The Progression from Mountain Man to Boy Wonder

So 3 years ago I began the quest on the trail of the bearded man. It began as full beard then went to goatee then back to full beard then back to goatee. Recently, the Drew Manchu was introduced followed by the 'stache with the end result of once again arriving at a state of smooth faced. Having facial hair certainly saves on time getting ready in the morning but I believe I'll try the smooth faced look for a while.

Drew-Manchu

We now embark on a new chapter in the adventures of facial hair. When we last checked in with our protagonist a little over a year ago (see here for details), he determined to go from fully bearded to the suave/hip goatee. In recent times, he determined to take on a contenance to identify more with the blue collar crowd. Or maybe it was an attempt at the retro 70s look. Or perhaps even hearkening to it's origin in the orient. Regardless, the visage of said protaganist now bears the simultaneous resemblance of both Fu Manchu and a modern day truck driver.

Icey Goatee

This is what happens when you go running outside in single digit weather. It was a chilly but good experience. After running on the treadmill for a while, getting outside was a welcome experience. From a purely functional standpoint, facial hair, especially in beard or goatee format, provides a nice guard against the biting winter wind. I've thought of going to a cut down format but each time I've recently been outside have reconsidered the benefits of said hirsuteness.

How to Grow A Beard

-Step 1 don't shave
-step 2 repeat step 1
-Step 3 trim from time to time to keep looking neat (if your name is Grizzly Adams, ZZ Top, or you live in the woods/mountains having limited contact with the rest of the world, step 3 may be omitted)
-Step 4 sculpt/shape in various creative ways with a beard trimmer or keep the traditional look

So I'm at Step 4 now. It's one of those things where you know you should do it but just don't. Kind of like those things in the back of the refrigerator that you know you should throw out but never do. A beard becomes part of one's identity and so parting with all or a part of it can be an event worth consideration. My intent is to take a phased approach toward going back to bare faced. I'll go with the goatee first then at some point may determine to trim back from there either in entirety or another phase. The original reason I grew one was not so much for the aesthetics as the convenience of not shaving every day. This iteration of the beard began in August of 2005. In the fully matured stage of the beard, I usually will trim it up once every 7 to 10 days.


Here's a picture prior to the cutting


And after