Winter beard

[dougo]

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.

Comments

[rosminah.livejournal.com]

Trimmed beard looks great!

[mshonle.livejournal.com]

Woah, the big beard makes you look like a Unix God, like some of the people I worked with at Sun.

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.

[tommyjerks.livejournal.com]

Rabbi you look much better now

[mattsnaps.livejournal.com]

Grizzly Adams / sysv nerd beard: 2.5 / 10
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.

[perci.livejournal.com]

In addition to the facts that your summer look is much sexier and that all those guys in that "supposedly sexy actor" article need to shave right freaking now, I would like to point out that kissing a guy with facial hair is like kissing the brillo pad you keep next to the sink: it doesn't feel good, and you're completely distracted with wondering what might be living in there.

[ketzl.livejournal.com]

Count me in for clean-shaven! Although... I think you'd look wicked with a pencil stache.

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

Look at that volume! You could be a stand-in for Jonathan Coulton!

ahem

[cthulhia]

difficult to keep clean when eating, drinking, or blowing my nose (ew)

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.)

van dyke

[artname.livejournal.com]

On the way to clean shaven, try a van dyke.

Oh, and as to going "totally gay" I say, "whatever makes you happy." Uhhh never mind ..

[(Anonymous)]

Clean-shaven summer-haircut is so..... umm..... gorgeous!

Why mess with a great thing!?