Mine’s a Beard
I used to collect beards. Well, pictures of beardy people from newspapers to be precise. Oh, and once or twice one of my like-minded cohorts and I surreptitiously photographed good specimens among members of the public. It all started with Richard Stallman, who’s hairy countenance, when I saw it smiling out at me from the pages of the Guardian, filled me with a deep sense of awe and respect. From there it grew into an obsession, and at one stage my “wall of beards” had pictures of over 50 notables from the facial hair world.
I was only ever interested in full-on ungroomed facial hair; none of this coiffured nonsense. Real beards should be motivated by a dislike of shaving and a flagrant disregard for ones personal appearance, not a desire look like Craig David. If you’re going to shave, why not shave it all? I’m sure maintaining a neatly trimmed goatee and ‘tash combo takes far more effort than an all-over shave, yet it makes you look silly. What’s the point?
Anyway, I went to Cambridge yesterday, and there are some truly excellent beards there. I used to think that crazy-haired scientists and other bushy-faced academics had beards because they were far too busy thinking intelligent stuff to make time for a facial hygiene routine, but an old maths teacher of mine from school (who has quite a good beard himself) insists that it is “an image thing” in academic circles. Good for them, I say.
This post was inspired by Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow at Kebabylon.