Mole hairs are my pet peeve.
Long mole hairs hanging out of some dude’s cheek or chin.
Umm, I think you missed a spot shaving there…
Landlords with the mentality and ethics of cockroaches. 
And yeah, exactly WHAT IS UP with the mole hairs? Is it unlucky to shave / pluck them or what? 
eeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwww…
Yes, the mole hair thing has to be the grossest pet peeve about this place. You’d think with all the beauty mags here, they’d get a clue.
But the mole hair is supposed to be good luck. 
For some reason, I have this pale blondish hair growing out of the middle of my forehead. DS has one that grows out of his chin. We pluck them whenever they start getting noticeable.
Jennifer
Are you sure that’s not an eyelash? Hope you don’t poke out your third eye…and DS only has one hair growing out of HIS chin? Must save money on razors, or is he a five-year-old?
Fortunately, neither my wife nor anyone in her family has this Taiwanese/Chinese peculiarity.
But of course in the society at large we notice this all the time, and the rationale for it has always puzzled me.
Many visitors to this forum will no doubt be surprised to learn that having been married over 12 years, and living together for about six years before that, I have actually NEVER BROUGHT UP THIS TOPIC WITH MY TAIWANESE WIFE.
I was afraid it would just start an argument.
But, now that I have mentioned this fact in this public forum, I wonder if any other ROC-western couples have actually discussed this topic among themselves? What conclusions did you reach on this “long mole hairs” matter? By what standards is such a practice commendable?
Hartzell, tell her one of us wants to know. It’s really fascinating, in a gross way. Even the women don’t pluck them, despite their investment in facial-whitening products and the like. You’d think that the contrast would make matters worse. Please, please ask her. Please…??? 
Oh, come on ya’ll…
long mole hairs or shi mao, excuse my lackluster pinyin, are definately the result of Taiwanese superstition, like everything else. 
If one has hairs growing out of a mole, it’s good luck, as disgusting as it may be. If one plucks the hairs, one’s fortune will also be nipped in the bud, so to speak.
Let it grow, and you will get rich. (probably not spiritually rich)
It’s the same thinking behind cutting one’s hair after a break up with a lover, or after a car accident. A bout of bad luck will induce rabid plucking and shearing.
My ex husband never had a revolting hair grow that I didn’t comment on. But when I saw him once after no contact for many months (post separation), there was one of those lovely specimens growing out of his cheek.
I suppose the Taiwanese don’t really find it any more disgusting than perhaps, male back hair. An unpleasant sight to many, but not really an oddity in the west.
Lord knows few western men bother to shave their backs or asses!
But is that due to an interference of fate?
You know,these kinds of threads make me wonder if people from other cultures who live in western countries have bulletin boards where they carry on about things that bother them about the cultures they’re living in.
I can imagine a Chinese forum in San Francisco where they rage on about how disgustingly fat Americans are and how they have to share airplane seating with tubs of lard, sweating and dropping crumbs all over themselves.
I might have to kick your ass for that, Wolf. Set myself up for that one though.
Jennifer
Of course, I don’t put my hairy ass on display for all to see. Only a select few… 
The woman who cut my hair at the barber got married and was replaced by an older lady with a hairy mole growing out of her cheek. The next time I went I had to take the boss aside and request another hairdresser, because I just couldn’t stomach getting that close to her deformity. The mole had contours and ridges, and the hairs were more like thick black bristles than hair.
I still have nightmares - I wake up in a cold sweat screaming “The Mole! The Mole! There’s no escape - no escape! It’s too big! The moooooooole!!!” 
Yes, Maoman, your point is taken. However, I wonder, aside from your experience with the barber, have you talked in general with your girlfriend about people with long mole hairs in the society? Or talked with other Chinese friends or associates? What insights do they have about this practice?
Alien has suggested that it is thought to bring good luck. If that is true, how come you cannot buy a phoney “hairy mole” to paste on your face (in the condition that you don’t have one of those moles growing on your face naturally)?
I don’t think that this is an absurd suggestion. After all, you can buy lipstick, fake eyelashes, eyebrow pencil, cheek rouge, and even nose rings. Why not “hairy moles”?
Hence, I suggest that “good luck” may be a lame excuse. Indeed, where is any statistical data to show that those with hairy moles have better luck than those without?
I want to adamantly say that in my modest opinion (which, as indicated above, I do not dare discuss with my wife), there is no rational evidence that people with “hairy moles” have any better luck or fortunes than anyone else. However, I would be interested to hear alternative viewpoints.
I just asked my wife. Her answer was at least candid:" They must like it". A deeper probe revealed that she didn’t knew why. However, she suggested me to find someone with a big hairy mole and ask her/him.
sandman, regarding those roaches. I used to spit those pesky wings out too, However deep-fried they are actually pretty good!Taste a bit like grasshopper.
Ok, I asked my boyfriend today.
He said tz shang mien mao (mole hair) is just a simple Chinese tradition and it does have a lot to do with getting rich, having intelligence, and a good life.
He also said that his dad (when he was alive–god knows about now) had one, and when the hairs got really long and disgusting his family would complain and tell him to cut/pluck it, and he would oblige.
So, perhaps it’s just that when people have them, they get lazy about keeping them trimmed?!?
Sort of like aging western men with huge thwacks of nose hair. Another pretty offensive sight.
Mole hairs are gross, but they don’t irk me, they make me laugh. 
Hags screaming on the top of their lungs on cell phones in Taiwanese is my number one pet peeve, and I’ll say it again.
Shudder… :shock:
I’ve asked at least half a dozen Taiwanese friends over the years about mole hairs and they have all concurred that they are kept, as Alien mentioned, for good luck. The superstition may have some merit to it as plucking mole hairs is very dangerous. Mole cells are prone to turn cancerous so you should never mess with them. Snip and trim but never pluck. God, what a dull Sunday this is.
I suppose the Taiwanese don’t really find it any more disgusting than perhaps, male back hair. An unpleasant sight to many, but not really an oddity in the west.
Quite a difference, isn’t it!? At least I shave and don’t grow myself a Taliban beard, so why can’t they cut the mole hair!?
As well women, including Taiwanese, shave under their arms - well, it’s also natural, so why not leave it?
That said I personally don’t like the mole hairs either, but if it’s a kind of tradition or believe - who am I to change it? There is worst than that …
Lord knows few western men bother to shave their backs or asses!
Because I can’t see my back nor my ass.
Actually, my friend works in a beauty parlour in Canada, and she says waxing guys’ backs is becoming increasingly popular. Says that a lot of them bawl like babies, though. I guess it’s payback time!!!
As for the mole thing, plucking or trimming them occasionally can’t be a big deal, can it? And Taiwanese women don’t seem bothered by them; at least western women are repelled by excessive back hair (sometimes). And when it hangs down to one’s chest, doesn’t mole hair interfere with buttons, zippers and the like?
Okay, richard, i asked my gf and she said, as everyone has already said, don’t you know you lived here 25 years for god sakes!
Some men and women let their mole hairs grow for reasons of superstition since they believe the long hairs will bring them good luck and fortune and a good life etc. That’s all it is. Just like some men with long fingernails on their pinkie fingers. It’s a taiwan thing, a non-Western thing, get over it you guys! Jeesus, you sound like anthropolgists over here, fretting over every silly strange phenom you see.
Mole hairs are neither ugly nor pretty. they just are. get over it. And male back hair is the same thing, just nature. who says we gotta shave everyting off our bods? the fashion nazis who have ffec up this world? eryone has to look like you? No… let the mole hairs be!
next somebone gonna say: why do taiwan people speak Chinese, why can;t they just speak english like us and have caucasoid dna like us and worship Jesus the Christowap con artist like us and behave like us and just be, damn it, us?
Wow, an anthropolgist from Mars who dropped in on this chat room would thinK: wow these white earthlings sure think they are superior to everyone else, don’t they? mole hairs, why we got them on Mars too. brings people good luck, really.
moral of story; there are no rules. make up yr own rules. stop being such a puritanical white supremacist prude! hair is good for you! unless you are Yul Brynner!
No, I didn’t … 
Now is the month of the Ghost . . . . . . so maybe it would be a good time to sponsor a “National mole-hair pulling week.”
At any rate, the sale of tweezers (and pliers) would go up, and that would help revive the economy. Can anyone think of additional advantages?
Is this month or next an appropriate time to deal with mole hairs?
I haven’t seen any improvement in the local situation in several years. Originally I had thought that there was a movement on forumosa.com to do something about this …