BS: Whats with the beards?

Subject: Whats with the beards?
From: DMcG
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 09:11 AM

I've just been browsing through the Mudcat member photos. I looked at about a dozen photos and - of the men! - only Spaw didn't have a beard.

As having a beard is normally rejected by the fashion stylists, what is going on? Are we all anoraks or hippies?

Yours beardedly DMcG

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Big Mick
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 09:16 AM

Yes.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Jeri
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 09:19 AM

I don't have a beard. (Spaw, don't even THINK of saying it.)

It's a folkie thing. Most of us are anoraks or hippies OR FOLKIES.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 09:25 AM

Personally I like a good beard on a bloke... gives you something to hang on to....

I think in my life I've only ever been out with 3 blokes who didn't have facial hair..... or chest hair.....

(need a lie down now.... )

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Gareth
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 09:29 AM

Well I don't know about you'all but many years ago when comuting up to London from Whitstable in grew one. Raw shaven cheeks were painfull as the wind cut in from the North Sea whilst waiting for the 07.17 to Cannon St.

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 09:29 AM

There are some others without facial hair. Rick Fielding doesn't have a beard either. In my case, I can't grow a beard that looks worth a damn. Mine is thick in some spots, thin in others, and now comes in four colors....black, brown, red, and grey/white. I don't really like beards that much and I enjoy shaving.

Occasionally I go a week or so and I begin to get comments like, "You look like hell.".....from Karen, sister Connie, and damn near everybody. Last time I was in the hospital, one of the nurses sat down on the bed and said, "I want you to tell your wife something for me." I asked her what and she replied, "Tell her to bring you a razor because you look like like hell."

AND....Speaking of Hair......after 10 years of a ponytail, I got a haircut the other day. I'd just had it with the heat and the whole damn thing. I come home and Karen says she really likes the new haircut because she thought my hair "looked like hell" before.

So I shall continue to employ my razor and my barber. One fear though is that now I'll be clean shaven and short haired and I'll still hear......."You look like hell."

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: GUEST,greg stephens
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 09:32 AM

I havent got a beard. but i am over 50, interested in early Bob Dylan and the meaning of folk. So i fit in fine.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 10:06 AM

I do not and have never had a beard. I also love Bob Dylan. This puts the lie to the oft-repeated claim that Dylan fans are all middle-aged men with beards.

I had a silly girlfriend once who harassed me into attempting to grow a beard (cos she was bored with life...kind like moving the furniture around to new locations). It was plain to see after a couple of weeks that the beard idea would not work. What a relief to shave that mess of patchy stubble off!

I make up for it by having LOTS of hair on my head.

- LH

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

I didn't have a beard for years, for professional reasons. Then I went seasonal for a while, and I've had it on for about 2 years now. Herself says it makes me look like Sean Connery, and SHE LIKES SEAN CONNERY, so I guess I'll keep it.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Charcloth
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 10:15 AM

I've wore a beard since I could grow one (except during my time in the Army)I always wanted one since I read "Robinson Curusoe" in fourth grade,
My daughter hounded me one time to shave mine off, relentlessly, she said "Dad I have never seen you without a beard I don't know what you look like without it." So I shaved it off one day, my wife & daughter came in & said "GROW IT BACK!" Nuff said!

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 10:16 AM

But Sean Connery hasn't got a beard! I haven't either but I don't look like him at all!

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 10:34 AM

We are all anoraks,hippies, folkies and, to varying degrees, revolutionaries by virtue of the fact that we are on "the road less traveled". Of course, some of us are putting on a few years (pounds? grey hairs?) and may or may not be able to revolve on demand as well as we used to, but we still have a few good rounds in us.

Which reminds me... Amos, did you manage to recover your wallet? (grin)

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: DMcG
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 10:40 AM

Liked your answer, Stephen. If we treated this thread with more seriousness than it deserves, I think being "on the road less travelled" really does have something to do with it.

I must admit, though, the reason I have a beard is that my wife-to-be asked me to grow one when we got engaged some 26 years ago. I must find out whether she remembers that!

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: GUEST,Bullfrog Jones (on the road)
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 10:52 AM

I've had a beard for as long as I can remember..... mind you, these days I often find myself in the kitchen trying to remember what I went to fetch!

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 11:06 AM

You didn't look at my picture, then.

Many years ago I raised a moustache--long, and waxed, and turned up at the ends like Salvador Dali--at the urging of the then-girlfriend, who said that "A kiss without a moustache is like an egg without salt."

My mother kept after me, urging that I shave it. The day I broke up with the girlfriend I drove home and shaved it. At the end of the day I drove to my mother's office and gave her a ride home. I mentioned there was something new. She guessed this, she guessed that, but never came up with the fact that I'd shaved the moustache until I said, "It's as plain as the nose on my face!" THEN she tumbled!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Amos
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 11:06 AM

Well, my Cat photo has no beard, but I have regrown my since. This part of the world has lots of people in it who sport gray or whote beards, and I think it is in part a reaction to the discovery that the herd of unformed, unseasoned, inexperienced juveniles who used to do nothing but flip burgers are now showing up starting companies, claiming to have mid-management experience, claiming to be qualified to raise families and buy houses -- all the young punks are taking over! So the waning warriors of the Boomer generation are asserting their seniority in order to enforce some manners! Not that it works! :>)

I, too, wanted to look like SeanConnery when I set out to raise this patch, but I missed. I think I hit Gabby Hayes instead **bg**. Now it is like an old friend.

Anyway, I really enjoy having it, as I can duck out of the shower and out the door without having to attend those barbarous ablutions at the sink -- assuming I dress first.

I'm working on a solution to that latter requirement, but I haven't come up with anything yet!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 11:16 AM

DMcG -- I had much the same experience with my wife. With her, however, it wasn't a request as such. I was, at the time, in the habit of not bothering to shave if I wan't booked somewhere on a particular day. That was sometimes three or four unshaven. One day she asked me,"Are you going to get serious about that beard or are just going to sit around being scratchy for the rest of our lives?"

I grew the beard.

Stephen

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: allanwill
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 11:54 AM

I've had one for over 30 years - I think because of the old saing "beards hide funny faces".

Allan

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

Mine is 30 Years old this too. I do trim it once or twice a year though ;) JohnB

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Roger in Sheffield
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 12:41 PM

Lots of reasons. Can't be bothered to shave....and shaving brings me out in spots
Michealangelo's rendition of God on the ceiling of the Systine Chapel has a bearded god and if we are made in his image thats good enough for me. Not sure why Adam doesn't have one perhaps he is too young or works for Disney?
Its a minor rebellion thing too......Lots of big corporations wouldn't employ bearded men as beards were seen as something to hide behind.....so I have a protest beard
If beards became popular I might have to shave mine off

Some beards look plain silly though and I don't understand the mustache without a beard or vice-versa. I just got some US currency and looking through the notes Lincolns beard is bad and Grants is good (Franklin needs a haircut)
Would Bush look more sensible with a beard or is that asking too much?

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: little john cameron
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 12:41 PM

Whit!!!A beard,me, where? Good grief where did that come fae? It wisnae there yesterday. ljc

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.

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Bill D
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 02:47 PM

between the ages of 20 and about 30, I tried almost every combination of hair length and cuts of facial hair, and took notes of reactions ....added in how hard it was to maintain and my own view of myself....and ended up the opposite of Seamus Kennedy...mutton chops!

I shave the chin, 'cause I have a patch that doesn't grow right under the chin, and it's 'different'. One cheap razor will last for many weeks, and I have light, easy to cut whiskers. Add to that the fact I have cut my own hair for the last 25 years, and I have saved enough for a tour of the Neil Young Center!

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Mr Red
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 02:57 PM

catspaw49
Yes you are sick, have you consulted a therapist over this? Razor sharp wit is all very well PAL but you can take it too far!

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: alanww
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 03:12 PM

lucy ann: I am going to the Mudcat EuroGathering in Brussels rather than Upton. But see you at Bishops Castle!

And yet a star shines constant still ...
Love Alan

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Rollo
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 05:46 PM

Had a clark gable moustache since first hairs grw on my upper lip. Thought that would look dandy. Then discovered (with female aid) that it just looked greasy. Started to grow untrimmed full beard then. Thought that would look wild and keen. Then discovered (with female aid) it just looked raggy. Now I trim my full beard. Think it looks - ah - dunno - looks like me. And I don't get used to the thought I should stand up earlier and scrap my chin with a blade while still having my eyes half closed.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Gray D
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 07:24 PM

Well now, call me pragmatic, but I grew a beard to keep my chin warm.

Driving old style, open backed, British buses with no heating in them to the top of Archer Road at 04:30 of a February morning was, how shall we say, a tad chill. When I gave up life on the road I mentioned to my missus that I was thinking of shaving it off. "Don't do that", she said, "I like the way it tickles" ;{)>

Billy Connolly said in one routine that he always thought that underneath his beard was a basically good looking young guy. When he shaved it off one day, underneath was . . . a potato.

Bill's beard is a goatee, dyed purple, these days (just watched him visit the homeland on T.V.). So who's up to following his lead then? Let's see how much more psychedelic we can make Sidmouth look this year.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: catspaw49
Date: 22 Apr 02 - 07:51 PM

LMAO Blues=Life!!!

"My father always told me not to cultivate on my face, that which grows wild on my ass."

Oh yeah.....that's a keeper!!!! Thanks!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 12:04 AM

Coyote Breath -- Trainspotting may not be what you think. It generally involves somebody standing near a railroad track with a bucket of paint and a huge brush... :))

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: GUEST,Bullfrog Jones (on the road)
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 03:38 AM

Nigel -- trainspotting lost its glamour?!?! Never heard those words so closely conjoined! Actually, if it was as exciting as Coyote Breath makes out, we'd all be doing it (and writing songs about the crashes!) I don't think that we can adequately convey the anally retentive nature of the anoraks at the end of the platform with their little notebooks stuffed full of loco numbers to those who've never seen it. In fact, the original anoraks come from the sixties when pirate radio stations broadcast from ships anchored outside the three-mile limit. The particularly fanatical listeners who came out in dinghies to see their heroes in the flesh obviously had to dress for the conditions, and the cry would go up on board the pirate ship 'Oh no, the anoraks are back!'

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 05:16 AM

If , as I seldom do, I'm at the local (Darlington) Arts Centre and a Folk event of any sort is going on you can bet your life there'll be hardly a soul there in Nike "Designer" type gear or with Black clothing from head to foot and reeking of Patchouli oil. You will see quite a few men with beards and ladies in baggy smock type thingys. In my experience you will if joined in conversation with one of the "Folkies" be accorded civility and humour.Even if you are there for the Cannonball Adderley Tribute band. These are generalisations but there are a lot people on every music "scene" who dress the part. And long live their freedom to do so.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: GUEST,DaveTnova
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 08:04 AM

I have been cleanshaven for over fifteen years. I discovered Mudcat a few weeks ago and look in nearly every day to absorb some wisdom and maybe chuckle. To my astonishment when I found this thread I realised that in those few weeks I have grown a beard. There must be a 'fluence

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Coyote Breath
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 10:31 AM

Awww. I thought you guys still had steam engines!

And someone MUST be standing about with paintbrush (probably spray can) in hand 'cause you should see some of the tagging and grafitti on the rail cars (except the coal cars). Some of it is a considerable improvement over what those cars normally look like.

Actually my only knowledge of trainspotting was from the film "Trainspotting". Didn't look too glamorous!

I grew up in the last days of steam. I have ridden in the cab of a yard switch engine down at the Milwaukee Road yards. Driver let me blow the whistle too! This was NOT an excursion train. The last time I saw a WORKING steam engine it was pulling a Chicago and Northwestern passenger deisel (complete with all the cars) to the yards after it had broken down. I wish I'd had a camera but I didn't know it was the last I would see. When I came back from the service, they were all gone! There were plenty still operating in France then but they were on their way out as the sleek passenger trains were all electric (the Sud Express was the only one I rode, what a thrill, all that speed!)

CB

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Coyote Breath
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 10:33 AM

Hey, everyone. I apologize for the thread drift. Put it down to age. I also have WAY too much time on my hands since I've retired.

CB

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 11:58 AM

Plenty of preserved steam outfits over here, CB. If you ever think of coming over, we'll be happy to point you in the right directions.

Steve (unable to think of a beard connection)

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Devilmaster
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 12:11 PM

Actually, Clinton Hammond looked at some of my shots on my home page, and asked me never to shave again.

Not that I was going to, I just like the thought of not having to shave everyday. A trim once a week and I'm ready to go.

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Watson
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 12:18 PM

OK Steve Parkes, to maintain the drift back.

My local pub - the Coalbrookdale Inn in ...err... Coalbrookdale celebrates St.Beard's Night on - I think - the 2nd Tuesday in January.

Everyone in the place, male and female, wears a beard, even if it's only applied with a felt pen. It really is a sight to behold when two respectable women are sitting at the bar holding a perfectly sensible conversation wearing full beards.

During the evening, the Prince and Princess of Beards are elected, and the Prince eats the ceremonial dish of spaghetti and meatballs - without cutlery... and without using his hands.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 12:46 PM

"I have a patch that doesn't grow right under the chin" (Bill D)

So that sounds as if it is possible to go beard-bald...

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: DonD
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 01:57 PM

I grew my first beard on a six month European ramble in 1949 ( is that the oldest beard around?) Actually, I shaved it off when I got home because my mother met me at the dock and shunned her much-missed baby -- "Come kiss me when you get that thing off your face.)

The current one only dates to about 1970, but it's been my inseparable companion ever since. (Except in dreams, from which I awake trembling in shock at having shaved it off.)

At least it's finally paying its way: I had a paying gig for the last holiday season as Santa at the oldest shopping center in the world (who knows where?) and am now memorialized with lots of little (and not so little) ones on refrigerator magnets and tree ornaments all across the area. Great fun, and I can't wait for next Labor Day when I'll start to let it grow out in all its luxurious snowiness.

I'm also considering taking part in a product test that will involve having my hair (what's left of it) and maybe my beard too -- dyed black! I expect to feel and look ridiculous, but they're paying $200!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Bearheart
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 02:24 PM

I'm with Liz, hairy faces are it. They feel yummy. Everywhere. Stubble is not yummy. Most of the men I hang out with have stubble within hours after shaving. And it is nice to hold onto.

My husband had a beard when I met him. It was such a turn-on! I've seen him without it and he's just not as sexy, or as distinguished looking!

I don't think I've ever gotten excited by a beardless man. It's like dating an 18 year old. Beards imply wildness, experience, worldliness, depending on their style. There is the Mountain Man beard. The Chinese Sage beard. The Man-about-town/Dandy beard. The Intellectual beard. the Radical beard. Men speak volumes with their beards. It's a very important form of self-expression. Which is probably why most Mudcat guys have one.

A woman who knows her beards can gain great insight about a man by his beard.

(Sorry, beardless ones, no insult intended.)

Enjoying this thread!

Bekki

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 03:51 PM

Actually, Gervase with a beard is quite tasty... not that he wasn't alright before.... just that the facial fungus adds a little something .... mature ....... maybe...

(I'll get me coat.....)

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 03:55 PM

Although having just found out he wears a cardigan in goose shit green (and just how does he know that?) I may have to revise my opinions....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 05:56 PM

Ha! Nice try, Bearheart, but I still am NOT growing a beard. :-) William Shatner did fine without one, so did Crazy Horse, and I am not about to join the "hair-mouths". No siree.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 06:07 PM

Liz-Goose shit is white/grey not green.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Gray D
Date: 23 Apr 02 - 06:29 PM

Dammit, Bearheart, I thought I just had a beard. Now I don't know if its intellectual, sage, radical or what. Really! The confusion you style gurus can cause! "Mountain Man"? What about hillocks, slight elevations and the like? You'll have to explain yourself to the group.

And when it comes to being able to tell a man by his beard my missus says,"Oh no you can't". Fair do's - look who she married.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Gervase
Date: 24 Apr 02 - 05:52 AM

Liz, any maturity associated with the beard comes from the food particles lurking there (and possibly the goose-shit!), and most definitely not the wearer.
I don't know much about what comes out of the rear of a goose (save that it's hellishly messy) but goose-shit green is a recognised colour - ask any tailor. Comes from the days when colours had more robust names (I mean, what the f*** is 'Sunset Blush' or any one of the millions of bloody names on colour charts these days?). Much like good old DSB for painting woodwork - which, as any old-school decorator will tell you, is dark shit brown.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 24 Apr 02 - 09:12 AM

I was in the park with the big pond on Sunday and I can catagorically state that Canada Goose shit is indeed khaki green and white. It also stinks of fishy things and has the clinging powers of your average limpet.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Troll
Date: 24 Apr 02 - 09:26 AM

I've had facial hair to one degree or another and longish hair for over 20 years.
Until this month. I signed a 7 mo. contract with Disney Tokyo and one of the deals was that the hair and beard had to go
They are gone and I don't look like ME any more although everyone says it makes me look years younger.
Philistines!

troll

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 24 Apr 02 - 09:35 AM

Liz/John, the colour of goose shite depends on what the critters have been eating, but when they've been grazing on grass and other verdant vegetation the colour is definitely green when it's fresh and slippery - I should know I've had to clean it off the boat (and gone A over A in it) enough times.

A friend of mine who has the most amazing "garden" on the top of his narrowboat, reckons that Canada Goose shite is the most incredible fertiliser anywhere - evidently geese don't digest things fully - more like compost them.

He also has a magnificent beard - I haven't dared to ask if he uses C.G.S. as a pomade !

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Watersong
Date: 24 Apr 02 - 10:23 AM

Why cultivate on your lower lip that which grows wild on my ass?

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 24 Apr 02 - 10:37 AM

Someone's already said that, but I've got virtually no hair on my arse (note UK spelling), and other than sporadic pruning, the hair on my face needs no cultivation whatsoever. A clean-shaven face would need much more cultivation in the shape of daily pruning !

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: hesperis
Date: 24 Apr 02 - 11:48 AM

Bearheart! Good to see you!

Ok, we definitely need examples complete with pictures and character analysis... take the beards of common celebrities if you don't want to embarrass your male frinds...

Please? Enquiring minds want to know!

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: GUEST,Davetnova
Date: 24 Apr 02 - 07:00 PM

For the above mentioned billingsgate ruffe and matching music try http://www.delnero.com/music/index.htm (can't do clickies.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Bearheart
Date: 25 Apr 02 - 11:56 AM

I had hoped that participants in this thread would expand upon my comments-- which I thought were obvious-- since y'all are way more articulate and humorous than I.

For instance I always count on Liz for a giggle from the woman's perspective, and she always comes through with flying colors. Maybe someone would be willing to start catagorizing our male members according to their beard styles. Then we could put together a personality questionaire to see if there is truly a correlation?

Or maybe it just requires a woman with a fine intuitive sense to "read" a man's beard...

Bekki

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Bullfrog Jones
Date: 25 Apr 02 - 12:25 PM

DonD,

I discovered the employment potential of my beard last Christmas too. Just a one-off at a local school, but it paid handsomely -- a bottle of Laphroaig 10 year old single malt! This year the beloved and I are seriously considering going at as Santa and Mrs Claus, singing some close-harmony carols. A couple I know do this and have more work than they can handle --- and they've said that they'll pass some on to us. There's money to be made!

BJ

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: catspaw49
Date: 25 Apr 02 - 12:34 PM

Bearheart says, "Maybe someone would be willing to start catagorizing our male members according to their beard styles..."

Well Bearheart, I didn't know you had a male member, but if those are the type of "beards" you want to talk about, I suppose we can all, male and female, talk some about our own. For instance, due to several surgeries and specifically the last one where the Heart-Lung Machine was plumbed into the aorta at the femoral artery, my "beard" there is still somewhat shorter on the right side. Outside of those surgical occasions though, I have never shaved it!

I'm interested in any other observations, specifically from the female side on this subject.........Anybody wax?

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 25 Apr 02 - 12:55 PM

Never miss an opportunity, do you, Spaw, you shameless bugger! :-)

I have to mention here that some of the biggest *$$holes I have ever met in my life were men with beards, although that doesn't mean it's a given rule by any means. I recall Hart "the fart", for example...a bearded jerk I once knew in Toronto whose primary personality trait was acting like God's gift to women and throwing his (considerable) weight around while burbling double entendres of a very obvious sort to any woman in reach. Most (if not all) females detested him.

They used to say that if Hart were to take all his clothes off and stick his tongue out, you could have stood him upside-down or right-side up, and no one would have been able to tell the difference.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Paddy Plastique
Date: 26 Apr 02 - 06:09 AM

John from Hull,

What are the bleddy geese around Hull eating ?? Fish suppers ? Even the French call a certain shade of
green 'caca d'oie'. Far superior diet they have over here though - the poor sods.
Back to folkies Taliban tendancies - anyone else reckon it's often a compensatory measure ?
i.e.: When the aggregate amount of hair on the auld head starts dropping - ye can add on at the bottom for
what's coming off the top..
'Spaw, go easy on me breakfast, will ye, it'd prefer to stay in my stomach !!

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: hesperis
Date: 27 Apr 02 - 03:27 PM

Bearheart - well... I was never interested in guys with beards until just recently. Always preferred them clean-shaven. (Is this the sign of a maturing taste? *g*)

So I haven't paid attention to any correlation between beard type and character, since I wasn't interested anyway.

Will the mudcat wimmen please begin my essential education on the subject? *Grin*

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 30 Apr 02 - 09:23 AM

There is no correlation. There are smooth shaven nice blokes out there as well as hairy bastards.... just look at some of the threads that have been asking for help up and down this forum to prove that....

Just cos someone has a beard, doesn't mean they are a nice person.... Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper.... Rasputin..... Vlad the Impala.... Bill the Basher..... all beardies.

One of the lovliest men I ever had the pleasure of knowing was a smoothie.... but on the other hand...... when was the last time the US had a president with a beard?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 30 Apr 02 - 11:46 AM

I though old Vlad had a smooth chin, Liz; he made up for it with a moustache that any modern gay man would be proud of.

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: GUEST,Desdemona at work
Date: 30 Apr 02 - 11:53 AM

Nearly all my male friends (including my husband) have facial hair; I guess it just sort of grows there!

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: JenEllen
Date: 30 Apr 02 - 12:14 PM

Ah yes, the Village-People-Leather-Biker-Moustache....(LOL Liz, Vlad the Impala?)

Well, I can't say that I'm so much emphatically anti-beard as I am pro-flesh. I happen to be a real fan of skin.

Spaw; Believe me, if they would have waxed your 'beard' instead of shaving it.....that is the pain that lingers.

Subject: pedant alert!
From: Mr Red
Date: 30 Apr 02 - 03:07 PM

welcome to pogonphobia central.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Jim Krause
Date: 30 Apr 02 - 03:11 PM

Well if it makes you feel any better DMcG, the photo in the archive is about four years old. I am beardless now.
Jim

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: DonD
Date: 30 Apr 02 - 03:47 PM

The US does have a bearded President -- or at least he wore one for a while after he was elected -- but that's another thread.

As to the types of beards -- unless you are so finicky that you trim it every day or two, you have different styles (well, I do) depending on the time of the day, week, month or season. Mine doesn't grow evenly on both sides, and there's a kind of windblown effect sometimes because of the grain, so when I start to trim it a little on one side, then the other side looks too long, and -- like evening the legs on a table or chair until they're flat on the ground --the beard always ends up shorter than I intended and has to grow back to a decent shape.

And then there's the Santa gig which starts growing out after Labor Day, and leads to a drastic pruning early in January.

And creeping the thread up to the top of the head for a moment -- I got fed up with the few straggling hairs on top of my bald expanse and ran the razor over it for what I thought would be nice clean look and feel. To my surprise, I developed a stubble and now have a field of upright silver stalks, like a pathetic crew cut.

All right, if you looked at me you'd say I was still bald as an egg, but I can see this furze and it's weird.

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 30 Apr 02 - 03:58 PM

As a 3 decade pogonophile, my beard has stood up to two governmental attacks. In the first, a feeral interviewer asked me whether I was more attached to my beard than the job he was offering me in Palo Alto. Once I responded that "it grew on me" the offer disappeared. In the other, my state hospital supervisor told me to shave it off so I could use a mask. I persuaded him that a) I wouldn't shave unless he did and b) Positive Pressure respirators (space helmets) were available as a reasonable accomodation. He got the message and I got the space helmet.

It is a pleasure only to have to touch up once a week, even though I use a hair shaper, which is a great cross between a straight razor and replacable blade.

May thy beards never grow less!

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 01 May 02 - 02:29 PM

Yes, it does refer to both facial and anterior!

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 02 May 02 - 03:30 AM

Vlad the Impala--oh, I get it, Liz! No, wait a minute, I don't get it ...

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: GUEST,Bullfrog Jones (on the road)
Date: 02 May 02 - 06:00 AM

DonD, thinking about your uneven growth(!), my beard sort of twirls towards the right --- the hair on the left tends to curl into and under the chin, while the stuff on the right curls out and away from my chin, sort of anti-clockwise. I normally keep it short enough that it doesn't notice, but from what I can recall of when I had more hair, that used to grow in a similar way. Anyone else experienced this? And do Australian beards twirl the other way?

BJ

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 02 May 02 - 06:14 AM

I personally like a man with a beard, or at least some designer stubble!!! It gives them a distinguished look. That is not to say that a man without a beard cannot look distinguished. It all amounts to personal preference!

cat

Subject: RE: BS: Whats with the beards?
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 07 May 02 - 02:23 PM

Why such a short thread on such a long and winding subjct?