Occasional Mutant Facial Hair?

[elchick]

Yay! My first post!!

Hope my input will be of relevance to all of you as well. I too have had these mutant hairs in my beard occasionally, and thought I was alone in my freakishness. Glad to know I am not!

Like others have mentioned, for me they only started about 7-8 years ago, and are fairly infrequent, though I've been shaving for a little under 20 years. I mainly get them along my jawline, or near where my goatee meets the shaved skin. In the winter months when I go full beard, sometimes find them in the same areas. Have yet to get any with DE shaving, but I'm still new to this, so time will tell. My prior shave routine before switching to the wet shave was to grow out my hair for a week, knock off the longer hair with my beard-trimmer, then use an electric to mow my face. (SWMBO always says it sounds like a wood-chipper when I shave with that thing chewing at my face. ) I would only shave once a week due to sensitive skin under my jaw and in the throat area. Anywho, I've noticed that for me they seem to happen more frequently after really shaving as closely as possible with the wood-chipper. Again, didn't happen every time, but never seemed to happen much if at all when just getting a SAS. Don't know if perhaps the pore was being clogged with all the hair-grit from the electric razor scrubbing in that area, or not. Maybe someone should do a study.

Have to say the first time I felt one in my beard, I was freaking out that it was a sting left by some bug in my skin, or some kind of insect leg. That's how thick it was. Hurt a little yanking it out, but has never hurt excessively, and definitely not like the "onion" story above. *shudder*
Now however, I kind of know what to expect with them, and yank 'em out when I feel them starting. Still grosses me out that I can create these ultra-thick, plastic hairs, but not so bad now, especially that I'm not alone in being a circus freak!!

 

[jtyson]

Interesting to come across this thread. I too, have the occasional monster hair. My real problem is the multiple hairs. Pili multigeneri I guess? I would say that 90% of my hair follicles produce multiple hairs. I've always had problems with ingrown hairs on my arms, legs and chest. Not so bad on my face. I hate it. I get obsessive and dig and actually have quite a few scars due to my excessive hunting.

 

[StylePurgatory]

I just plucked one of the "easy slide out" variety, and it isn't my first. This one seemed to be a single hair, honest to Goodness at least 1/64" thick. My others have, I think, clearly been pili multigeneri. Having read this, I'm glad to find that they are somewhat common, and that my occurrences have been with less discomfort than others have found. Though, I had quite an acne problem in my late teens, and early 20's, and only after meeting my wife did I discover how frequently what I thought was acne, or bacne, was actually an ingrown hair. Had never been on my radar before. So now, looking back to my teens, and early twenties, I wonder how often I had what I thought was an horrible zit, but was actually a septic ingrown hair. Which leads me to wonder, of course, if they were ever MANY ingrown hairs clumped into a single canal. I tend to notice them visually, because I am as pasty white as they come, and they seem to be as dark as they are thick. The visually recognizable ones (after a good shave, they look like massive blackheads) are a fairly recent development, so perhaps they were not my problem all along. At any rate, mine are plucked with around the low-end the pain one expects from any old ingrown hair.

I'm curious, however. I am certainly at the hairier end of the population when it comes to body hair. I have beard growing within an inch of my eyes, for example, and my shoulders are best described as a Berring Hair Bridge, across which early man could migrate from the Siberian forest of my chest hair, to the Alaskan wilderness along my back. How many others, that have posted this experience, might also call their body hair "pelts?"

 

[jtyson]

I just plucked one of the "easy slide out" variety, and it isn't my first. This one seemed to be a single hair, honest to Goodness at least 1/64" thick. My others have, I think, clearly been pili multigeneri. Having read this, I'm glad to find that they are somewhat common, and that my occurrences have been with less discomfort than others have found. Though, I had quite an acne problem in my late teens, and early 20's, and only after meeting my wife did I discover how frequently what I thought was acne, or bacne, was actually an ingrown hair. Had never been on my radar before. So now, looking back to my teens, and early twenties, I wonder how often I had what I thought was an horrible zit, but was actually a septic ingrown hair. Which leads me to wonder, of course, if they were ever MANY ingrown hairs clumped into a single canal. I tend to notice them visually, because I am as pasty white as they come, and they seem to be as dark as they are thick. The visually recognizable ones (after a good shave, they look like massive blackheads) are a fairly recent development, so perhaps they were not my problem all along. At any rate, mine are plucked with around the low-end the pain one expects from any old ingrown hair.

I'm curious, however. I am certainly at the hairier end of the population when it comes to body hair. I have beard growing within an inch of my eyes, for example, and my shoulders are best described as a Berring Hair Bridge, across which early man could migrate from the Siberian forest of my chest hair, to the Alaskan wilderness along my back. How many others, that have posted this experience, might also call their body hair "pelts?"

I found this quite comical. I've had the occasional mutant from time to time. I'm fairly hairy on my body as well. Not quite "pelt" status, but close. I will say though, your post reminds me of a friend of mine who often gets made fun of for being as hairy as he is, especially when we are at the lake. I once heard someone yell to him that he should take off his vest...after he had just taken off his shirt. He is a good sport about it though.

 

[phillylion]

I used to get them quite a bit but, thinking about it now, I don't think I've had any in the past number of years since I've given up the multi-blade for the DE.

 

[engrsaks]

"multigemini hair follicle" is the name for such hair. In my experience, usually the gents who wish to go for a close and BBS shave (whether it may be single or multi bladed razor) end up saying hi to such monsters. When I used to be a three pass shaving guy, I had to deal with this problem quite oftenly. Plus, not only my beard felt really coarse but also started growing back at a much higher rate. Daily one pass shave with fusion proglide was the solution to my problem. Not only my beard feels normal but also the occurrence of such hair has totally stopped. And the quality of shave is also really good. So I believe I have finally achieved the balance in shave, mileage of blade and my wallet.

I believe when we go for closer shave, what happens is that we also end up peeling, at certain level, our skin. In long run this leads to combination of two hair into one follicle. Alcohol based aftershaves always gave me a stinging sensation after a two or three pass shave which was an indication of skin peeling. This has totally stopped with one pass shave.

 

[DCRIII]

I used to, but haven't had one in years. I'd just tweeze them.

 

[PokerChip]

Once in a rare while I do get mutant it's not too often. Like others do, I tweeze them!

 

[stovepipe699]

I get the mutant hairs too. Sometimes a single thick dark hair, and other times the multi-hair ones.

 

[August West]

I get a wild hair every now and then.

 

[tejolot3]

My wife's calling in life is to pop bumps on my skin. What she has noticed is that, many times, a single bump will be harboring three to six ingrown hairs inside. I don't understand how that's even possible! It's like they all congregate at one follicle for some crazy reason. This has been one of the most frustrating parts of DE shaving for me.

 

[DaltonGang]

My wife's calling in life is to pop bumps on my skin. What she has noticed is that, many times, a single bump will be harboring three to six ingrown hairs inside. I don't understand how that's even possible! It's like they all congregate at one follicle for some crazy reason. This has been one of the most frustrating parts of DE shaving for me.

Welcome to growing old.

 

[sarah28jane]

Hello boys =0)
I realize it's probably a bit strange that a woman is posting on here...as I have no desire to shave my face!!
I was, however, curious enough about this 'mutant hair' to sign up for this website in hopes that one of you would reply...because this is the only place Google search has led me where people are talking about this lol.

I may be wrong but I'm not sure these hairs have only to do with shaving. The ones I'm referring to are the multiple, very fine hairs clumped together, coming out of a single follicle/pore. These are easy & painless to tweeze, and sometimes I can pull them with my fingernails, and multiple clumps at a time, if they're standing in a...'grove'? LOL

I used to pull these on a previous boyfriend all the time. They started growing on his face, chest, & his back. At first, they mostly stayed to areas where there was no other hair...on his face, that means above the beard line approaching the soft part of the cheek that usually doesn't grow hair. On his chest & back, that means...in the areas where men first grow their first chest sprouts (black men aren't usually too hairy when they're young...they might grow a bit more as they grow older tho....and this is what I noticed because we dated for Nine years). Anyway...I was always pulling them out, but as the years went by, I noticed these hairs becoming actual real hairs with real roots that stuck. His little furry patch on his chest was getting bigger, the soft "kissy" place in his cheeks were shrinking as his beard thickened and crept closer to his eyes. (I started plucking those little squatters out...root or no root. Lol that was my kiss spot.)

But these rootless ones were straight and extremely fine individual hairs clumped together. They were easy for me to spot because his beard was coarse & curly. He also got ingrowns bad, and had to give up shaving altogether. He had to use an electric trimmer & trim his beard to no shorter than 1/8" otherwise it would curl back down into his skin. He let his barber do the rest, because no matter what tool or product we had tried, he got horrible razor burn. Anyway... I would regularly go on these "search & destroy" missions lol. I'd grab either a needle or a needle nose tweezers and look for beard hairs that had "looped" back down into his skin, and I'd just lift them out before they got too ingrown. This method worked the best for him and he rarely got any, and when he did, I was able to find them and pull them out before they got too horrible. (I thought if any of you fellas had this issue, maybe your lady could help you out. It really works.)

So, I hadn't thought about these things in forever.....(sorry I'm taking forever to get to my point!).....until I saw them on "Bullet", my pitbull!! What?! Lol They were also in places that don't grow very much hair, if any: under his armpits & between his toes. Back then, those hairs were a mild curiosity, now it's just...weird, & I wanna know what they are, and why they are. =0P
If anyone manages to get through this entire book....please feel free to comment/reply.

 

[DonMac]

My advice for those who are experiencing this problem is that next time you use your transporter, make sure there are no flies in there with you!

 

[tejolot3]

.

(1) Thank you for your informative post.

(2) Did you Google "mutant hairs" or something? because now you've got me curious how you landed on this thread.

(3) Spend enough time on here, and you will develop a desire to shave your face.

(4) "Search and destroy" is popular with my wife as well. We'll be lying in bed in the pitch black, her fingers will caress my shoulders, and then... I can tell they're doing more than just caressing. They're hunting. They want blood. And pus. And ingrown hairs. Bwahahahahaaa!

 

[Grue]

Just wanted to say thanks for this post... actually pushed me to sign up rather than lurk!

I've been DE shaving for 3 weeks now, and with a 3 day growth last night I looked very closely at the 5-6 areas that have been bothering me for the last few years along my chin and jawline. I'd always assumed that they were ingrowing hairs and have just stuck with a beard trimmer for the last couple of years to try and grow them out with zero luck. Moved to DE to see if this would help.

But turns out in every problem area (sore, bumpy under skin, sometimes pimple to pop, scabby, itchy) there's a mutant growing. Some of them are the thick gauge triple hair growing as one (thick onion root), some are the branch into 3-4 hairs upon leaving the skin (no root, slid out).

Plucked them before shaving today and have really high hopes that I might actually be on top of this problem now. I'd regularly have scabs under my beard where I'd scratch at them and rub the skin away. Bring on some face healing!

 

[newo]

My wife's calling in life is to pop bumps on my skin.

yep sign me up for this as well as the mutant hairs, but mine don't give up their hold on me easily so I use 'eyebrow' style tweezers (the scissor action type) and get a good grip before swinging off the hair till it lets go. They usually come out with the white gel tip of the follicle attached.

Talking about ingrown hairs, two of my friends have had pilonidal cysts. Both guys had surgery to remove them and were on morphine drips needing to have their bums repacked every morning with wet gauze till the abscess grew out

 

[dionesius3]

I get these on occasion. Mine are ribbon like and occur on my chin. They are tougher than the normal beard hair and about 2 and 1/2 times larger than the average hair. They do hurt if you pluck them but they don't happen very often in my case. Just four times in my 35 years of shaving.

 

[Blade Slade]

I had my first "Mutant" hair grow in the mustache area, and kept scabbing over for a couple of weeks. I finally let it grow long enough I could tweeze it out... I was surprised how easily it came out but it must have been due to the inflamed tissue around it.

Very thick, very odd, hopefully they don't come back, and I am very glad to see it's happened to other people.

 

[Grue]

For your viewing pleasure... a 'normal' on the left, and my 2 types of mutant. Hard to tell with white background, but the mutants never have the white root sheath that the normal has