New Adventures in Beard Growth

This is my look on Monday. Excuse my bloated and blotched skin - I'd just woken up. Notice that excessive hair growth on my face? Let me explain the coming-of-age quest that has been the last week in my life.

Being 24 and all that, you would have thought that at some point over the past 6-7 years, I might have grown a big, bushy beard. For the sake of it, maybe. Or as a fashion choice.

It's true to say that for a month or two at university, I had a poorly-sculpted run of wispy stubble running along my jawline and forming a mishaped moustache. Happily, I discarded this look almost as soon as I realised that it acted as a repellent to the fine ladies of Nottingham.

Anyway, tiring of the repetitive nature of shaving (and the nightmare ingrown hairs that curly-haried men such as myself occasionally attract) I decided to cut out the daily routine. Indefinitely.

Starting Monday last week, I didn't shave. At all. I just used a facial scrub to stop it getting too complicated. Occasionally.
By Wednesday I had designer stubble.

Looing in the mirror Thursday, I noticed some of the hair was protruding, and had gone blonde.

On Saturday, the beard had progressed to covered almost all sign of skin.

By Sunday it was a little itchy.

Monday, it was very itchy.
















On Tuesday, a girl at work asked me if I was aiming for "the Rory McGrath (above) look."

On Tuesday evening, I purchased a set of hair clippers.

Wednesday morning, I had trimmed designer stubble, and women found me slightly attractive again.

As someone who normally goes for the freshly shaven look, the revelations of the last week have given me a whole new perspective on facial hair. I now know that within 2 weeks, I can have a Captain Haddock-style (below) bushy beard, free of charge, simply by not shaving at all.

























Right now, i'm really enjoying the neater, rough look. But who knows where the adventures of hair growth could lead me? I'm not making any commitments over the next few weeks, clearing space in the diary for new adventures.

I'm thinking goatee. Or handlebar moustache. Or perhaps the Robinson Crusoe look.
The world is my oyster.