I am unworthy...

When I was a college freshman in 1970 I decided to grow a beard. It was sparse, confined mainly to the chin, but it was was mine. I took pride in it, while at the same time looking wistfully at my peers, wishing I had their whisker density. You know the kind. Shave at 7am; look like they forgot to shave at noon, and they start looking pretty hirsute by 5pm.

I got tired of it after a few months, and was more or less clean-shaven until 1974 when I decided to have another go at it. This time it looked better, although directly under the chin was a bald spot, and there was a thin line of whiskers extending from the middle of the chin to my lower lip.

I had this beard on and off for the next 20 years, and I think there was facial hair of one kind or another during all that time. The beard filled in nicely, began to gray, and my wife liked it. I shaved it completely about 1994, my wife said "hmmmph", and after a few months I started growing it back, and it has been with me ever since -- sometimes shaped, sometimes growing natural, usually short, but occasionally as long as 3-4 inches.

So here I am in the present with a beard that I enjoy. Note that a side effect of digital imaging is to make one appear MUCH grayer than one really is....

The Reformed Angler, ca. 2005

But then I saw this, and my feelings of inadequacy returned:

Some guy in Great Britain.

I have never seen a double handlebar mustache before.

On further reflection, one of the reasons I keep my facial and head hair short is that it is much lower maintenance. How much time does this guy spend in grooming? Or is this just on special occasions.

Click on the photo of the one with more hair, and you can read the article from which it came.