“Shaggy and lean and shrewd with pointed ears, / And tail cropped short, half lurcher and half cur”

[larryhammer]

During February’s round of Covid, I didn’t shave—no surprise, while recovering. But I haven’t shaved since, or not a full shave—I always scrape off the patchy hairs from my cheeks, because otherwise the result is … unfortunate would be the kindest description. But I now have a rather full goatee, with more salt than pepper on the chin and more pepper above the lips.

If I’ve counted correctly, this is my sixth attempt to grow a beard. All previous rounds, I never got past the itchy stage. In conversations through the years, other beard-growers have reported that it generally takes them a week or two for the bristles to get long enough to stop itching, but even the time I stuck it out for almost two months, it still rilly, rilly bugged me. Distracting and uncomfortable. But not this time—for whatever reason, it’s just felt comfortable, even at the start. Not complaining, but what gives? Eh, whatevs.

Regardless, the bristles are now long enough, I need to start trimming more. Decide what length / shape I want. IOW in my mid-50s, I need to learn the manly skill of beard cultivation.

Assuming, that is, I’m willing to look more like a youngish Boomer instead of an older Gen-Xer—for a graying goatee is pos def more a Boomer style. I am … ambivalent about this. Showing my age, that’s fine—but I’ve spent a lifetime in a cohort that’s been dismissed and minimized by many of our near elders to be entirely comfortable with being identified as one. I’ve always felt more kinship with people five years younger than me than five years older.

It’s a trade-off of discomforts. Is the dissonance worth the ease of not having to shave my chin? Maybe.

Or maybe I just need to get over generational sniping.

---L.

Subject quote from The Task, Book V, William Cowper.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Are you going to share a pic with us? :o)

[larryhammer]

Maybe? I do have a half-way decent one, taken by Eaglet as they practiced different photo modes.

[movingfinger]

Reports are that using conditioner to soften beard hair makes it both less itchy and easier to trim.

[larryhammer]

That's useful. I've found shampooing every so often is essential, but hadn't tried that. Thanks!

[cmcmck]

I know there are beard specific products available as a local Asian barber in town here keeps them on display in his window.

[larryhammer]

I've seen beard-care products, but till now ignored them as irrelevant to me.

[sovay]

Or maybe I just need to get over generational sniping.

And share a picture of your finally functional beard!

(Cats are the closest I have to an icon with facial hair.)

[larryhammer]

Lemme see if I can figure out DW's photo hosting again -- been a few years since I tried this.

[puddleshark]

I need to learn the manly skill of beard cultivation.

Heh!

I love the current fashion for beards. It makes walking down the street so much more interesting.

[larryhammer]

Heh, back.

[mrissa]

I think I just disagree with you about generational lines in 2024. I've known plenty of Xers with goatees (LOTS in college, even, at very formative ages), and some of them are now graying...and most Boomers are not so much grayING any more as GRAY, on average, the oldest Boomers are almost 80.

I do think there's a mental shift of "does this look like my parent or their generation or is it just that I'm readjusting what people in my age group look like" that can be weird though.

[sovay]

I've known plenty of Xers with goatees (LOTS in college, even, at very formative ages)

I also associate the goatee more with my generation than with my parents'. My father had a full-on beard in the '70's, but has been clean-shaven ever since.

[larryhammer]

A datapoint worth knowing.

[larryhammer]

Fair point about gray versus graying -- and most Boomers are def the former.

My parents are Silents, though (they were older parents), and have almost as little patience for Boomer antics as I do.

[umadoshi]

A whole new world of beard cultivation!

(I have no insight, even though scruloose was in possession of a goatee nearly all of the time between when we first met and when Covid started, with periodic full-face shaves to see what they looked like under it.)

[larryhammer]

Kinda the inverse of me -- mostly clean with occasional growings to see what I looked like with.