BS: Growing my beard back

Subject: BS: Growing my beard back
From: irishenglish
Date: 05 May 09 - 04:25 PM

Ok gents, need a little advice here. After 18 years or so (can't remember when I grew it) this morning I shaved my beard and moustache completely off. Now most of the time I kept it close trimmed and not scraggly, and I did it so my wife could see what I looked like, even if for just once, without it. Its not that its so shocking, and I've gotten a few compliments on it actually.....but I want it back! Now I know speed of growth can vary, but let me just ask if anyone has a ballpark for when they think it will be back to normal. Also, do you suspect that it will come in exactly the same as my original? Obviously I see men around that seem to grow them back in 10 days or so, but its funny, until it happens to you, you don't really pay attention if you are the type of guy that keeps it on permanantly!

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: Skivee
Date: 05 May 09 - 04:46 PM

It would take me about a month. I have a friend whose beard grows so fast you can nearly hear it. He can be clean shaven in the morning; by 5 pm he looks like the retouched photo of OJ.
You will probably be looking filled in in about 2-3 weeks.


Ahhhhh... do you remember about the itching? I'm just askin'.

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: irishenglish
Date: 05 May 09 - 04:55 PM

Oh yeah....remember the itching! I'll deal

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 May 09 - 05:32 PM

Whiskers, like head hair and flowers, need lots and lots of good fertilizer to grow well. The more you use the faster it'll grow. So rub good quality cattle manure (steer is best) in several times a day and before you know it it'll be back, as lush and luxuriant as ever.

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: Sorcha
Date: 05 May 09 - 05:43 PM

Average hair growth is 1/4" per month. Your mileage may vary

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: gnu
Date: 05 May 09 - 05:49 PM

1/4"? Nah. Real men grow about 1/2" per month. Which pisses me off since my operations. I HATE to shave now, but I have to at least twice a week, and it's bothersome with the facial nerves fouled up.

Oh.... parotid surgery, both sides.

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: Ref
Date: 05 May 09 - 05:56 PM

Rapaire, did your significant other suggest that to you?

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 May 09 - 06:04 PM

Rapaire doesn't dare print the things his significant other has been suggesting to him! ;-D

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: gnu
Date: 05 May 09 - 06:36 PM

She has designs on him?

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 May 09 - 06:52 PM

Have we established for sure that IrishEnglish is a man? (Sorry, Irish)

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: artbrooks
Date: 05 May 09 - 06:55 PM

Mine is pretty seasonal - I usually grow it in October and shave it in April. It takes about 10-14 days to go from "he forgot to shave today" through "you look like a bum" to "oh - I didn't know you were growing a beard". After 4-6 weeks, it starts to need trimming to keep looking neat. On the other hand, I've had the mustache since April 1970, so I can't advise you on that part.

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: Leadfingers
Date: 05 May 09 - 07:13 PM

It took me two weeks , walking from Munich to the Austrian border and back to grow enough to keep the Moustache - Beards were NOT allowed in MY branch of the Service - and about the same time to grow the 'Full Set' when I was promoted to Mister ten years later !

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: SINSULL
Date: 05 May 09 - 08:25 PM

I find it strange that you only want to grow your beard back. Won't the front look oddly bare if you only grow the back?

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 May 09 - 11:03 PM

LOL...there's some good advice over here, esp. what Art Thieme posted.

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: Neil D
Date: 06 May 09 - 04:24 AM

If you are like me it may come back grayer this time.

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: irishenglish
Date: 06 May 09 - 10:30 AM

Ebbie, last time I checked-yes!
Neil, it already was greying, so as long as it isn't totally grey, I'll be happy (which it shouldn't it had just a few flecks of grey with the red)
As I said, once I was done, it was an oh shit moment, what have I done! Panic started creeping in, what if it won't grow back, what if it is totally grey, that type of thing. Once I have a little stubble back, I'll feel a lot better. By Friday I should feel a little less self concious. Lets just say that when my wife saw it in person, she said-you look good, now grow it back! Some men just look better with beards, and I think I am definitely one! If anyone wants to see pre and post beard shots, I'm on the facebook mudcat group-robert doyle.

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: Art Thieme
Date: 06 May 09 - 11:39 AM

An old Illinois folk tale says that the only way to grow it back quickly and with more "foliage" is to stand behind a cow that has recently eaten BRAN.

I tried that and almost died of asphyxiation!

But it did look fuller in some ways. ;-)

Art

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: Art Thieme
Date: 06 May 09 - 11:43 AM

You beat me to it, Kat! ;-)

Thanks.

Art

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 May 09 - 12:15 PM

Sorry about that, Art! It was by pure happenstance, but I wasn't stanced behind a cow!

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 06 May 09 - 10:35 PM

My recollection is that the first time I grew a beard it took about three weeks to get to where a comb sould sort of "leave tracks."

There was some sort of big centenial celebration or somethin' of the sort coming up, and my dad challenged all the guys working in his shop to grow one for the "beard contests." (Pappy had won one a few decades earlier, and needed an excuse so Mom would let him do another one.)

The other guy at the shop was sort of a "hairless" type, and declined the challenge, and since I was the only other guy there at the time, I was sort of obligated - even if I was only about 14 at the time.

I'm not sure whether it was the itchies or mom that got to him, but Pappy decided he needed to shave his off "for a business trip he had to make" about 6 or 7 weeks into it all. I'd say he was about a week ahead of me in the lush and luxuriant category, and might have been scared I'd catch up.

I kept mine for the whole summer, almost three months - and the first three days back at school. I was a little surprised at how little notice it got at jr high, but was "mildly influenced" by one or the faculty so I cleaned it off.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 06 May 09 - 10:52 PM

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 07 May 09 - 04:50 AM

You could go for a goatee, I.E. ;-)>

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: EBarnacle
Date: 07 May 09 - 03:54 PM

Many years ago, I had a book written by Commander Whitehead on the art of caring for beards. His estimate was 6 weeks for the beard to look good. In my case, a month was about right. Many of my family have never seen me without a beard.

The first time I grew a beard, I looked like something the moths dragged in.

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: Art Thieme
Date: 07 May 09 - 04:10 PM

Doing Step Four in a 12-step group, I shaved mine---and then "I Came Face To Face With Myself". Didn't like what I saw---way too many chins. So I grew it back real quick.

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: irishenglish
Date: 15 May 09 - 04:05 PM

Crisis averted. 10 days later all is coming back in, no greyer than it was either!!! I keep it close cropped most of the time, so it's only days away to being back to normal.

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: Will Fly
Date: 15 May 09 - 05:08 PM

Good man! I had a beard for years, then was clean-shaven for years. Out of curiosity, I grew it back for the winter months - a little grey and a little black.

Then - last year - I decided to keep the beard for good, and realised that I felt better with it. It was me. And it will now stay for ever.

Long live beards!

They also help you to play guitar:

Playing the guitar a little better when bearded...

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: olddude
Date: 15 May 09 - 08:46 PM

Dang that is the problem, first of all we talked one time that it is the cowboy hat that makes the country guys play so good .. now it is the beard ... shaved mine off 20 years ago and still can't find my cowboy hat (well it is really one of those crocodile dundee hats with the teeth in it)... hmmmm have to rethink now anything to improve ya know LOL

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: Allan C.
Date: 15 May 09 - 09:51 PM

About once every ten years or so I get a notion to shave. The first time I did it, my wife, (my first wife,that is,) failed to recognize me at all until she recognized the shirt I was wearing. Most recently I did it because Carmen first knew me before a beard was really a possibility and I thought she might want a glimpse of who she used to know. Anyway, as it typically happens, I almost immediately recognized my error and began to grow back the beard. I am pleased to report that it is currently back to its former glory.

In answer to the question, it seems to me that, as a rule, two months is about when the beard starts to be worthy of the name. I have never fallen foul of the alleged itching, I must say. But I certainly feel for those who have, knowing, as I do, what it feels like as the hair regrows after a vasectomy prep (or at least the way mine was done).

I've had the beard, with a few, less than memorable exceptions, since 1972 and hope to keep it until I succumb to a situation where I am no longer in charge of my decision of whether to shave.

I know that some grow their beards because of how they feel it makes them look. For me, it is a rebellion against scraping my face with a razor every day. I hope to die before I am ever shaved daily again.

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: Charley Noble
Date: 15 May 09 - 11:45 PM

irishenglish-

Congratulations on the success of your reforestation project.

Here in Maine we don't trim our beards. We just hammer them in a little and bite them off inside.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble, bearded for a half century

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 16 May 09 - 05:55 AM

Sorry IE, misread the thread title as "growing my bearded back" and was about to ask you to post a link to a photo of this hairy marvel...

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: katlaughing
Date: 17 May 09 - 12:46 AM

Will Fly, thanks for the link! Dunno if it's the beard or not, but I love your slower rendition of that wonderful old tune.:-)(Well, and the picker is quite attractive, too.:-)

I've always liked beards. MY dad always promised to grow one if his hair turned white. It did, he didn't..mostly because he was a welder all of his life and didn't have one for safety's sake and I think just was used to being bare-faced. That and he did a little welding almost up to the time he passed on. Curiously in the pix of my ancestors, on both sides, neither of my granddads had beards and but the great-granddads did.

How is it in your families, fellahs? A family tradition or one you've started?

Subject: RE: BS: Growing my beard back
From: Will Fly
Date: 17 May 09 - 04:26 AM

Aw shucks, Kat... gosh and goldarn it... I feel like Bashful from the Seven Dwarfs - thanks for the kind words.

I'm not the first one in the family to grow a beard - my mother's grandfather (a blacksmith) had one, and her two brothers grew beards in the Royal Navy in WW2 - but certainly the first one for many years. My son has one of those more-like-stubble beards that he keeps trimmed very close to the chin. Lord knows what the grandchildren will do...