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I've never had a beard or any sort of facial hair before. I figured I should try it at least once in my life, especially before I go totally gray. So on my 36th birthday I started to grow a beard.
Here's how it looked at its fullest, at a little over 3 months of growth:
Then I trimmed it and shaved my neck. I hated the way it came out, a little too close to the awful George Lucas look, but now that it's grown back a bit it's not so bad:
For comparison, here's my clean-shaven summer-haircut look, from July 2006:
It was an interesting experiment, but as soon as it gets warmer it's coming off for good. (It doesn't actually make a huge difference with the cold but it does help a little at keeping the wind off my face.) The no-shaving-at-all beard was a pain: itchy as it was coming in, and difficult to keep clean when eating, drinking, or blowing my nose (ew). Trimming and shaving was a fair bit of work, and it would probably take a lot of practice to get it to not look awful each time. And even then, I just don't like how it makes me look; older (and not just because of the gray on the chin—though that was tempting me to try the Chester A. Arthur look), and like every other indie-rock geek (or supposedly sexy actor) these days. Not looking forward to that extra 5 minutes spent shaving every other day, but I know I'll get used to it again.
Here's how it looked at its fullest, at a little over 3 months of growth:
Then I trimmed it and shaved my neck. I hated the way it came out, a little too close to the awful George Lucas look, but now that it's grown back a bit it's not so bad:
For comparison, here's my clean-shaven summer-haircut look, from July 2006:
It was an interesting experiment, but as soon as it gets warmer it's coming off for good. (It doesn't actually make a huge difference with the cold but it does help a little at keeping the wind off my face.) The no-shaving-at-all beard was a pain: itchy as it was coming in, and difficult to keep clean when eating, drinking, or blowing my nose (ew). Trimming and shaving was a fair bit of work, and it would probably take a lot of practice to get it to not look awful each time. And even then, I just don't like how it makes me look; older (and not just because of the gray on the chin—though that was tempting me to try the Chester A. Arthur look), and like every other indie-rock geek (or supposedly sexy actor) these days. Not looking forward to that extra 5 minutes spent shaving every other day, but I know I'll get used to it again.
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Before you take it all off, experiment with the goatee for a week! (It takes about a week to get used to it.) If you hate that, try the mustache for another week.
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Trimmed beard: 7 / 10
Clean-shaven: 8.5 / 10
Your chin dimple is too cute to hide, imo. So I can't really see a goatee working out. A stache might work if you, um, want to pick up a certain kind of guy; otherwise I'd go with shaving.
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Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie, 1970s
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My dad spent 35 years at various NJ locations, and I spent a while at a few myself.
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I was a contractor and hopped around, but I was at Murray Hill (comp center) and Summit in the late 80s, and Holmdel before that, all sysadmin type stuff.
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From: (Anonymous)
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ahem
and thus you sum up why I don't like beards.
(Sure, sometimes they look bad, or make me worry that someone has a regrettable chin, but, really, the root horror is hygiene.)
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van dyke
Oh, and as to going "totally gay" I say, "whatever makes you happy." Uhhh never mind ..
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From: (Anonymous)
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Why mess with a great thing!?