Mid-January

"Your beard is ridiculous!" That was what one of the women with whom I work said to me a few days ago; and so we open the season in which everyone feels free to comment on the growth of my facial hair. Bring it on!


What I have always found curious, in that suppressed-Sociologist kind of way, is how so many of these people are ones I rarely see and even more infrequently have the opportunity to talk to. People I barely know will from henceforth feel it is well-within their rights as beard-nation citizens to comment and question the look and flow of my beard.


At least that will happen if this goatee adventure follows the path of last year's ridiculous beard. In the second half of that beard's journey, random strangers approached me more often than known-ones (as opposed to loved-ones, who always felt free to offer more than two cents on the situation.) Don't get me wrong, I do not mind the comments at all. At least it gives people something else to discuss besides their jobs and the weather. As a champion of anti-small-talk, that is all I could ask for.


Here is another view:

Note the smooth flow off to the right-hand side, a la early-80s Christy McNichols' feathered hairdo. It's OK to be jealous. Maybe I'll get this thing permed....

Beginning of January

The beauty of living away from relatives is that they are never prepared for any changes in your physical appearance, particularly when those changes involve facial hair. So, while my brother shaved the mammoth beard he had grown for nearly 15 months, I emerged onto the family bearding scene with this hair-rag attached to my chin. Of course, it never fails that the beard is at its most ragged when you head home for some event.

My brother and I already have a tradition of arriving for Christmas with some kind of sculpted or manicured facial hair, the last two years of unkempt hair contagion notwithstanding. I made even sure I was otherwise well-shorn, practically burning my face with razor marks in the significantly-cooler and drier New Hampshire climes. Such are the sacrifices one makes in the name of superior beard-dom.

Now that we are nearly to the halfway point of this drooping chin travesty, I think it will be better to do bi-weekly updates. Not that it changes all that much within each month, but the longer it gets the more people feel compelled to comment, and I feel that has only just begun. So, let us all ring in the new year with a beard still in its adolescence!