There’s Lint in my Belly Button!

Laugh all you want, but it’s true, and I have finally figured out WHY after all these years of NOT having this problem.

I first noticed it last year.  Imagine my surprise. 46 years old, and I had never had lint in my belly button. Recently it dawned on me that it’s due to one of the most cherished aspects of taking testosterone – HAIR!

Yes, those darned stomach hairs. I remember being so excited when they first appeared, even more so as they became longer and darker, and it no longer looked like peach fuzz. They looked like real MAN hairs!

I always wondered why many/most of the men I knew through the years had belly button lint. Now I know it’s because most of them have stomach hairs, and of course, the hair traps all sorts of interesting particles and forms this anomaly called “Belly Button Lint”.

Speaking of hairs, how about these facial hairs? Almost every transman I know has a lifelong envy of their dads, their brothers, uncles, male friends and the rite of passage in life known as “shaving”. We pick up a razor and try it out in secret, long before transition, just to “pretend” we have this male priviledge. Some continue this strange, unnecessary ritual for years, for nothing else but to *feel* like the man they know they are. Some do it in hopes that the little bit of peach fuzz might grow out darker next time. It doesn’t, but we keep hoping and shaving.

Then the day comes when we finally start our testosterone. The excitement builds, the anticipation grows almost unbearable as we look in the mirror every day, several times a day, waiting for those first MAN hairs to appear. It drives us crazy. All we can think about is hair!

The day comes, when we wake up and run to the mirror, and there is indeed a new crop of what looks like it might be a bit more than “peach fuzz”. Oh the excitement! We grab the phone, we run to the computer, we wake up our friends who are sleeping in on their day off, and tell them – “I’ve got a mustache! I’ve got a mustache!” or “I’ve got 4 chin hairs!”. We celebrate, we rejoice.

We continue in our excitement, unable to stop talking about all the new facial hair we see each day, each week. We drive our friends utterly crazy to the point that they no longer want to be around us, because all we talk about is HAIR.

Finally, after a few months of having a mustache, even the growth of a geniune beard, we settle down, and begin to seriously look at how we are going to take care of this new addition to our face. Do we shave? Do we want a goatee? Do we just want sideburns, and some “stubble”? Thus begins another few months of deep concentration on our facial hair grooming habits.

Finally, we wake up one day, walk in to the bathroom to shower and shave, and realize that having facial hair is MUCH more work than we really wanted. We LOVE it, don’t get me wrong. But we remember the days when we just walked in, took our shower, dried off, and got dressed, and didn’t have that darned extra step called “Shaving” that we now face for the remainder of our lives. There’s the expense of razors, and shaving cream, and aftershave, and for those with beards, the expense of a trimmer. And the time involved on a daily/several times a week process to keep oneself looking semi-respectable.

OH – and don’t forget the NOSE HAIRS! Wow. Whodathunkit? Facial hair, body hair – all cool But this NOSE hair is really something totally unexpected in the whole scheme of things. I won’t even get into the care and maintenance of nose hairs, I’ll leave it to your imaginations.

Would we change it or do we regret taking T? A vehement “NO”. But trust me, to all of you pre-T guys – shaving’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

But enjoy it – because it’s part of the Male Priviledge, and it’s who we are. 

Seize the day!
 Michael