MetaChat - 40 years behind a beard.

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29 September 2007

40 years behind a beard. →[More:] In 1967, at the end of high school, Michael grew a beard. He's still got one today. In the intervening 40 years, he's learned a thing or two.

"One time in a Philadelphia art gallery, the owner came up to me and said that she had to run an errand and asked if I would please mind the place while she was gone. I replied that she never saw me before and I could be a disreputable person. Her response was, "You have a beard, you have to be nice." I ended up watching the gallery and taking phone calls for about an hour.
A person's car had broken down on the highway and I stopped to help. They asked me to leave, saying that they didn't trust me because I had a beard."

There's a 40 year photo gallery of Michael's beard, too.

post by: paulsc at: 21:31 | 30 comments

I had a beard for a good long time before I started practice as a lawyer. Turns out you don't get to keep the beard unless you're a partner. Bastards.

posted by brainwidth 29 September | 21:41

I hope terrapin posts his animated beard gif here. It blows my mind.

I wish I could grow a good beard. :(

posted by mullacc 29 September | 21:47

I could grow a beard that Erik the Viking would saw his own leg off for. It has stripes and everything.

But I don't want a beard. The few times I've grown partial beards I nearly went insane being unable to scratch underneath it properly. That, and I started chewing on it like some kind of Tolkeinesque Dwarf.

Ugh. Avoid.

posted by loquacious 29 September | 21:55

My Daddy had a beard from when I was born. It was so freaky to see him in pics when he was younger without one. He was just one of those people who really suited one.

posted by gomichild 29 September | 22:02

I like my beard.

It's like a pet for my face.

The only downside I've found is that messy food is exponentially messier with a beard, or maybe I just miss my mouth more than most.

posted by BitterOldPunk 29 September | 22:16

On the other hand, I did hear a kid in the grocery store the other day call me Santa Claus, which is disturbing on several levels.

(I'm not THAT old, not THAT fat, and my beard's not THAT white, dammit)

posted by BitterOldPunk 29 September | 22:18

I had a beard in high school in 1967, too. I kept it through a couple years of college, and through the early 70's, then got some jobs where it wasn't cool to wear facial hair. I've grown a few "deer beards" since, and a couple years ago, I had a 3 month shot without shaving again, although it mostly grew in grey, and grizzled.

I haven't had any outside client appointments in a over a week, however, and am sitting, scratching, behind a grizzled grey stubble, again. May be time for another "deer beard"...

posted by paulsc 29 September | 22:25

I've grown a full beard every winter since my first marriage ended (first wife didn't like beards). I usually start it around early November and shave it off sometime in March. I can't stand having a beard in the summer, way too itchy. Usually someone in November will ask me if I'm getting ready for hunting season. I didn't shave for a week and a half until today since I was sick and didn't feel like it and the beard came in really damn gray. Sucks getting old.

posted by octothorpe 29 September | 22:40

I'm going to use this thread to tell one of my favorite Dad stories. My father had a bushy hippie beard in the early 70s. When he started working for the bank, The Man didn't like it and told him to shave it off. So he shaved off half and told them it was a compromise.

Dad rocks. (Or at least he used to. He's The Man now himself--the kind of status quo Republican he rebelled against in his youth. *sigh*)

posted by jrossi4r 29 September | 23:09

I've never seen my father without a mustache. One of my friends says he's a cross between Duke from the Critic and Robert Goulet.

posted by mullacc 29 September | 23:28

In the last 28 years I have only seen myself without a beard twice. I have been thinking about shaving in again, recently.

posted by arse_hat 30 September | 00:03

I've had a beard for over half my life. (The latter half.)

posted by BoringPostcards 30 September | 00:48

Also, message to arse_hat: don't.

posted by BoringPostcards 30 September | 00:49

OK BP!

posted by arse_hat 30 September | 00:52

And check your e-mail.

posted by arse_hat 30 September | 00:53

I'd read in a kid's trivia book about the man with the 17 foot beard and how it was now kept in the Smithsonian. I stayed with cousins in Bethesda spring break freshman year and went to look at it. I'd thought that the hair had grown that long , but it was that way because he never combed it out.

posted by brujita 30 September | 01:31

My dad looks sort of scary without a beard - I associate his beard with virility and with his youth. Of course, he feels self-conscious about all the grey in it, so he shaves is beard more now than he used to.

posted by muddgirl 30 September | 01:35

That guy has an excellent beard. I get jealous of dudes with awesome beards. Of course, I don't think mine's all that shabby, but I don't quite have what it takes to go for the bushy mountain-man look.

posted by kyleg 30 September | 02:53

My husband has had a beard for the past month or two. He grows an exceptional beard, but I prefer his face without facial hair. He looks just like the guy in the website, but he keeps it a little shorter, thank god.

mudgirl, my husband has some gray in his beard and he still doesn't care. He lacks any sort of vanity. I've asked him two times to shave it. I think this only strengthens his desire to keep it.

posted by LoriFLA 30 September | 07:47

The ability to grow a full beard by the time I was 19 was very handy in letting me buy beer underage.

posted by octothorpe 30 September | 09:28

I love my boyfriend's beard. I think it suits him well. He keeps it closely trimmed, so it's never a mountain-man thing. It's funny how his beard grows in so well but his head is bald(ing).

One of the best things about boyfriend-with-beard is it suits his laziness when it comes to his morning routine. When he doesn't have the beard, he still doesn't shave very often so it's like 1 day clean-shaven and 3 days of unkempt, painful stubble. At least the beard is relatively soft.

posted by misskaz 30 September | 10:41

I've only grown one beard in my life...turned out to be pretty red. I shaved it down to a goatee for a while, but got tired of people looking at me like I was a biker. I had VERY long curly hair, and was prone to wearing a baggy black leather coat. This was back before insurance salesmen were wearing goatees. I ended up shaving down to an "imperial" and I have that to this day. It's been under my lip for going on 15 years now. I also keep my sideburns fairly long, and have since I was in high school.

I suspect I'll prolly die with my imperial and sideburns. I'm happy to change up the hair style on my head, but I seem to like my face to stay the same!

posted by richat 30 September | 14:48

I've had a mustache, goatee and a Seth Bullock-style fu manchu & soulpatch combo. They were all fun and gave my face a ruggedness that it kind of lacks without it. Plus when combined with the long hair and hoop earrings it gave off a gender-bending 'pirate' vibe that people seemed to like. Facial hair is one of those neat biological perks of beinga guy, I guess.

posted by jonmc 30 September | 15:11

I prefer the mister without facial hair, but he looks good in beard:
≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by deborah 30 September | 15:47

Beards are awesome. Plus for girls, no stubble rash after making out.
Which I'm sure is something everyone can get behind.

posted by seanyboy 30 September | 16:46

I have had a beard for most of my adult life. I started with mutton chops, which didn't get nearly as Victorian as I was hoping. I had some time where I went with 'stache or Van Dyke. The last time I went without was when the Mrs and I were dating and we dressed up as The Tick and American Maid. I'm starting to salt up now. I was plucking, but it's too late for that. To hell with vanity.

I hoped when I was younger that I could grow a substantial, long beard but my hair curls back on itself, so it just gets thick and bushy. The curling back on itself is one of the main reasons why being clean shaven is not my bag: my beard ingrows and it's painful at worst and itchy at best.

posted by plinth 30 September | 18:39

I used to insist that my ex-husband have a beard...it was either that or scratchy, messy stubble most of the time. I thought the beard made him look really good, but he shaved it off shortly after I left him. I couldn't help but think he looked like a little boy without it.

posted by Twiggy 30 September | 20:11

≡ Click to see image ≡

My beard is red, white and grey. It was totally taliban-style yesterday, but I cleaned it up a little this morning. I like it--it's like wearing a mask all day long. I'd wear a full body-sized cardboard box all day if it were socially acceptable.

posted by craniac 30 September | 21:40

ooooh, I just killed another thread.

posted by craniac 01 October | 16:40

"ooooh, I just killed another thread."
posted by craniac 01 October

Not really. It was out of air anyway.

But I did go off to a breakfast meeting unshaven today. An hour of dull Powerpoint over lukewarm coffee and stale doughnuts, at the end of which, a twenty something girl enthused that she'd been trying to get her BF to grow a beard, and that he kept telling her it was too scratchy for him to bear, much less her, while it grew out. So she asked if that was really true, and could she could pet my scraggly salt and pepper stubble, to see for herself?

Tee hee...

posted by paulsc 01 October | 18:09

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