Bye-bye beard: The end of No-shave November 2017


For the fourth straight year, I participated in No-shave November. I shaved after running on Halloween night, let my beard grow throughout November, and turned all my glorious, auburn facial hair into compost today.

This year was slightly different, though: it truly was no-shave November. Instead of shaving my neck, as I have in the past, I opted to trim the hair there with my beard trimmer. I needed to give my face a break from shaving for a while. It was tempting to shave my neck after a couple weeks, but I decided to stick it out and not shave for the whole month. After all, that’s the point.

Before I trimmed the beard down to stubble and busted out my trusty safety razor (a post about that is long overdue), I decided to have a little fun with my trimmer. I have always had an affinity for mutton chop sideburns but have never had the guts to grow them. So, with the foundation established, I shaped my beard into mutton chops, à la Joaquin Phoenix in Inherent Vice, just to see how I looked.





Eh . . . they looked okay. Even after a month, the hair is not bushy or thick enough; I would need to let them grow much longer. (Yes, I was wearing the same shirt from yesterday.) The Doc Sportello look is something I should cultivate at some point, though.

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