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The Unbelievably Weird Thing About Men’s Fragrance

I was a heavy user once, but not anymore

4 min readSep 9, 2022

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Photo courtesy of author

Puberty can be stressful. The hormones. The insecurities. The confusion.

And when you get older, you also realize it can be one of the funniest periods of your life. Insignificant things become your most significant worries.

One of my obsessions was facial hair.

The first “hairs” on my upper lip stressed me out completely.

“Why me! What should I do? To shave or not to shave?”

Personal crisis elevated to Shakespearean dilemma.

I wasn’t happy with my early facial hair. My friends started to make fun of me. I wanted to stay a kid forever.

Shaving wasn’t an option either. There was this myth that using a razor too early would make your hair grow faster and thicker — the last thing I wanted as a young teen. Eventually, the fluff under my nose looked — with some imagination — cool. And every cool person had a Tom Selleck/Magnum P.I. mustache back then.

But the stress became too much for me when the first hairs appeared on my chin when I was about sixteen. Then I knew there was no escape. It wouldn’t take long before I had to shave for the first time. Before that, scissors only worked as an…

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Erik P.M. Vermeulen, PhD
Erik P.M. Vermeulen, PhD

Written by Erik P.M. Vermeulen, PhD

Where Gen X memories meet today’s struggles.

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