Back in high school, I used to work at a Blockbuster Video up in Columbia, MD. I think I started there in my junior year, and worked through until my first semester of college. Back then, I could go, literally, two weeks without shaving and to notice I had any facial hair, you would literally have to stop and seriously examine my face. It came in very light, and quantity wasn’t its strong suit. Meanwhile, I worked with a guy a year or two older than me who could literally grow a noticeable beard in about a day. I remember remarking to him once that I was a little jealous of his ability to grow facial hair, and he remarked that he spent a small fortune on razor blades.

Flash forward a decade. For some reason, a bunch of guys in my office started growing beards. I think it would be more fair to say they got tired of shaving. That’s pretty much what did me in — after a week of not shaving, I noticed that I could actually tell I hadn’t shaved for awhile. So I figured, why don’t I grow this sucker out for a couple of weeks and see where it gets me?

I honestly can’t remember when I stopped shaving. I know I had somewhat noticeable facial hair by my first DC blogger happy hour, back in late November, so I can assume it was sometime before then. I’ve already decided I’m going to keep it until the end of February. Although I’ve already made public my decision to cut my face free … the truth is, I like having a beard. First, I think it gets rid of my “baby face.” Second, coupling a beard with a shaved head apparently makes me look like a bad-ass, and, despite my earlier post, I’m sort of getting a kick out of people thinking I’m some sort of bad-ass.

The beard takes a little getting used to. Sometimes I jump when I feel the hairs touch my upper lip: is that a spider? Oh, no, it’s just my beard! I’m constantly paranoid that my chin hairs are soaked in visible hot chocolate or crumbs, and that I didn’t get all the snot out of the hairs over my lip from my last sneeze. On the other hand, at 6am, trudging down Connecticut Avenue, my face is fairly damn warm.

One of the guys I work with at the Office told me I looked horrible with a beard and I should shave it. I was downstairs in the cafe with one of our account managers at the time, and I turned to her for a second opinion. She said she liked it, and although I don’t know that I believed her, if a cute girl tells me she likes something about me, I’m likely to keep it. And as time progresses, I think she was telling the truth: I posted a new profile photo of myself to Facebook, and several of the comments (all ladies), have said something to the effect of “Woah, good looking beard!” Another coworker told me she liked my bearded-face, shaved head combination.

I was, though, surprised by comments I began to receive as my facial grew longer and darker: people commented on how red my beard is. On one hand, I shouldn’t be surprised: my hair color has tended to change over my life, I was born blond, then went very dark, then came out with nice brown hair. My sister was a red head when we were in high school, but she’s now a brunette (no, she doesn’t dye it). However, when I look in a mirror, or a photograph, I don’t see myself as having a red beard (admittedly, we’re talking reddish-brown here, not flaming Irish orange), but I wonder if that’s because I perceive myself as being brown-haired, so I expect that to be my beard color and see that reflected.