July 29, 2005

I dated a guy who used to get these regularly. They are the result of more than one folicle, growing very close together.
posted by Specklet at 1:42 PM on July 29, 2005

And a piggyback question. When I let my facial hair grow out (which is often, since I hate shaving), I find that a lot of my normal whiskers are very quick to get spit ends. How common is that?
posted by ursus_comiter at 1:51 PM on July 29, 2005

Sounds like contessa's bug-leg.
posted by jjg at 2:02 PM on July 29, 2005

These are different than contessa's though - at least mine are - mine look like multiple softer hairs rather than one abnormally large one.
posted by soplerfo at 3:33 PM on July 29, 2005

I asked a similar question a while ago and got a good education about hair.
posted by mudpuppie at 4:05 PM on July 29, 2005

Add me to the chorus of "I get those, too", and mine are usually in the same three or four places on my face. The really cool thing is to tweeze them out (and they seem to go really, really deep) and chase the wife or kids with them.

They love that.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:43 PM on July 29, 2005

Same for me. Except I need to get a wife and kids to chase with them.
posted by weston at 7:18 PM on July 29, 2005

This form of mutant hairs are unfamilar, but I observed the arrival and development of thicker, faster-growing hairs in my eyebrows, after a certain age. They grow to excessive lengths so I trim them with my little embroidery scissors (also useful around the ears and nostrils). Other guys I know have noticed this detail of the aging process also -- it may be the start of the old man's bushy eyebrows. (Not beard hair, I know; but still facial.)
posted by Rash at 11:39 PM on July 30, 2005