Week Fourteen: November 23rd

This beard was inevitable. When this journey began, over three months ago, this was the only beard I knew I would do eventually. Those of you who know me also know I am not really a planner, and to date, this wandering tale of the beard has borne that out. I never really know what I am doing until I am looking in the mirror after Saturday's shower, razor in hand. Usually, the "planning" comes down to some internal monologue like this:
"Well, that was a bust.
"What can I do next?
"Oh, da--, just shave it and see what happens! "Hey, this looks decent.
"Now, if I could just stop the bleeding and get out there with the camera...."

All the same, though the Beard Blog is still in its infancy, I have messed with my facial hair for the better part of the last decade. (Which is pretty much the amount of time I have been able to grow anything that would show up in photos as something more than the crust of what might have been hot chocolate residue.)

"The Jackman" is one of my recurring beards, at least during the latter half of that decade of beard exploration.

During my second year of teaching, when my classroom was filled with boys--at sixteen of my twenty-two students, I had a veritable football team locker room in there (in sight and smell)--I loved to probe the boundaries of a menacing mien in the facial variety. Though I used such entries as the "Strong Goat," and the "Harley Handlebar," the "Wolverine" was among the most popular. It coincided with the release of the original X-Men film and, though I had seen no previews of it at the time, one of my gravel-voiced boy students croaked, "Whoa, cool! Mr. Chisholm looks like Wolverine!"

I know what you are thinking: "Yeah, he wishes he looked like Jackman--look at him, barely filling that wife-beater with his paltry physique!" (Well, that or, "How the hell does he get them to call him Mister anything?") Still, the original look got many favorable reviews; and a few extra days of reverence from those boys not quickly inclined to grant anything easily. I bring it back almost every time I let my growth go for a while.

This time around, despite the fact that the latest version of the X-Men movies came out within the year, no one mentioned the resemblance. Maybe I should hit the weights a bit more.