Firstly, I take no credit for this blog, my beloved BBC started the idea with an interesting article the other day about men in uniform and being clean-shaven (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12740975), but it got me thinking.
(Incidentally, the chap in the article should get off his ‘yuman rites’ horse and accept the rules if he wants to join. Silly idiot, I really hope he loses his court case)
I hate shaving, but have always done so due to my job and general upbringing and most recently as my cherished wife hates the feeling of bristles as I peck her on the cheek and variations thereof.
I have to say though, if I can get away with it on my days off I try to not shave as apart from the time it takes, my skin is still sensitive even at my great age.
Beards do seem to be making a come back, the 70’s and early 80’s seemed to be the last heyday – many sporting and fashionable wannabes have been supporting beards of the very bushy variety recently – especially amongst Super 15 rugby players. I have noticed with great amusement the last few years of “Movember”, where moustaches are grown for charity in the month of November.
Alas, I would love to partake for the right charity, but despite needing to shave every day, I can’t grow any facial hair sufficiently enough to qualify as a beard or moustache! I’m just not hairy enough!
So, fellow charioteers, what does facial hair say about a gentleman these days? Is it just a fashion, a fad, a religious statement, an image? Does it suit some and not others? Do you still wonder ‘what’s he got to hide?’, and then, linking into the BBC article above, should men in uniform be forced to shave?
I say yes, but that is not surprising as I have to as I mentioned earlier. Am I a dinosaur? Modern Western Society certainly couldn’t impose an equivalent on women…or does it?
I’d have to say in conclusion to my own thoughts, beards are fine, I just don’t like them when they signify a religious symbol, but that’s just me! But I would like one just for a day….. 😀
Boadicea's Chariot 
You will be suprised perhaps to hear that at least fifteen years ago the General commanding the Oman Royal Guard Brigade had a bunch of the wispy beard battalion marched off to the camp barber for a very short back, front, and sides, after a strongly worded lecture on dress and appearance codes – not the place to go all fundamentalist – no short pantaloons here, my boys, or words to that effect! Moustaches are almost de rigeur in the Arab World and used to be, particularly in the Sub-Continent, where some of the facial adornment made the owners look like startled rabbits about to fly over a hedge…http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/pimg/ZUMA_Press__Inc_142340/ZUMA_Press_Inc297063/2009/02/10/Moustaches_now_a_rarity_in_India-73805.largeslideshow.jpg
If the rules state clean shaven then that is all there is to it. If you dislike the rule join something else, like the Russian women shot put team.
As for me I have not shaved my top lip since I was 15, the tash has gone through a number of permutations though, from long (Zapata) to well trimmed and just unkempt.
Mine is closest to bottom row, middle, and has been since I was in my early twenties. According to HM Forces and the Plod, beards are acceptable if a) applied for in advance and b) full after two weeks.
OZ
I don’t think the army allow beards OZ. In my day, it was the Pioneer Sergeant who was the only one to allowed grow a full set. Reading elsewhere, it would appear at various times beards have been encouraged in Afghanistan.
Serving in NI, many of my friends doing the sneaky beaky bit grew their hair long and grew beards. As this was in the late 70’s, they stood out like sore thumbs as short hair was more in fashion and other than vagrants, there were not too many beards to be seen on young men.
As for myself, I had a few goes at the moustache but always gave it up as being more trouble than it was worth. I did have a go at growing a beard once leaving the army during the eight week summer vacation. I took it off for the same reasons as the moustache before going back to work……too much trouble, not only that, it puts years on you. 🙂
Nay.
Toc. You actually knew……….them! I’m impressed. 🙂
OZ
Personally I’m partial to a beard…
Looks too woggo these days.
White men with facial hair start looking like ‘fellow travellers’, or , even worse, liberals!
In Brum one is best to cross the streets for fear of the livestock leaping out upon you, mark you, at that rate, one would never set foot on the sidewalk.
http://tinyurl.com/67p5j8m
Pseu; moi aussi. Strange really, since I used to think they were, as Christina puts it, weird and woggo looking.
Goatee beards, in semi-punk-homage to goth way, are the cool modern version, but they always look to me as if the wearer is maybe unable to sprout the full thing.
I am always clean-shaven and refuse to grow a beard. It is quite a bit of work to keep clean and to keep trimmed. If ignored and allowed to grow naturally it looks either like the nether regions or a loony imam.
Beards are good provided, like mine, they are neatly groomed, reasonably short and do not, under any circumstances, join your chest hair.
OZ
He he thank you all! I just hope all with beards make sure they ensure there’s no scraps of food hiding in them – yuk!
I shall stick to clean shaven!