For the first time since I’ve grown a beard, I messed up shaping it. I shaved one side entirely too close, beyond the point of trying to thin the rest of it accordingly, so I had to shape it into a goatee sort of thing, which just really isn’t nearly as cool.
While this would be pretty damn annoying at any time, my birthday is coming up on Sunday. I have the same birthday as a couple other family members, so the whole thing turns into a mini-family reunion, so now I’ve got to face all of them with this ridiculous thing on my face. Also, because this birthday coming up is my 21st (yeah, my 21st birthday is on a Sunday, which means its dry in Indiana. Another minor gripe.), my drivers license is expiring. That means I’m going to be going in in the next couple of days and getting a new license, which of course means a new picture. Six years of looking at this mistake. Grrr.
I hate shaving. That’s why I grew a beard in the first place.
IMVHO, beards make men look shady and I assume they smell, unless I get close enough to be proven wrong. It’s a knee-jerk judgement over which my conscious, rational mind has little control - maybe because most of the men I see in the street who have beards are homeless.
My sympathies. After growing and getting fairly used to my goatee (I can’t grow a full beard . . . the sides are too patchy so I make do with what I can manage), I tried trimming it on Thursday in preparation for a date but wound up thinning it out to the point where shaving the entire thing off was the only option and now I’m completely smooth-faced for the first time in months and feeling entirely self-conscious about it.
I wonder has anyone ever tried laser hair removal on their face? I’d like to be as smooth as my wife’s, ah, hmmm, my wife. :o I hate shaving and if there was a way to never have to do it again then I would.
Get used to it. After thirty years of wearing a beard, I still screw up the trimming now and then. Just make the best of it, and wait for it to grown out. The one thing I’ve learned is to trim in small steps, and the other (OK, two things) is to only trim it sober.
Dunno about Indiana, but Colorado is an on-demand state, where you can walk in at anytime and ask for a new license. Can you do that in Indiana? It’s the family pictures I’d worry about. Those are going to be hauled out for the next 50 years.
I can’t say I’m entirely sure about whether or not I can demand a new license at any time, but its likely to cost me something if I do. As much as this whole trimming mishap annoys me, I’m far too much of a cheapskate to pay money merely because I don’t like the picture.
In addition, the girlfriend is pretty upset about recent developments. She’s demanding I just shave the rest of it off. I might end up doing that, we’ll see how quickly it grows back out. fingers crossed
I mess up my beard too, once in a while. I have a very thin, short, neat beard that just follows my sideburns down around the outline of my face, no more than an inch wide at most, under my chin. I use a disposable razor to shave my neck, cheeks, and chin completely, except for a little square “soul-patch,” and use a beard trimmer to keep my beard and mustache at a short, uniform length. It’s a pretty good look for me, but I’d sooner shave my face completely than grow it into a bushy beard.
Strangely enough, my hair (which I shave down to a “1”) is brown, but my beard is red and my mustache grows in practically blond.
I messed up my goatee a few months back and had to shave it all off for the second time in about 7 or 8 years. I kept getting this odd sensation on my chin. Turns out it was just moving air, something it had not felt in many moons. Not fun during winter.
So, yeah, what Frank said. Take it slow and do it sober.
I understand that this is one of the techniques used by transgender women to deal with facial hair, along with electrolysis. IIRC laser hair removal is very expensive, though.
I hate shaving and if there was a way to never have to do it again then I would.
