Monday, April 15, 2013

April Showers and Other Beard Care Tips

Our April meeting was a low-key affair but still boasted double-digit attendance even if you don't count people that just walked through The Village while we were there (Dean) and people working that would have rather been sharing the conversation with us (Sarah, Curly).

We had hoped to get the directors from the B/CS Marathon and the Armadillo Dash to come out and share some of their insights with us as we think about planning a combination beard contest/run to benefit local charities such as Scotty's House. Unfortunately, neither was available for our meeting (Chris was just kicking off the 52-hour baseball game that would set a new world record and raise over $50K for Mercy Project).

What makes me happiest about even these smaller meetings is that we continue to see new faces and find new topics to explore. The primary topic of conversation at this meeting was grooming habits. There was general consensus that we aren't growing facial hair because we're lazy. While none of us seemed to buy in fully to the perspective endorsed by Jack Passion (I brought the inscribed copy of The Facial Hair Handbook I received as swag for supporting Kickstarter campaign for the Craft Beerds Book) that might include coloring ones beard--Cinnamon and sugar, indeed!--we are not slouches when it comes to care of the manly shag that adorns our faces.

We discussed cleaning and conditioning regimens (I use the botanical beard bar and Jenulence oil from Beard Care Products) as well as styling (Kenn uses Lucky Tiger Mustache Wax). The conversation also included great insight from Robert about the implication of wearing a beard in some professions. For example, as a welder he had to be fitted with a respirator for certain OSHA-regulated projects that required him either to be clean-shaven or to coat his beard in vaseline. It is amazing the kinds of sacrifices people will make!

One of those sacrifices was posing for a group photo with a group of young women leaving The Village who thought our "beard convention" was cool. Still looking for that photo to show up on our facebook page.

Till next time!