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As anyone who's met me will know, I have a rather nasty ginger chinbeard. I grew my first goatee in the summer before I was sixteen. It was hideous. It was more of a full on chinbeard; for a similar look, see DJ Shadow right abought now.
My sideburns have been around longer; when I was around 14, and they arrived, I just decided I liked them. Different to everyone else. OK, a bit bushy, but I learnt how to control that. They were just always... a tad longer than "tidy" should be. A Latin teacher referred to them as "two caterpillars glued to the side of my face". But I've always liked them, despite what anyone says, and now they're quite well developed and normally relatively long, until I try and trim them, when I discover my face is asymmetrical and I can't get them the same length and so I chop one, then the other, then the first, and then they're really average and not long at all. Last term they went kind-of pointy at the bottom. I liked that, might do it again.
But yes; beards. My dad, since, well, before I was born, has had a beard. A BIG beard. Like, Captain Birdseye. No moustache, just bushy beard. Hey, it's unique, OK? This means my parents have NEVER been able to criticise my facial hair. In fact, they general like it, and just make sure it's tidy. I grew beards for the summer after lower and upper 6ths; got rid of it when I went to university, but quickly began to grow it again. When it was relatively fully formed, someone said to me "are you growing a beard?". Well, duh. It came and went for the past two years - usually kept for a couple of months and then shaved one day either in a fit of boredom, or because I thought it would be more attractive to girls I was chasing. Both were foolish errors.
It's now pretty much in permanent residence. Along with the sideburns, it frames my face nicely and hides any jowls that are developing (shudder), and is basically my attempt at individuality. Some people dye their hair silly colours; I just grow more of it. It usually exists in a style I call the "Countdown Special" - the inverted-T. Occasionally it goes down to a chinstripe for comedy value. I like it, and basically, I now don't care what anyone else thinks of it. It's not something that comes and goes. It's me. For a while, anyhow.
Downsides: I spent a while cultivating it, really shaving chin and not much else. As a result, I grow chinbeards and sideburns, and yet can't do Van Dykes, or full-facial stuff. The latter's a relief; I'd look like a member of Abba, given my hair colour... (Phew. I seem to have a lot to say on beards.) |
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