Week Eight: October 25th-31st

Pre-Week: With a lag in voting, and many suggestions requiring a stronger base from which to build, I elected to vote in the "Back to Home Base" this week. Perhaps this will allow for some of the more creative beards I know you all have lurking in your imaginations. Perhaps a beard and 'burn combo..." Get those votes in by 4 PM on Sunday, October 31st!

Week in Review: Perhaps due to the fifteen-minutes-of-fame attention span of so many these days, and let's face it, with the advent of technology to entertain us all day, every day, we can hardly think for ourselves anymore, I received very few votes on this week's entry. There I go, growing a base to allow for many options and I get nearly shut out at the polls. That'll show me.

No, I chalk it up to the ferocity of this look and how intimidated all followers must be. Fear kept them all away. What if I vote and he doesn't like it? I mean, this guy looks serious AND ferocious...serocious, if you will. Yeah, that's probably it.

Week Seven: October 18th-October 24th

Pre-Week: Brought to use this week by my friend and coworker, Amy, who sent a last-minute vote via text message...The Jafar. Again, though not fully-furred enough to pull off the full-on Jafar (his has a lengthy collection of strands dangling from his lower chin--oh, the evil-look of that dastardly concoction) I thought a little creativity was in order. A thin collection around the mouth-tight oval descending from nostrils to upper lip, it circles around the mouth, I cheated the wiry strands from the chin by tracing out a wavy path down over the chin-fall to my neck. Some of my students are already calling it The River."

Get this week's vote in by Sunday, October 24th at 4:oo PM. It's never too late too tell my face what to do! (Well, until it is....)

Week Six: October 11th to 17th

Pre-Week: I would have preferred to spot this one up from the chin-post coming out of a fuller hair-face week, but the adoring Beard Blog-crowd wants what it wants. The Snidely Whiplash is brought to you courtesy of a convincing campaign from Emily, with whom I work at the Zoo during the Summer. She resubmitted this request a number of times and it came up as this week's winner. I hardly do it justice, with a thin crop of cheek fur, but it was due.

To be next week's winner, you too can submit your vote: either e-mail me or post a comment here by Sunday, October 17th at 4:oo PM. Who knows where this chin may take me next....

Week In Review: Maybe due to the light coloration of this number, there were not many comments. Some of my students noticed the "check-marks" on the sides of my face, while others wondered aloud why I went with just a mustache this time. One, wise beyond his years stated it simply, "Look, don't you know, he changes his look every week? That's his thing." Too true, young learner, too true.

Week Five: October 4th to 10th

Pre Week: In another hotly contested race (mostly between our friend Laura and my wife, Laura--and yes, they are two different people) the former won out with the Evil Twin Chris in honor of the coming month of pseudo-evil. The early returns on this look are favorable for me, even if this particular facial coif was universally-abhorred. Last night, heading off to bed post-shower, Laura (this one would the wife-Laura) told me, "Yeah, that look doesn't really do it for you." Still working on what that means.

My students, always good for a quip or quote brought about a joyous Monday morning meeting when their banter about my change began. I will save you the witty exchanges, but suffice it to say it ended with one girl saying, "EW! Fix your face tonight, make it go away!" A former student, back to visit from high school took a look and said, "Oh my God, I just noticed your face," to which I replied, "I know, pretty awesome, huh?" As if to show all the progress since the glory days in my classroom, she fought back, "Yeah, that wasn't the word I would use to describe it...." All signs point to a good week.

Get your votes in: this week's deadline is Sunday, October 10th at 4 PM.

Week in Review: I would have been hard-pressed to come up with a more universally-loathed look on my own, so kudos to you, Laura. The girl in my class who said, "Ew, make it go away," was among the nicer things I heard about the look all week. One of my friends who, strangely, also happens to be a colleague at my school, asked me if I was auditioning looks for Halloween, and if I was planning to go as a creeper.

I didn't meet anyone who actually liked the look, so I count that as an instant classic--a hit in the offing. Each day, the kids asked when I would fix it, and did daily status checks as the "shadow" filled in around it. By the time my daughters and I attended a school-sponsored bowling event on Saturday (an event I had, yet again, NOT planned for when carving this 'stache) most of it was back to a pseudo-Indy Jones scruff look, with only a few darker patches on the chin and upper lips. Even my daughters were calling for the Chinstrap again, and that was not exactly the most popular look either.