# So I'm growing a beard. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 8, 2010, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-growing-a-beard/553013 "2010-09-08T03:21:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-growing-a-beard/553013/21 "2010-09-09T17:28:33Z")
I first grew a beard at the age of 17, starting as soon as the exams at the end of high school were over, and so I was no longer subject to school discipline. I’ve shaved it off a couple of times since then – once to show my children what I looked like without a beard – but I’ve had it pretty well all the 48 years since then. I don’t think I could adjust to shaving every day. ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-growing-a-beard/553013/22 "2010-09-09T17:41:29Z")
Grew mine when I was twenty, haven’t seen my cheeks in 9 years. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-growing-a-beard/553013/23 "2010-09-09T17:47:20Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’m sort of growing a beard. I haven’t fully committed to the idea yet but I haven’t shaved for about a week now. This is weird! Me too! I had a reason to start (plumbing problems) but after we were two days without water I decided to grow my first beard ever. I can usually get by with shaving every other day or even every third day so I don’t know how long it will take to get a decent beard (or if I will ever get any respectable beard at all.) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-growing-a-beard/553013/24 "2010-09-09T18:49:55Z")
The downside is that, unlike the top of my head, my beard is clearly going to have a significant amount of gray hair in it. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-growing-a-beard/553013/25 "2010-09-09T19:54:19Z")
I have a [mustache](http://acidcow.com/pics/20100322/acid_picdump_137.jpg), but I hate getting it trimmed. It was easier when I just shaved every day. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-growing-a-beard/553013/26 "2010-09-09T20:07:28Z")
> [@Wilbo523](#): > > Around here, we usually have “No Shave November”, once a year. Wimps. We have “No Shave November”…twice a year! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-growing-a-beard/553013/27 "2010-09-09T20:09:31Z")
[Obligatory](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GrowingTheBeard) ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-growing-a-beard/553013/28 "2010-09-09T20:15:23Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > [Obligatory](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GrowingTheBeard) It’s a trap! ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-growing-a-beard/553013/29 "2010-09-09T22:36:27Z")
I can grow a decent mustache in about a month but I couldn’t grow a (decent) beard if I didn’t shave for a year. I just don’t have much facial hair. I don’t have any hair of my chest, either. I’m just not a real man, I guess. But I have a full mustache for the first time in fifteen years. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-growing-a-beard/553013/30 "2010-09-09T23:32:07Z")
> [@ethansiegel](#): > > And if you can make it to that point, you can start _shaping_ your facial hair, and choose something that works well with your face and overall appearance. I realize it’s too late for THIS session, but the above is important. I thought I couldn’t grow facial hair, that I had a summer beard (summer here, and summer over here). It looked like crap. Til I touched it up JUST a little. Eventually, I dropped the full beard for a goatee/stache, and I like it! ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-growing-a-beard/553013/31 "2010-09-09T23:42:10Z")
There’s a particular stage of beard that women seem to like on me. I have red/blond facial hair and it’s not very thick (so I always look less hairy than I actually am), and my optimum stage appears to be at about 2 to 3 weeks of non-shaving to give it the “I’m clearly a man and I haven’t shaved in while” look, without looking like a complete tramp. To maintain, once in a while I just take my trimmer and cut it down to about 2 mm and let it grow back a day or 3. Then I’m good for another couple of weeks. I take the same approach with my hair, only with longer intervals. Seems to work. ---
**Author:** ![A\_Spoonful\_of\_Awesome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@A\_Spoonful\_of\_Awesome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Spoonful_of_Awesome)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-growing-a-beard/553013/32 "2010-09-10T00:02:23Z")
Also 29, I’m another who can’t grow a decent beard to save my bloody life. If I go too long without shaving, my face gets the “dying cat” patchy look that make the womenfolk dizzy with desire. So I’ve decided to grow my hair out to compensate. It’s been just over a year since my last real haircut and it’s in that uncontrollable “wtf” stage. Hopefully that will pass soon. I’m getting pretty sick of people ruining my coffee by tossing in their change. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-im-growing-a-beard/553013.md?page=1)