Nate Maingard is a bearded singer-songwriter from South Africa. Nate first appeared on beards.org in 2008 with his first photo submission for the beards of the world gallery. Following that, Nate kept in touch and became a good friend of the site. We corresponded and discussed some of his struggles with staying bearded. Nate would quite successfully grow his impressive full beard. Then, he would get rid of the beard and subsequently come to miss the beard. Nate’s beard would come and go time and again. But in the process he became quite skillful in mastering the art of growing a beard. As a result, Nate became an expert on beard growing, beard styling, and beard grooming in addition to being a talented singer and songwriter. Music, clearly is Nate’s true passion. However, he certainly knows what he’s doing whenever he grows his beard.

With Nate being so far away in South Africa, I never thought it too likely that we would ever meet in person. He’s also lived in London at times. But London, too, is quite distant.

However, Nate has also been a globetrotter, going between South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the USA, among other destinations. During one of his trips to California, we had the opportunity to meet up. This was back in December 2012. We did a photo and video shoot for beards.org. Many of the photos went into Nate’s beard feature. The video footage went into a video series, Nate’s beard story, that was published in 2013. In his beard video series, Nate shares his expertise in dealing with beard-growing doubts, successfully growing the beard, and he gives guidance on beard shaping and more.

While shooting video with Nate, he gave an impromptu, street performance of one of his songs, a ballad titled “Home”. Not originally included in Nate’s beard video series, I’ve recently published Nate’s performance of “Home”. Better late than never, this video provides a perfect ending to Nate’s original beard video series. For a real treat, watch Nate’s performance of “Home” in the embedded video below.

Today, Nate continues making music and growing his beard. The beard may still come and go. But Nate always returns to the beard.

For more on Nate and his music, visit Nate’s website, natemaingard.com.