BS: Whats with the beards?

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Amergin
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 02:40 PM

Lucy, I am not sure about the chin....save maybe to help keep the face warm....

but the armpits are two of the places where heat escapes from the body....the groin is another...

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: DonD
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 02:30 PM

Can anyone else brag on having a beard that's a moneymaker? I first grew mine in 1950 on a six onth European ramble. They were so rare then that I had to learn my first Dutch phrase in Amsterdam: "It's not polite to stare!" When I got home, my mother met me at the dock , having missed her bay desperately, and took one look and said, "Come see me when you've shaved so I can kiss you." The money? After years of volunteering as Sant Claus at a school for the multiply disabled, I got a gig at the oldest shopping center in the world (!) last winter getting my picture taken with hundred of the little (and not so little) darlings -- the only member of the crew who didn't have to don the shaggy wig. (I did use the pillow, though.)

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 12:20 PM

I remember that many years ago at one of the Bracknell Folk Festivals there was "Spot the Frank Ignobody" Contest. Frank was a character in a cartoon strip in "Southern Rag" and was shown as a bearded individual. Nearly 80 percent of the male folkies (and the odd female one) looked like the sketch.

By the way, Liz - when you get tired of hanging onto Manitas' beard - you can try my one - but don't tug too hard !

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Menita
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 12:20 PM

I think men with beards are lovely. They are more relaxed than those who get up early to shave. Why on earth do you do it? And another thing - why do we grow hair on various parts of our bodies and not others? I realise that we need hair on our heads to keep up warm, but why the chin and arm pits? Alanww-see you at Bishop's Castle and Chippenham-are you not going to Upton?

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: alanww
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 11:31 AM

Gervase - with a beard! Great! But I get worried about this trimming lark - how do you do that and, anyway, why? Look forward to seeing you, me ol' pal! Please keep it, at least until we next meet (Bishop's Castle, Chippenham, Wimborne, Cleckheaton or Sidmouth?)

Clouds are upon the summer sky ...
Alan

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Alice
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 10:46 AM

As gnu pointed out, shaving off a beard can make some men look 10 years younger. Every face is different, though, some more attractive bearded, some more attractive clean shaven - the "age thing" stands, though, - a beard adding age to a face.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Trevor
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 10:39 AM

I've had my faceful for nearly thirty years and have been forbidden to get rid of it. Anyway I remember Billy Connolly saying that folk singing was '..three blokes with beards and jumpers, singing about a dead sailor' and I want to be authentic. Anybody got all the words to Bonny Biscayo?

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 10:30 AM

No, for real trainspotting you also need a pencil and notebook, to record the numbers of the engines you see.
Unfortunately this lost some of its glamour with the end of the age of Steam Engines, when the big engines started using diesel, and many "Trains" were made up of DMUs (Diesel Multiple Units) where every carriage had a recordable number, as they could each be self propelled.
Oh! Halcyon days of my long lost youth.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Coyote Breath
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 10:17 AM

Hey thanks for the info re anorak.

Trainspotting? Sounds like fun! Standing about watching for a train? YES! We get 47 trains through New Haven daily including the pathetic Amtrak "Toonerville Trolley" twice a day. Most of the trains are from Wyoming, Kat, loaded with coal for the Labadie power plant, 15 miles away. The cars are all brand new, unlike ALL the other rolling stock. Every once in a while we have a spectacular train wreck. The last one scattered fortytwo fully loaded coal cars (called gondolas) right next to Cliff's house in Etlah, 5 miles down the line. The trains roar through town at 60 to 70 mph. They are usually 125 to 135 cars with three great engines at the head and one at the tail. When they come through they make a thunderous sound which completely drowns out any one performing at the local, just accross the street from the tracks. We've had some terrific wrecks in town too. The last and most notable was when a train with car after car of Vidalia onions scattered the delicious darlings all over Front street. Ya could smell them for weeks!

CB

Maybe I should move 'over there' and look into this trainspotting thing!

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: GUEST,Blues=Life
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 09:37 AM

Have had a beard several times, am currently cleanshaven. However, I never forgot what a friend told me after growing it the first time. "My father always told me not to cultivate on my face, that which grows wild on my ass." 'Nuff said.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 08:24 AM

I haven't got a beard, for the same reasons as Spaw (excpept for the "enjoy shaving" thing). However, I have a pretty good moustache (with an "o"), which I've had with very few breaks since the age of 19.

Liz, the idea of you hanging from my whiskers produces mixed emotions! My knees go weak at the thought, but I don't think they'd ever be up to that job!

Who asked about anoraks? They've become ... what's that word where the symbol represents the thing? ... well, British trainspotters wear them (it's the weather, you understand), and they epitomise the sad condition; the anorak has come to symbolise "trainspotterness" or "trekkieness" or ... well, "finger-in-the-ear-aran-sweater-wearing-beard-sporting-folk-singer-ness".

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 08:14 AM

Why not have a beard? I don't shave my head hair, just get it trimmed so why should facial hair be any different?

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: JudeL
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 07:29 AM

Sorry folks but I have to admit to a pet hate, not the facial hair itself which can look good, but untrimmed mustaches that are left so long that they seem to drink more beer than their owners and are all soggy. Yuck!

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Paddy Plastique
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 07:26 AM

Cos we are the Hairy Bowsies....

OUR BLADE WILL COME !

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Gervase
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 07:11 AM

My excuse is pure laziness. Not having worked (in a proper job, I mean) for the past four months, I haven't had the inclination to spend five minutes every morning soaping and scraping my chops.
It does take some getting used to, however. The darned thing has a tendencing to spring up in all sorts of strange directions and tickle the inside of my nostrils - and when it does get a trim and general tarting up it takes far longer than a straight shave. Makes a right mess in the wash-basin, too.
Soup is also more of a problem than it is for the beardless.
That said, I'll probably stick with it for the time being - if only because if it were shaved off I'd have a very white chin!

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 04:41 AM

I've had a beard for over 30 years. My father never approved - when I asked why, he told me "Because their not natural !". One of the reasons that it never gets shaved off is that my facial hair grows so slowly that it takes several weeks before it is apparent that I'm growing a beard - rather than being too lazy to shave. I once lived with a lady whose mustache grew faster than mine !

I think the main reason that folkies grow beards is tied up with the fact that most of us tend to make our own minds up about issues rather accept the current popular (usually media/business proliferated) views. That's why we tend to go for folk rather than pop music in the first place. I notice a similiar percentage of beards when I boat on the canals - again probably a minority pastime.

Still, at my age a beard can hide a variety of chins !

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 03:42 AM

Spaw, don't you need TWO mirrors for your shaving? :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Leeder
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 11:54 PM

I've had a beard since 1967. Not a lifestyle or political statement, I just hate shaving. I spent a summer in the woods with no electricity, grew a beard successfully, liked it, had to remove it for employment reasons, and grew it back as soon as I could get away with it, for the Canadian Centennial beard-growing contest (but I didn't actually compete), and haven't taken it off since.

Some people have trouble getting used to a beard, but it grows on you...

A beard story for you: A friend of mine, whose wife had never seen him beardless, got up in the middle of the night, shaved, and went back to bed without waking her. In the morning his wife woke up in bed with a stranger, and freaked out. (They're still married, 25 or so years later, probably despite this incident.)

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: DMcG
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 04:31 PM

And if not, does this multicolour hair he has spread .... no, I can't even think about it!

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 04:30 PM

Do people ever go bald on the lower part of the face? I've never heard of it, but then with all these blokes around who go in for artificially bald chins it wouldn't be too obvious.

Another thing to worry about...

This shaving thing spaw has - would that be just the face?

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 03:57 PM

I have a beard AND I shave. Yep, a goatee, which I've gotta shave around. Had it for 36 years, and wouldn't recognize myself without it.

Seamus

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: gnomad
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 01:28 PM

Coyote Breath-You are right of course, that IS an anorak, but this side of the pond the name has extended to a certain kind of person, usually but not exclusively male, who is boring, obsessed with obscure trivia and minutiae.

I think the term nerd probably about covers it.

I think it came about due to the prevalence of the anorak as a garment for train spotters, twitchers, and the like.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Coyote Breath
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 06:56 AM

Yeah, what IS an anorak? I wear one when hiking in 'dubious' weathers. very light, rolls up small enough to fit in a pocket, has a hood (natch), made of some sort of breathable, wind proof, water proof stuff. I love it.

Bearded most of the time from 21 (after USAF) on. Current is a goatee/long moustache combo with long hair (where there IS hair) usually pony tailed and held by ribbon. Moustache waxed ala Dali, look like Cardinal Richelieu (sp) or an El Greco painting. Done for portrayal of French colonial engage` when doing encampments and rendezvous here in Missouri. Otherwise I prefer full beard, hate shaving but like the after effect (smooth, clean, for about ten minutes) agree about nose and ear hair. Where DOES that come from? All hair on face now grey/white. Hair on top of head leaving for parts unknown. Sun now a problem. Wear hat. Toque rouge ala Montreal.

CB

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 06:48 AM

Spaw -- You're not sick. Everybody has thier little "thing" that they do. Yours is shaving.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Banjer
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 06:16 AM

We all know that what 'Spaw is telling us are his fantasies....I have it on good authority that sharp objects, especially razors, are not allowed in the NYCFTTS! But let us not burst his bubble, if he thinks he's shaving who are we to dissuade him? Just do like the doctors tell us, smile, agree and nod a lot!!

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: BlueJay
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 03:55 AM

I have a beard by doctors orders. No shit. I struggled for a year with a verruca, or wart-like condition on my chin, and had to get the growths frozen off regularly, and the growths reappeared in different locations. Finally, my doctor advised me to stop shaving, as he believed that shaving helped spread the virus.

It was weird, at first, adapting to a life without shaving. But Dr. Joe was right- the growths have stopped. And that''s why I am bearded today. Thanks, BlueJay

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: gnomad
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 03:39 AM

I grew mine aged 21 because I couldn't pass for old enough (18) to be having a drink. In fact I was sometimes offered half fare on the bus, a privilege of the under 14s round our way.

I still have the beard though rapidly approaching 50, I'm taking no chances, and think of the time I have saved.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Hrothgar
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 03:23 AM

Had this beard for 24 years. Had one before that, and shaved it but kept the moustache. At least half a dozen people who had never seen me without the beard said, "You look different - I know - you've grown a moustache!"

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Amergin
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 10:53 PM

well...I got a beard myself...hate shaving....always cut the shit out of my face...and with a mouth like mine...I trust no one else to do so......my beard is now several inches long...

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Lynn
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 10:52 PM

Ian Darby - Hmmmm. I knew an Ian in Darby..[oops that was Derby!! Silly American!] ...Ashbourne, actually. Called me the 'Yank' when I played there. But no. Couldn't be you. He was clean-shaven with amazing red hair...

Spaw - no, you're not sick. Just RAW!!!

Lynn

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: 53
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 10:48 PM

Check out ZZ TOPP tomorrow night on CMT. I think they come on at 8. Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 10:34 PM

Ah you're just shook up from that earthquake y'all had Mario!

But it is true. I actually enjoy shaving.......always have. No electric razors. Those are horrendous things........No, I love the clean feel after a hot water soak, brush on the soap (I love shaving brushes--much better than the aerosol bombs), sharp blades. I used to use a straight razor but really got into the safety razors with the Trac series and the Gillette 3 Blade is fantastic!!! I feel really clean after a shave. I splash on some cheapcrap BayRum or Clubman and I'm ready to go. If I take a shower without shaving I feel the whole thing is wasted.

Geeziz I am sick aren't I?

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Amos
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 10:25 PM

Maybe it's the ultraviolet hitting the tops, but not the chests and pits, eh?

Makes cells act funny.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: MMario
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 10:18 PM

Spaw enjoys shaving? ENJOYS shaving? Man - he has posted some wierd stuff here - but this is one of the wierdest. The man enjoys shaving. unbelievable.

sick.

worrying.

muttermuttermuttrhehastobepullingourlegsmuttermutter

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Banjer
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 10:12 PM

I grew mine when I got out of the service more as a show of independence than anything else. I was so damn tired of having to shave every day that I swore to myself when I got back into the world I would not shave for love or money! I've had my beard now for some 32 years and can't imagine me without it. Folks often ask how long I've had it and I tell them I was born with it and it tickled the hell out of my mama!

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Ian Darby
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 10:12 PM

'She who must be obeyed' has never seen me without a moustache and every time I shave my beard off she goes mad.

The beard bothers me sometimes, because as the owner of a fine head of skin, I have noticed that most other follically challenged types grow beards as if to compensate for the lack of foliage on top.

The bit I don't get, is that I think nature is stepping in and trying to give me a boost by making my nose and ear hair grow at an alarming rate.

What's that all about? armpit, leg, and chest hair seems to be self-regulating and conducts itself in a perfectly well behaved fashion.

There's a book about beards which mentions one called a 'Billingsgate Ruffe'.

This is achieved by shaving the face, stopping at the chin line, so you end up with a hairy neck that gives the impression of a burst sofa.

One other thing, and I don't want to offend anyone, but don't you think beards without moustaches look a bit weird?

Having re-read the above, I have come to the conclusion that I have far too much time on my hands, and will apologise in advance.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Lynn
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 10:10 PM

I've had mine for 23 years this August. Two wives and my daughters have never seen me without one. Besides that, I HATE TO SHAVE!!! BUT...does anyone with a beard have dreams of being clean shaven??? Maybe that's the stuff of another thread!!!

The day my school requests I shave my beard is the day I'll quit teaching!

Lynn

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Crane Driver
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 07:25 PM

Grew my beard back in the 60s, cause I had to shave three times a day to stay smooth. Met up with someone I hadn't seen since before I grew it, and they WOULDN'T BELIEVE I had been clean (ish) shaven before. So I guess it suits me.

Andrew

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 04:40 PM

took my wife to a Folk Alliance meeting where she remarked 'every woman here is wearing bangs'. Almost every male had a beard, and many of both sexes sported a braid or two, so, Folk music afficianados in late 20th- early 21st century US are defined by Bangs, Beards and Braids! (OR Bald, Bleached & Botoxed!)

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Chip2447
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 03:20 PM

When I was a wee lad of 18 summers, I spent 2 months in sunny Orlando, Florida on Uncle Sam's expense account (USN boot camp). During this time it was suggested to me that either I should stand closer to the razor or I should shave twice a day. I chose the later.

The older that I get the less frequently I shave. I'm far too lazy to be bothered with the trivial shave. Normally, I wear aa extended goatee, not one of these obnoxious generation X'er things that make their owners look like Shaggy from the Scooby Doo cartoons, but a full fledged brush pile. However, this past winter I let it all go, to trims, no shaves, nothing but a comb run through it daily. When I started to resemble a Taliban refugee I decided that it was time for most of it to go. Chip2447(needing a shave...ahhhhh scroo that...)

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Amergin
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 03:14 PM

rofl....I remember when my sister saw our dad without a beard for the first time...she was two years old and just bawling from fright....she wanted to know who that strange man was who sounded like daddy! we still talk about it from time to time...rofl...

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Big Mick
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 03:11 PM

I have pretty well had facial hair since I was able to grow it. I decided to cut it off when my two oldest daughters were about 6yrs and 4yrs old. They are now 26 and 24. Being mindful that they had never in their entire lives seen me without the beard, we made a family thing of it. I sat them down, and you should have seen them. Their they were, chins in their hands, and fascinated with what was going on. When I was done, as one, they bounced up and checked me out and the oldest sez with a surprised tone, "Da...................you've got cheeks!!!!" I laughed like hell. The beardless thing lasted about a month and I couldn't stand it.


Mick

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 02:37 PM

It's relatively uncommon to shave the top of the head, and very few people shave their eyebrows - it strikes me as one of the odder things about this age we live in that shaving the bottom half of your face is the conventional thing thing to do for men.

It's about as silly as thinking that making music and singing should be left to professionals...

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 01:56 PM

I've had mine for over 30 years and my kids wouldn't recognise me if I shaved it off. My wife likes my beard but she's seen what I look like without it.
I didn't realise just how attached I was to it until it came under threat. A new rule was brought in at work, that you couldn't have a beard if you were trained to wear breathing apparatus. After a series of e-mails in which my boss gently tried to persuade me to go clean shaven and I politely, but firmly, refused, he took me off the list of BA wearers. There is a get-out clause if you can't shave for medical reasons – in my case it is clinical ugliness.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 01:41 PM

I grew one because my first wife said it tickled her fancy

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: pict
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 01:36 PM

Shaving is a totally unnatural procedure.I think hair grows out of my face because it's supposed to so why chop it off?It's the same thing with circumcision you have a foreskin for a reason why chop it off?

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Mr Red
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 01:35 PM

I have cutthroataphobia
AND I get stroppy with it ***BG***

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: gnu
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 01:32 PM

The only reason I ever had one was cause I was too lazy to shave. But I always shaved bare on September 30 (another story) and, one October 2, a client I had met a few days before, a rather attractive, younger lady, remarked at how much younger I looked without the beard, even with the double chin the beard was (I thought) hiding. Gee, I feel some five o'clock shadow... 'scuse me for a minute.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Gary T
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 01:11 PM

Okay, I know an anorak as an item of clothing. What's it mean in this thread?

I've had my beard most of the time for the last 30 years, but occasionally I'll shave it and go chin-naked for a while. Shortly after we were married, Karen went to the laundromat while I took a shower. I was to join her after I was done. However, I just happened to get a wild hair to de-beard myself. I walked into the laundromat with wet, plastered-down hair and a bare face--that she had not seen before. Her face got a slightly pained look. She later told me I looked like a drowned rat.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Cobble
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 12:58 PM

I love my beard, but four years ago I had it shaved off for charity. (Hearing dogs for the deaf) Raised £700, kept it off for three weeks, then re-grew it. I am open to fund raisers now and again.

Hairy Cobble.