Bye-bye beard: The end of No-Shave November 2019

I participated in No-Shave November for the sixth year in a row. I shaved my whole face for the last time on October 29 (I usually do it on Halloween but did not have time this year), and only shaved my neck in November.

There were a couple notable differences with my beard and trimming routine this year:

• I have more gray hair this year. My chin is grayer, and I noticed thin streaks of gray along the back of my jaw. I’m cool with it.

• I did not trim the hair on my cheeks. That did not go well last year (I took off too much the second time), so I let the hair there do its thing for the whole month.

• My beard never became annoying. Though I once again developed a fixation with touching and stroking it (go ahead and giggle), and it annoyed me at times, I never counted the days until I could shave. I was fine with it this year.

• I did a decent job of defining the line on my neck. It crept up every time I shaved, though, which may be one reason why my beard never became super annoying.

I busted out the ol’ beard trimmer after midnight this morning and, much like I did last year with a seventies porn ‘stach, shaped my beard into mutton chop sideburns. I did it a few years ago, but quickly buzzed them off after getting photographic evidence. Today, however, I kept them. I even shaved the rest of my face and ventured out in public with them.



They’re not quite up to Doc Sportello’s standard, but my mom told me I look like Wolverine. I’ll take it!