This photo was taken today. My mane has quit growing (reached terminal) but so far my beard just keeps on growing! It now reaches down almost as far as my mane does, if I don't pull down on the curls of the mane.
Bill
looking good there!
that is a very nice beard you have there
hope you keep it growing.
btw.why not post a pic of your
beard at the beard comunity too
there are lots who like long hair and long beards too
How many people are in each group, how active is the group, and how might their focus differ? Also, does it make you register? That's generally a turnoff.
Bill
the beard comunity is the most active
of the ones you listed.
any of them you have to register
buy why should that be such a turn off
after all you need to be registered here.
I have posted a lot at the beard comunity
and yes you can post photos there too.
No you don't. Guys can be in the users' directory here IF THEY WANT, but nobody makes them.
The turnoff about registration to me is mainly when a group is part of the system of a big outfit rather than being independent like MLHH is. You never know what the big outfit will do with the information.
With there being several groups, I was wondering what the DIFFERENCE was. I probably wouldn't get involved with several.
Maybe Oren will know? He mentioned beard groups to me once.
Bill
ok I thought you did have to be registered here
my mistake.
the beard comunity is independently run by
Russ McCLay, the beard board is independently
run by Jeff Falberg and the other one I am not
sure if it is independently run or not.
there are also some yahoo groups for beards too.
I will send you an e-mail with more info.
Got it! Thanks.
I doubt I'll be heavily involved in a beards site. I never got the heavy discrimination trip laid on me over the beard like I did over long hair, and as far as beard care goes, it's just long hair, and I've learned about caring for that here.
My reading at the beards sites also leaves me with the impression that "having a beard" does not carry all the cultural significance that "having long hair" does. I did not sense the strong camaraderie and common-ness of life outlook and interests there that one sees among longhairs.
Bill
GREAT pic, Bill!
--Rick
Wow, your beard is really thick! It looks great with the hair.
Hi Bill,
Your beard is looking A-one, SUPERB there! It is INCREDIBLY thick, it looks as though you could grow it a LOT longer if you wanted to.
Keep it growing,
David
I'm hoping so! It will be fun to see just what it will do!
Bill
Oh man, I knew that your beard was different from your previous avatar, but I wasn't expecting that much of a change! Both the hair and the beard are looking awesome!!! Keep it growing
-Mihnea
Simply fantastic!
Hi Bill,
That is one mighty beard, it really suits you.
Neil
...overall, it's a nice balance of textures and colors. Looks great!
Nice to hear that from our resident artist!
The artist in my case has been Mother Nature. She often does great things as a man ages and his hair shifts colors! I must have a dozen different combinations of colors and textures in my beard and mane, and a human's duplicating what is there would not be easy.
Bill
Awesome beard. I think it suits you well.
Looks fantastic, Bill!
- Oren
the beard is looking magnificent Bill!!are you gonna go terminal on it?
hm..I wonder if there's such a thing as bedbeard (lol!!)
My thoughts for now are, "Yes!"
Actually, I as discovered yesterday morning, there is. I had slept on it in a way that the right side, under my ear, stuck straight out! I tamed it with repetitive combing.
I also got my first really tough tangle that morning.
The beard is now at a length where it is starting to act like long hair. I have to comb it. It shifts due to gravity if I tilt my head. It moves in the wind!
Bill
.....It's Gandalf !!
I dont think I could me more excited for you!!!!! Looks great. Its kind of funny how every so often a plan runs amuck and so much more comes from it.
A PLUS!!!!
peace
clayton
Bill, your beard looks great. I sure wish mine had such straight hair. Mine can be a real pain in the tukus due to all of those nappy curls and severe tangling and breakage.
I am visualizing how your beard will look in a year. It will look fantastic. Keep growing it for sure. While you are at it, you might consider growing it to terminal length.
Just super.
Long hair forever.
Absalom
Until about a year ago my beard was very kinky, and this kept it from looking like anything decent if I grew it out much. When it got really gray, it got much straighter! My mane is also getting much straighter; looking at the top of it shows a very different texture from what is seen on two year old growth near my strands' ends.
Interestingly, my mane is also much thicker now up top.
I don't know how all these changes in thickness, coarseness, and waviness will translate when it comes to terminal lengths.
There's also the wild interplay of colors to enjoy, that I am getting at this stage in my life.
That is my plan! But I'll have to see how it goes. It's an adventure! One fun thing about adventures is one never knows for sure where they will lead.
Bill
I noticed this right away in the pic. Your mane is looking awesome! I wonder what caused the thickening...
I don't know. Ditto for the cause of my hair's getting straighter in the last year or so. I've had other times in my life that my hair has changed. Until age 4 it was blond and curly. Then through my early 20s it was black and straight. Then it got black and curly. Next it shifted to being more brown and spiraled, and then that began to gray.
Note how much curlier my beard was two years ago (photo above) than it is now. I didn't care much for its being so curly, and that is why I trimmed it back. When I realized it was growing much straighter now, that is when I decided to let it grow out again.
Bill
And I had the fine priviledge of having just seen that magnificent beard in-person just 2 days ago, --- and will vouch for the fact that it is just as gorgeous in real-life as it is in this pic!!!!
It will be fun to see how long your beard gets, Bill... Reminds me of when I was a summer camp councelor when in my teens, there was a camp song we used to sing, with the lyrics going like this:
"When Granpa goes in swimming, no bathing suit he wears,
"He wraps his whiskers 'round him, and then he goes in bare!
"Oh, they're always in the way,
"The cows eat them for hay,
"They hide the dirt on Grandpa's shirt,
"They're always in the way, --- hey!"
- Ken (down the street from Bill's house)
Wow Bill............is that EVER impressive!!!!!!!!!!
And, it looks GREAT and goes with you perfectly! :-)
Justin~
Thanks for the great comments, guys!
Here are some stats....
My age, 60.
Last time I trimmed the beard, May 2006. It was about an inch long when I had finished trimming.
Last time I shaved, 1977.
Last time I shaved my upper lip (age of the mustache), 1970.
Do I shave to shape the beard around the edges? No. My beard tends to just grow where I want it to. (I read once that only one bearded man in sixteen can say that.)
Do I still have my razor? Yes. I take the blade out of it once in a while to do something like scrape a sticker off the car's windshield. Could I still buy replacement blades for it? I have no idea. It is thirty years old.
Bill
The younger guys ask this question of us with thick beards a lot....
Age at which my beard grew in really thick: 14!
Bill
Wow, what a beard! Goes real well with the hair. I like the length of the hair too. The Terminal Gods did well!
Vince
That's one cool beard for sure. Hope it keeps on growing. it looks like it will since there is no thinning toward the ends.
Great looking Mane+Beard, Bill. Are you positive your hair has reached terminal?
It hasn't changed its length in several years, so I'd say "yeah". Actually it's lost a few inches. Happens as you age.
With the change in my mane from curly to straight hair, though, who knows what that will do to terminal length. Time will tell....
Bill
Hi again, Bill,
I also noticed your hair (mane) is getting straighter and your comments about your hair changing texture. That would be awesome if a side effect of that is an increase in terminal length for you. I remember reading in your "On being a longhair" that straight hair tends to grow longer, hopefully that will translate to an increase in terminal length for you.
All the best,
David
Yes, that would be awesome if it happens! I just wrote a note to you in a thread further up how my wavy and curly hair has been a bit frizzy at its ends. That is generally much less of a problem with straight hair. Straight hair also gets further from the roots and just "looks longer"! Besides actually growing longer, too.
I now have a bit over a year of straight mane growth. My beard changed at the same time; you can see it by comparing the two photos I recently posted. The one I took the other day (I was not wearing a bandanna in that one) versus the one taken sitting in flowers at Death Valley two springs ago, show the difference. In the older one my beard is very wiry; in the later one my beard is quite straight!
Note, of course, that I trimmed my beard off right after that, so all the beard hair seen now has grown since then. That is not the case with my mane; to see it's "new growth" you have to look at the upper part of my head. The "old growth" is still at the ends of my mane's strands.
Bill
Two years ago:
Also two years ago:
And this one is two years old, too:
While this last one was taken a few days ago:
Bill
Yes, I have to agree, Bill, everything is looking GREAT! I did notice that the straightness in your mane is in the upper portion, it would be awesome if your hair continued to grow in straight. Your mane also appears thicker and shinier in the upper portions. I am positive your terminal length will increase if all your curly hair is eventually replaced with straight hair, let's stay tuned!
David