new thread
Above is a photo taken of me just three weeks ago. I last trimmed my beard in May 2006, when it had length representing about two months of growth.
Bill
What a wonderful photo of you Bill and the beard looks terrific! Hmmmmm............wonder if little kids will think that you are Santa around Xmas time? You surely look kindly enough. Oh wait..........Santa was a bit overweight. Guess it won't work with you unless you go on a strict diet of Cakes, Pies and Candy and Soda Pop by the gallon! LOL :-)
I used to get Santa comments in December just because my beard was white, but I bet I really get them this year!
Bill
That is one lovely beard Bill. It sure grew fast. It is so thick and full. Keep growing it for sure.
Scott
Thanks! Hey, we'll have to compare beards next time we are together.
Bill
Hi Bill,
What an outstanding beard, so thick and full! You are also one of the rare individuals who are blessed with straight beard hair as well. As you know, you were the one who encouraged me to grow a beard in the first place! (I am still maintaining it at around an inch or so, however)
Take care,
David
Your beard looks great on you, David!
Until about two years ago my beard was very kinky, and I could not grow it more than about two inches long without getting incredible knots and tangles in it. It then was completely uncombable. Then about two years ago it suddenly began to grow more straight, and my mane did, too. (The lower parts of my mane are still curly.) When I saw the beard was growing straighter, I said to myself, "Cool! I can grow it longer now!" The pic above was taken in March 2005, when I last tried to grow it out and found it to be much too kinky. Soon after that pic was taken, I cut it back to about an inch in length, where it remained until May 2006, when I started my present growth endeavor.
Bill
Hi Bill,
Thank you for your kind words about my beard, and I assume you have already seen my 43 month update which is just above your beard photo.
Keep it growing,
David
Way to go, Bill! Did you bring enough beard for the rest of the class?
ROFL!
My partner probably sweeps up enough off the floor in case anyone is interested. [grin]
Bill
I always love your updates Bill, you are the archetypal hippie to me and you always seem to select the most beautiful surroundings for your pictures. Your hair and beard are as always superb.
Regards Dave
Thanks, Dave. Hey, one must celebrate where he is, and celebrate what he has. There's a lot of beauty all around us if we'd just look. It's a real waste to pine for somewhere you aren't at, or to wish you were like somebody else. Just celebrate what is around you and beauty will flow!
In a recent article here they surveyed teenagers about their feelings about Yosemite, and one said he didn't like it because there was no cell service and he could not text message with his friends. Can you imagine! Yosemite is one of the most beautiful places on this planet.
Bill
Yep, I'm with you Bill, you know one of my favourite things to do is go into woods and make a fire and cook food and make a pot of tea. Mobile phones are the scourge of our society, people have forgotten how to converse and enjoy each other.
Gorgeous new beard and hair pic, Bill. Aaand, you always seem to find the most amazing flower specimens to pose near, too!
Best for horticultural and longhair'd camaraderie,
Quenyan
Hey, they don't call that place "The Magic Kingdom" for nothing! There are a lot of trippy scenes at Disneyland.
Bill
So it only took you 20 months to grow that beard? wow thats fast :o.
My beard seems to grow at the same rate as my mane does - a bit less than half an inch a month. My beard now has lots of strands that are 8 inches long and some are 10 inches long.
Bill
Beautiful backdown for your fantastic beard Bill!
Bruce
...I meant "backdrop"! I guess my brain was still in the off position this morn!
Bruce
Yeah, the vibrant color in those flowers was awesome, and what longhaired freak does not love flowers!
Bill
Wow your beard is longer than your hair in front now Bill. That two color look with the beard contrasting the hair is really cool, and the grey and green you are wearing look great with the whole look. Nice contrast to the psychedelic colors which also look fantastic too Bill.
Nice photo location to, the flowers are really colorful :)
Larry takes great shots!
He took that photo at Disneyland. Earlier in the day a passing band's members were tossing out Mardi-Gras beads, and I caught those green ones. Then when we had lunch the cashier gave me that pendant that had a guy with long hair and a long beard on it. Perfect! I put the pendant on the necklace and put it around my neck. That the necklace matched my bandanna was happenstance!
Bill
Hi Bill
Very nice pic of you sporting an awesome beard and the backdrop adds nice colour.I have to admit you look great and relaxed as well.Whoever took the pic caught a nice shot of you.Anyway very cool beard progress pic and thanks for posting it.Mark
Thanks, Mark. Great pictures often "just happen", and this one struck a chord with me as one to share, so I figured it was time for an update. [grin]
Bill
Now that's a beard and to think you're nowhere near terminal yet.
Look forward to your next beard update, how fast is it growing?
I always wondered does facial hair grow at the same rate as the hair on our heads. It would seem it grows faster.
Kevin
I'm not sure if it is approaching terminal or not. It is thinning out some at the bottom but certainly not to a tapered point. My guess is that all strands do not grow at exactly the same rate and that is perhaps why the beard no longer ends abruptly. Click on my avatar to my home page where you'll see my beard seven months ago - then it still was almost all the same length.
If in the next few months I don't see much more growth, then I'll know I've reached terminal.
Bill
Looks great, Bill! Also looks like your hair is a bit longer!
I don't know, that pose reminds me of Charles Barkley for some reason . . . . . . . .
I don't think it is longer, but it is certainly thicker! I'm getting over some health problems that likely caused my hair to grow thinner before.
Hey, I've got a lot more beard than I did back then!
Bill
Fantastic Bill !!
I love the colour !(of course, I guess "White" Tail would say that...HUH!?) HA!
Thanks for Sharing
WWT
White hair rocks! At the moment, with the very white long beard and the still somewhat dark long mane, I get to have lots of white hair and lots of darker hair, too! (Walter, that situation WON'T last. [grin] )
Bill
Thats one amazingly long beard dude. I'm jealous.
-animosity
Hey, it's cool to have younger guys envying how I look, what with my turning 61 this week! I get that quite a bit now that I have my long beard, and that's awesome!
Thanks,
Bill
Lol your not far of Leland Sklar, hes the king of beards atm i think xp
Not on ly the king of beards, but an extremely good bassist.
Bill, as always looking stunning.
peace
clayton
VERY cool pic of you here, Bill, --- you look like some famous person... in fact, to me you look just like that very dignified and handsome bearded longhair, BILL CHOISSER (lol)!!!
Your beard is really looking amazing there. I'm jealous. I just don't think I look all that good in a long beard, --- either that, or maybe it's just the old "Santa" thing (lol)!!
And please tell Larry that he did a fantastic job behind the camera lense!
- Ken
Not all little kids notice the girth thing, so I have in the past gotten Santa comments. I just love it when the little kid's eyes light up and he begins to either approach me, or raise his hand towards me if he is in his parent's arms, and THEN, the parent notices! Their usual reaction is to mutter "no no" or to pull the kid away.
I had one kid a couple of years ago who was old enough to ASK me if I was Santa Claus. He was with his dad. I said, "no", but in retrospect, I should have said, "Yes, I am, and you've been so good this year that you will get every present you want!" (and watch Dad drop dead on the spot....)
It was his first test of cropping with a new photo program called GIMP, that we got for our new Macs. He e-mailed that photo to me and I said, "Hey, that's a good picture you took! I'll have to share it with the MLHH crowd!"
We are loving the Macs, by the way! The two 7-year-old PCs are definitely headed for the basement (where 30 years worth of other worthless computers are now gathering dust).
Bill
Apple rule Bill, I've been using them since day one in the mid eighties I guess, mainly for graphic design, but nowadays they are so user friendly and cuddly that everyone should own one, kids should learn on them they are wonderful (and thats saying something as I am not a computer nerd).
When I was a teenager I took my motorcycle apart and put it back together, and I was that way with my earlier computers. Now cars are more sophisticated and I just take the Honda to the Honda dealer. Over the past thirty years, computers have gotten that way, and truthfully, I had lost interest in the continual manipulation of hardware and software that it takes to keep a Windows system up and running. I wanted a beautiful computer that just worked, and I have gotten that in the Mac. And if it does break, Apple is a local company and they have a local store, where I will take it to get it fixed.
Bill
You know Bill, I have a G3, a G4, a G5, a MacPro, and a MacBook, and they all still work (ok the MP and MB are less than a year old), but the G3 is maybe 9-10 yrs old, and I can count the times that thing has crashed on me on one hand. Its still relevant today and I could still work it hard if I wanted to. I just hope they don't become complacent and lose that quality.
A photographer mate of mine dropped his MacBook Pro down a flight of stairs, he flipped open the screen/cover and kazam! it worked!!
You're quite right, they ARE enjoyable to use - who would have thought that a computer could be enjoyable!!
~ Dave
Wow, I like!
I hope you keep on growing it just to see how long it'll get. The flowers in the background are beautiful too. But, I have to ask how many "Jerry Garcia" comments your getting these days?!?!? ;-))
Jerry Garcia was a local, so I did get a lot before he died. They tapered off to "almost never" after about a year after his death. The most comments since his death have been "Willie Nelson" ones, especially when I am wearing a red bandanna. I got a Willie comment on the street last night. I thought I'd see those taper off when my beard got long since Willie does not have a long beard, but the beard does not seem to have mattered any. Very occasionally I'll get a ZZ Top comment now.
Other comments are just general hippie comments, or general ones about the Grateful Dead. I did get a new one just an hour after that photo of me with the flowers was posted, though. An Australian couple from Perth asked if they could take a photo of themselves with Larry and me because "they never see hillbillies in Australia"!
Oh, and I had a new experience last week - a "drive-by photo shoot". Some guy was clicking away at me from a passing truck, I kid you not.
Some people would be bothered by all that, I suppose, but I enjoy being a unique looking dude, and I'm generally cool with it. When people bother to take your picture, it is most often because they LIKE you!
Bill
Wicked beard, Bill! I've always liked your hippy look, keep them both growing :D
Cool you like my look!
As for growing, the mane has not been trimmed in ten years, so it's definitely terminal. Its longest strand is about 20 inches (50 centimeters) long with lots of strands in the 15-inch (37 cm) range. The beard's longest strands are about 10 inches (25 cm) long, with many strands at 8 inches (20 cm). If my beard grows to be as long as my mane, it could double its current length! However, my guess is that beards do not always grow as long as manes do - quite a few longhairs I've met have told me all they could get for a beard is one to three inches. So I will have to wait for time to tell. And I won't trim anything, so I WILL find out how long my beard will grow!
Bill
Nice. I'm going to nominate you for "World's Calmest Dude".
I'm curious: does beard hair grow the same speed as head hair?
I've mellowed out as I've aged. That is partly due to having less crap thrown at me all day long (after having retired), but it's largely due to learning to not let little things bother you. You can't decide one day to just be like that. It's something one achieves after practicing it for several years.
In my case it seems to have. Surveys taken with one respondent though may be unreliable. [grin]
Bill
Yes but you've got a hundred thousand data points -- more than I'll have when I'm retired!
Most of my beard hairs have grown at about the same rate. After 18 months of no trimming, the strands seem to range mainly between 8 and 10 inches in length. One could therefore say my average growth was 8 inches since I started out with one inch evenly trimmed and ended up with an average of 9 inches. Eight inches plus or minus an inch represents a 12.5% deviation from the mean. That's not a lot, so one could say the growth rate of all of the beard hairs is "about the same".
What differs is terminal length. Hairs rooted on my cheeks only grow to a length of about three inches. Those rooted under my chin achieve the lengths mentioned in the previous paragraph. I was not aware of the shorter terminal length of cheek hair at first, because all the beard hairs grew at the same rate. This difference became apparent once my under-the-chin hair grew a lot longer than the terminal length of the cheek hair.
Bill
Bill, I gotta say that beard is certainly looking impressive.
I just love your expression in this photo. To me it's one of 'this is me and I'm confident in my look'.
Thanks, Jason. Confidence in a look comes from having it a long time. Like your hair, it has to grow on ya. [grin]
Bill
The beard is lookin' great Bill. You're looking good yourself too. Looks like you put off some weight. You look alot slimmer now.
My weight has been up and down. For a few years I was heavier than now because I wanted to be beefier for backpacking. I dropped it back to the vicinity of my current weight when my interest turned to going fast and light. Then last year during an illness I lost 25 pounds more and I was pretty scrawny. I've now put that weight back on, and I'm at about what I want to be.
Despite the adage that one can never be too thin, during the illness I discovered one can be. I was so thin that I was weak, I was not so able to fight off the illness, and I was so bony I could not sit on hard surfaces. I emerged from that experience with a desire to be just a few pounds more than what people might see as ideal, because a few extra pounds in the bank can be beneficial if another situation should come up where you lose a lot. My weight over the time I've been on the Hyperboard has ranged from 157 to 202. I probably look my best at 175, a weight at which I am no longer bony. I was 182 this morning.
Bill
I'm generally not one for facial hair, but that definitely suits you so well, Bill! Very impressive and cool. Stay well! =)
-James
Thanks!
As for the facial hair, I certainly don't get the "you look like a girl" comments that some longhairs get! But that is not the reason I have it, of course. A man who has fully grown up isn't going to fashion his own looks to please bigots. I just like the look.
Bill
dude continue to let that beard grow! I cant wait for all my facial hair to grow in
My beard came in very full at age 14, but I know some guys who have gone from "nearly nothing" to "very full" in about a year at age 26. Guys talk about their terminal length and baldness patterns for their manes a lot, but these things actually vary a lot more with beards. What one gets for his mane and beard may not correlate either. If I make a beard ponytail at my chin, it is thicker than a ponytail made at the back of my neck with my mane. My mane's terminal length and thickness are not stellar. When the hair growth cards were dealt, I got middling cards for my mane, but great ones for my beard!
I don't know how long the beard will grow. It already comes down as far as my mane does, although my mane hairs are longer because they are rooted higher up. My beard is already so long that I have to comb it along with my mane, or it will look really messy. I even get "bed beard" just as others complain about "bed hair". Most guys with facial hair don't think much about hair care for it or about having to comb it. They mostly ignore it and think of just their mane as "their hair". I see both my mane and beard as "my hair" now, because it all just grows together, and I have to care for it and comb it all together.
Bill
I could use one of those right abuot now in Minnesota. Brrrr!!!
Looks great Bill!
Mouse
Thanks! It does keep one warm! I find all my hair gives me the same benefit as about one layer of clothes. All hiking books warn that one loses a lot of heat from one's head, and my head is well-insulated!
Here in San Francisco daily highs are mostly in the sixties all year round, so I seldom have to go out with a coat in the daytime. Before I grew out the hair, I had to wear a coat constantly, so having the mass of hair I have definitely is convenient. I might not feel the same way about it if I lived in Arizona.
I've had my mane and beard in various configurations over the years, and I must say that to get substantial protection from the cold you need both long hair and a thick beard - the beard really kicks in as an insulator at about two inches in length. Sorry, Mouse, about that "genetic defect" - the one where you got two X chromosomes! [wink] Women can usually grow thicker manes than guys can, though, so just grow it long and on cold days wrap it around your neck!
Bill
You have the appearance of a true patriarch!
Loren, you're about as old as I am, but why the hell don't you look it!
Bill (gray with antiquity and green with envy!)
Actually, I am a few years older than you, Bill! I guess we are each blessed differently. Must be the genes. I will never be able to have a lovely, full beard like you--and thus can never appear to the world as a prophet or reincarnation of Moses. I'm just stuck with some measly chin whiskers like Ho Chi Minh! Life is short and fragile enough as it is. Together, let us enjoy!
I just realized I have known you for about 20 years, far longer than anyone else on the board. Hey, we go back a ways! But what is maddening is you don't look a day older than the day we met. [grin]
Bill
I guess it must be exposure to all that RF that comes from operating ham radios!
Hey Bill, Awesome beard...you are now on my "hair heroes list!"
Big cheers,
Max
Thanks! Yeah, even I was shocked at how thick it came in as.
Bill
Cool
Bill
Love your picture I dont really care if you grow your beard right down to the floor as you will be the same person ive come to respect & admire all the the time ive been coming here
Axel