💪 The Hairy Chin: The Social Issue

Well hello again,

Almost ten years ago, I packed up my life and moved to Barcelona, Spain from Raleigh, NC. When I first got on the plane, I didn’t know a single soul here, and a decade later, I’ve built a life and a community in a place I never imagined calling home. It hasn’t been easy, but it’s been deeply worth it.

Back in my ‘American’ life, Sundays were spent prepping for the week ahead: grocery shopping, laundry, organizing the house, maybe a little Bed, Bath & Beyond. 😆 But here in Barcelona, Sundays hit differently.

Aside from a few tourist spots, almost everything is closed. No grocery runs, no errands, no wandering the aisles of giant super stores filled with consumers. Instead, the people are in the streets - families walking hand in hand, kids running through parks, friends crowded around tiny café tables. People just being together.

It’s a full-body reminder that we are not meant to do life alone.

In this week’s podcast about female friendships, I mention that in 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General declared loneliness more dangerous to our health than smoking 15 cigarettes a day (PBS, 2023). Let that sink in. 🤯 

Social connection isn’t optional, it’s vital. And it deserves as much care as our inboxes and to-do lists.

Spencer Moore
Founder, The Hairy Chin
(Listen to The Hairy Chin Podcast)
(Visit www.thehairychin.com)
(Follow us on IG and TikTok)

Ahh the female friendship, it really does get a bad rap. But what if the problem isn’t women, but the unrealistic models they were taught to follow? (*cough* the BFF!)

And what if we need to go back to the drawing board and rethink what friendship actually means? 🤷‍♀️ Well, good thing we don’t actually have to do that, because friendship expert, podcast host and author Alex Alexander has already done it for us!

In the latest episode of The Hairy Chin Podcast, I talk with Alex about redefining what healthy support and connections actually look like. We dig into:

• The problem with the "BFF" model

• Why jealousy isn’t toxic, it’s informative

• Building a support network that reflects who you are

🎧 You can listen to “Female Friendships: The 'BFF' Myth, Jealousy & Navigating Social Connections with Alex Alexander” here on your favorite podcast platform.

And up next on Chin Chats, I’m getting personal about the chin hair that started it all. It’s about time to have this conversation and I couldn’t be more excited the time is now.

In this episode, I’ll explore how grooming, body hair, and beauty expectations have been used to shape women’s sense of worth and belonging. For so many of us, these social standards started young and quietly influenced how we moved through the world. I’ll share my thoughts on body acceptance, physical ailments (I see you PCOS) and what I’ve noticed since living in Europe, where social norms are quite different than American ones.

The episode drops Tuesday, November 4th. 🎙️ Mark your calendar or subscribe to The Hairy Chin Podcast to get new episode alerts (and maybe listen while waiting in line to vote 🇺🇸 )!

Self-advocacy isn’t built with just one tool. It’s shaped by the practices, perspectives, and resources that move you closer to the life you want. To help you strengthen your connections, this week’s section is filled with resources that both inform and empower you along the way.

🎙️ Great Podcast Listen: Friendship IRL
Our wonderful guest Alex Alexander’s own podcast that gets real about what it takes to build meaningful adult friendships and lasting support systems. Whether you’re struggling to make new friends, maintain old ones, or just want people in your life who really show up, this is the right place for you.

📘 Useful Book Rec: The Courage To Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
An international bestseller with over 10 million copies sold, this book is a transformative read that challenges how we think about happiness, approval, and personal freedom. It presents the progressive social ideas of psychologist Alfred Adler in a lively dialogue between a young man and a philosopher.

🎥 Watch: Live to 100: The Secrets of the Blue Zones
This 4-part series on Netflix is an eye-opening exploration of communities with the longest lives and strongest social ties and distills what really makes a life full of meaning, movement, and connection. Highly worth your time if you’re curious about how lifestyle, place, and social ties shape health and well-being.

📖 Bonus Book: Plucked: A History of Hair Removal by Rebecca M. Herzig
Yes, a book about hair! It’s surprisingly hilarious, deeply serious, and utterly fascinating. Discover how razor, wax, laser and societal pressure conspired across centuries to convince us that body hair is optional.

*(FYI - Our book links are through Bookshop.org - a great way to buy books online while still supporting local bookshops!) 📚

“I trust myself to make authentic connections.”

Social connection takes practice. It’s not always about grand gestures, it’s built in the quiet, everyday ways we show up for others and allow them to show up for us.

So this week, I’ll leave you with a question: What’s one small way you can reach out and strengthen a social connection in your life?
(Feel free to send me a comment at the top of the page, we love hearing from you!)

Wishing you a beautiful end to your week,

The Hairy Chin