Thinking about growing a beard? Here is the first thing that you should know about making that decision: forget about whether beards are in fashion or not. Grow a beard because you want to grow a beard, not to follow a trend. If beards seem to be “in fashion”, that’s great. The more popular beards are, the better. Nevertheless, whether they are popular or not, grow your beard because it is what you want to do. That decision should never be dictated by the whims of fashion.
After a much-too-long hiatus, the beards.org documentary beard photography project resumed activity yesterday with another original beard photo shoot. Dale, with his amazing beard growth, kindly agreed to the beard photo shoot. Here are some preview shots from March 20th, 2009.
all about beards made its first appearance on the web on the 17th of January of 1996. The site’s original objective was to promote beards in a positive manner. Thirteen years later, all about beards is the longest-running beard site on the web and the site remains dedicated to its original mission. We have come a long way, but there’s much more in store. With an eye on a bright future, our thirteenth anniversary year promises to be the best yet!
Stand up and cheer for a Happy New Beard Year 2009! Best wishes to all.
When beards go wrong, one of the most common causes is poor shaping. The most common example is defining the neck line too high. What’s the problem with a bad neck line definition? There are many. Depending on the severity of the error, it may make to the beard look just a bit odd or it may make it look like a disaster. In a way, the point of growing a beard is to cover the chin with hair. So why carve out the underside of the chin and jaw, leaving them bare? Why? Perhaps not surprisingly, new beard growers have seen someone else do it and mistakenly conclude that must be the way it’s supposed to be done and emulate the misplaced neck line.
A properly shaped beard with a good neck line can usually hide or disguise a double chin. A poorly-defined neck line, up too high, often does just the opposite: It can accentuate the double chin, often substantially, to the detriment of the beard grower’s appearance.
Defining the neck line too high can give the beard a comical look. And if the error is sufficiently severe, the beard may almost give the owner the look of a permanent clown face. Who wants that? Not even a professional clown.
So please, take care to give your beard the proper shape. You will be glad you did. And if you know someone in need of help, send them here: Designing a neck line for your full beard.
Now what about defining that cheek line? There are pitfalls to be avoided there as well. That will be the subject of an upcoming post.
The original All About BEARDS site: January 17, 1996 — October 31, 2008.
What is today the All About BEARDS site that resides here at beards.org appeared initially at the address http://members.aol.com/beardguy/ on the 17th of January 1996. On the 20th of January of 2005, the all-new All About BEARDS site made its debut at its current www.beards.org address. The old site was hosted on web space allocated to AOL members.
When the updated version of All About BEARDS opened at beards.org, I left the original up as a legacy site with pointers to the current site. Today, AOL shut down all of its members’ sites, including the All About BEARDS legacy site. So I am forced to bid a sentimental, fond farewell to the online presence of the early form of All About BEARDS. Rest assured, however, that All About BEARDS will continue — stronger than ever — at beards.org: building the future by honoring the past.
I also have some housekeeping to do. Actually, I never got completely weaned off of the old site, with a few features still residing there. I have some extra work to do now to migrate those features here.
At the end of June, the galleries hit five million views. Late this evening, the counter clicked over to six million views. I wasn’t at the keyboard when it happened. I missed seeing it by 188 views. So I don’t readily know who was lucky number six million. At five million it was Jason (although it was not this photo — this one does not appear in the galleries at this time):
Click on the photo above to go to Jason’s beard feature.
It’s beard-growing season in the northern hemisphere!
This is just a quick note to let you know a little about what’s going on with the site lately. A series of difficult circumstances arose in the second half of July and still continue today. This has pretty much put the brakes on site development. New features were put on hold and the daily updates to the beards of the world gallery have been held up. Around mid-August, I had only a brief opportunity to resume work on the site. I am hoping now that the work on the site will slowly be coming back up to speed. Thanks for your patience.
And here is another preview photo of Brian:
These are more examples of original beard photography from beards.org. There is much more to come.
