By Faye Mayern via SWNS
A brave woman who has suffered all her adult life with excess facial hair today (Dec 2) waxed off the mustache that she grew for “Movember.”
Christine Gurney, 54, has always been self-conscious about the thick hair that grows on her upper lip and chin.
Chrissy has either shaved every day, sometimes twice a day to avoid “5 o’clock shadow,” or had a painful wax once a week for the last 30 years.
She vowed to let her facial hair grow out for “Movember” to raise awareness of men’s mental health issues – and to break the stigma around women with facial hair.
The grandmother-of-six said: “I have a full mustache worthy of any man and a goatee beard too.
“I know people stare at me and I was dreading it. But it was something I was determined to do.
“To start with, shaving was a personal choice and then when my children were older and I started working, I used to work mainly in all-male environments.
“I’d get some comments and people would call me Christopher. It was heart-wrenching at times.
“It is the 21st century and women have been around forever.
“Where you get stared at, spoken about, and get snide comments, it shouldn’t be happening.
“It’s alright if a bloke does Movember – he’s one of the lads.
“But I’ve never heard of a woman doing it before and we need to stand up and be counted for. We need to embrace it.”
Chrissy’s husband Pete took his own life while they were going through an amicable divorce.
On July 29, the day the decree nisi was granted, Pete seemed down and depressed.
Chrissy arranged to phone him later in the day but got side-tracked with an appointment of her own.
The former Argos delivery driver said: “My husband Pete and I were halfway through getting divorced. We were still friends and it very amicable. We spoke every day.”
“I meant to phone him later that day but the next morning I had a call to say he was dead.
“He had taken his own life. It was heartbreaking.
“I had no idea things were that bad. And I’ve felt nothing but guilt ever since – guilt that I could not save him.
“We need to stand up for the men as well. I feel like I could have prevented my husband’s death and I beat myself up every day.”
Chrissy was terrified about how she would look but said it was important to break the stigma around both men’s mental health and women with facial hair.
She said: “I want to kill two stigmas with one stone.
“The stigma of women having facial hair and the stigma many men face of not being able to open up about their mental health and realize it’s okay not be okay.”
Now Christine has raised more than $400 during “Movember” to help men’s mental health and suicide prevention services.
She has previously done skydiving for charity and even shaved her head to raise funds for charities.
She added: “That was a walk in the park compared to growing my facial hair for all to see. This has been the hardest fundraiser yet.
“But it is worth it if it helps just one man seek help for his mental health.”
