Facial decoration

Of the natural kind, that is: beards and mustaches. This over at Lawdog made me think of some history.

I had a beard for several years. Partly just because I could, partly because I started growing it in winter(nothing seemed to keep my face from chapping after shaving back then) and partly because once there, I got used to it.

Had it before my first divorce(I still hate using that term), and for a few years after. Bought a little battery-powered trimmer to keep it neat and got along quite well. Couple of things finally made me reevaluate:
As Peter Capstick wrote, my hair was not turning majestically silver at the temples like Stewart Granger: it was just turning grey and falling out. And the beard had more grey than my hair.
My trimmer was about to die.
And I had a girlfriend(who in time became My Second Divorce, and even worse term) who said something about how she'd never seen me without it.

I'd had the plague that was going around that late-winter and hadn't seen her for almost a week. I was starting to feel better and that evening I studied my reflection and decided that since I couldn't even remember what I looked like without it, it would go. At least for now.
So out came the clipper, which promptly died. Not batteries, it went tits up about 1/4 of the way through. So I wound up using three disposable razors- all I had- to take it all off. If you've never done this, believe me, even a short beard will clog those things amazingly well; if I'd known where it was right then I'd have dug out the straight razor and used it.

In any case, I finished and used some hand lotion on my face- no after shave- and decided that while there was indeed a difference, I couldn't really call it an improvement, but it was done.

Next day got various comments at work along the usual line of "You shaved!". Called the girlfriend and asked if she was willing to risk being around me that evening, got a yes, and headed over that evening. Knocked on the door, no answer. Door was unlocked, which she'd do if she was on the phone or busy and expecting me so I walked in. Called her name, no answer, so headed one way down the hall and got halfway down when I heard her behind me, on the phone, so turned around.

She was coming down the hall toward me and stopped dead. "I don't BELIEVE it!" Ever seen a dog cock it's head when you do something? She cocked hers, actually leaned to the left a bit to get a different angle and repeated "I don't BELIEVE it!" Which caused whoever she was talking to to ask what the hell she didn't believe. "It's M, he shaved!"

By this time I was feeling like a curiosity in the store window, but got over that. She then said something I heard a bunch of times over the next couple of months: "You look at least ten years younger". Hadn't noticed that myself, but it turned out a lot of people did.

There was one other upside to getting rid of it: for the next few months, I could run into people I'd known for years at fairs & such and start talking to them, and after a few minutes they'd stop looking at me funny and start and say "Oh, it's YOU!"

I've thought about growing one again, but looking at pictures of myself from that time, decided against it. Besides everything else, the damn beard would probably look like it'd been sprayed white nowadays.