Blends With Savanna Grasses

So...I grew a beard during the month of November. It all started when I got sick in Germany. Since I was feeling so low for so long, I didn't have any inclination to shave at all for the first couple weeks of November. And once I had the Don Johnson/Miami Vice vibe going full force, it was hard to stop. Of course, Emily and Dylan's constant urging always factors in to these sorts of decisions. So, without a protest from Rachel, I decided to go for the full month without a shave.




REDUX 1994

Of course, once I did shave, I went back to the goatee that I've worn since the Christmas holidays of 1994. Back then, goatees were rather rare and I was the only guy in my entire workplace to have one. Only professors, evil scientists, and bikers (and gay guys) wore them regularly.


When I grew out my beard then, I had huge patches where nothing grew except for a couple whispy hair follicles. You can see that pretty clearly in the picture at lest where I'm holding Emily. She was maybe 16months old then. Dylan loved pretend shaving and he had his own little Power Rangers Junior Shave Kit with fake razor and lather brush. So when I shaved, so did he. He thought it was quite an adventure to imitate his old man back then.

When I was shaving off the beard, Kelly said "Don't take the goatee off. I want to see what it looks like." When I got to that point, we said "Wow! Looks great!" Kelly thought it was good looking enough to take a few pictures of the process. The other situation that cemented a goatee on my face occurred about a week later. I lost confidence in the goatee and shaved it off. When I came to work, I had a 9:00 am meeting with most of my team. When two of the women in the meeting said "Ewww, grow it back" that pretty much sealed the deal. And so I've kept it ever since.

Here's a pic of me with my nephew Jake the day or day after I started officially wearing a goatee. For some reason, the goatee help minimize the fullness of my face and double-chin. I've dieted a bit since then and my face is thinner and the double-chin is smaller. But I just really like it now. So here it stays.

Labels: Experiences