M. Christopher Schweizer

Bearded since: 1999. My senior year of High School, I transferred from a private school with strict shaving rules to a public one, and thus began growing a dark, if somewhat patchy, beard. Perhaps it is merely a course of age, but I find that with each clean shave, the beard grows in the next time fuller and more luxurious, and as such I shave about six months out of the year, thus classifying myself as a seasonal beard grower.

Comments:
I grew my beard because, with the exception of a necessary shaving for a part in an opera in '82, my father has maintained one since my birth. Likewise my grandfather had one, and many of my father's friends. It seemed only natural for a man to have a beard, and thus when I was capable I began doing so.

I love it, especially when the extremities grow long enough to twist, groom, and shape. I've noticed that on particularly cold days when I was in school, the frost from my breath would take form as ice on the beard, giving me a pioneering look that I found quite captivating. Also, it keeps one's lips from ever chapping. You may notice a slight dip in the bottom - there is a great deal of scar tissue on my chin as a result of a variety of occasions, and as such there are two or three places where hair simply will not grow.