No-Shave November beard is deliberate

Published 11:27am Friday, November 16, 2012
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I’m not being lazy – that patchy quilt on my face is quite deliberate.

Ever since I was 18, I have wanted to grow a beard. I have tried, and failed, almost every year.

I keep telling myself, this is going to be the year.

This time, it’s going to be full and warm and cozy.

But it seems year after year, I hit three weeks of intermittent growth and give up.

Usually I start around the first of November.

You know how every month is a celebration, prevention or awareness month for something?

For my friends and I, the eleventh month of every year is No-Shave November.

I got a late start this year, however.

After shaving on Nov. 4, I came into work that next Monday only to see my sport’s editor, J.D. Cowart, was already a week or two away from a Grizzly Adams face sweater.

An hour or so later, our publisher Kenneth Boone walked by my desk, and he too had the makings of a respectable set of whiskers.

With two of the three males in the newsroom all exercising their right to a warmer set of cheeks, I decided to jump on the beard bandwagon.

If this was a competition, I am admittedly the Auburn Tigers of this facial hair face-off.

Although J.D. is younger than me, he can grow a better beard in four days than I can in four weeks. I am pretty sure J.D. started shaving in the seventh grade.

As for Mr. Boone, he has a few years of experience on me. He’s been growing a winter beard since before I even had a full head of hair.

So I don’t expect to best my coworkers in a battle of the beards, but I am at least hoping for a better performance than last year.

Only time will tell.

Nelson is news editor for The Outlook.

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