The Economic Recovery

Yesterday saw the end of the Recession as consumer confidence and business investment recovered to previous levels. In other words, I shaved.

Mustache week is upon us! It's the most wonderful time of the year! The recession didn't leave much symmetry for mustache creation, so the first installment of the week will be the Half-Horseshoe. For the purposes of brevity, I'm renaming this style the Halfshoe. The mustache week schedule is as follows...

The Halfshoe/The Chevron/The GG

As usual, here are before and after pics of my most recent shaving experience.















Stay tuned for mustache week pics, comments and shenanigans.

The Stubbly Recession

It's amazing how easy it is to become accustomed to asymmetrical facial hair. After a few days, I forgot that there was a graph of the falling stock market on my face. Of course, there's also plenty of stubble coming in, making the Recession less obvious.

Earlier today, I shaved. The Recession is once again clean for its final day of this week. Tomorrow night, mustache week begins!

Is that the stock market falling?

The Recession has been shaved into the face of history (mine). I know you're all waiting for pics, so here they are. Prepare for asymmetry!

And now the profile views...

These pictures make it look like I'm seeking something.

This style was shaved, with EXPERT accuracy on Tuesday night solo by me. The initial reactions I received at work were surprising. In my first meeting of the day, the 3 people who could see me straight on were smiling as I talked. The people on either side of me only saw one side of the beard and didn't notice the change. Very few people at all noticed the change immediately.

Though others may not notice it, this is easily the most conscious I've been of my own beard. It's also the first time in a while that my left sideburn hasn't reached past the bottom of my ear.

The reign of the Recession has begun. Stay tuned for more updates to come.

Pre-Recession

The evening air is chilly but still. There's a certain electricity in the air. It appears to be making my hair stand on end. The Recession is coming, it will soon be shaved upon my face. Until then, here is a picture of the current state of my beard. The Modified Artist has fallen into disrepair since my illness came and went.

Be warned, asymmetry (and likely hilarity) are about to ensue.

Beard Pause/Blog Pause...But now it's back!

This week has seen a distinct lack of updates on the beard blog. Sadly, soon after the modified artist was shaved into my face (AND HISTORY), I caught a nasty case of strep throat, from which I'm still recovering. Certain things fell by the wayside. Sorry to say, this blog was one of them. Here is my reasoning for the lapse.

When an illness is severe enough that things like brushing your teeth, heating up soup in the microwave and inserting a DVD (not into the VCR!) take a significant amount of mental and physical energy, blogging and shaving seem like looming, Herculean tasks, akin to summiting a mountain.

If you're still here, thank you for holding on. You're in for a treat. Tonight is the weekly ritualistic massacre of facial hair and we all know what's coming next (if you don't, check out this post, it's a schedule).

Erik, a participant in the beard summit texted me earlier...

"What's that I hear? Is that the stock market coming down today?"

Asymmetry is on the way. Pictures tomorrow.