Why the beard?

As many have noticed, a scraggly-haired rat has taken up permanent residence on the lower half of my face.

Many people have asked me why I am growing it, how long am I growing it, when will I cut it, why is it not in braids yet....

It started about a year ago. Well, for a long time I have dabbled with facial hair. For a while I settled on a goatee and was quite fond of it. I then tried a beard, but quickly decided my face was too fat for it.

Wait, what?

Naw man, forget that.

I decided to loose the fat face and have the beard. The beard became my motivation. In the book My Big Fat Greek Diet, Nick Yphantides describes how he grew his hair out as motivation to lose weight. He called it his Samson Hair. As it grew he would push himself farther.

His results were quite inspiring. So, I decided to do the same with my beard. I have set myself to one year. I cannot trim nor cut it during that time. Every time I want to, I push myself harder. Since I started, I have lost around 45lbs.

However, during all this, I have noticed a very welcome side-effect: I care about myself more. It seems that through a constant desire to make sure my beard is not super-gross as well as losing weight, I have come to respect myself more, be more accepting of my looks, take better care of my body in many ways, and overall have a better outlook on who I am.

I know it is not the desired look for many. I know many stigmas say a faithful, well-put-together, non-serial killer man should not have a beard. I know I am not a member of Z Z Top or Duck Dynasty. All I know is that my life has really improved recently, and my decision to better myself just so a beard looked better on my face really spawned all that.

So the beard grows on. I am unsure of its future once it achieves its Yeard status, but all indicators point towards a long and fluffy life.