Year of the Beard

Year of the Beard

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Year of the Beard

Did you know there is a beard “club” for dudes that have longer, mountain man style beards? Yep, it’s true. 

Dudes with longer beards will give a little nod and slight wink to other dudes with longer beards. It is like motorcycle riders that will give little waves to other motorcycle riders, UPS drivers acknowledging other UPS drivers, or truck drivers nodding to another truck driver. 

You catch my drift.  It’s a shared experience.

There is something about a longer than typical beard that is an automatic ticket into the beard club that you never knew existed until one lets their beard grow long and wild. There is respect in that nod, a rebel giving props to another rebel. Screw being clean shaven!  A push against societal norms. 

Year of the Beard Mini-Experiment

My husband, Scott, quit his corporate job in August 2021. When he quit, he decided to grow a beard. It was more for not having to shave every day for work and a bit of a FU to the corporate way of looking. Scott decided to just let it grow for a year as a mini-experiment and shave it at his 1 year anniversary of quitting his corporate job. 

I wrote about our other mini-experiment, Year of the Snow Globe, to help us shake things up a little bit as we navigate our Post FI Life.

So the Year of the Beard begins

Well the first few months were your normal beard growth and nothing out of the ordinary. But then his curly and pretty gray beard was really taking a life of its own.  He was getting into the mountain man look by the Fall and had officially joined the Beard Club. 

Scott began to get the nods from other dudes with long and/or scruffy beards. We were walking through the airport on one of our trips to Colorado and a dude with a long red beard walked by Scott and did a full on head nod, paying homage to Scott’s now pretty full and wild beard. 

This became a thing. 

Pretty frequently, Scott would get props from total strangers on his beard growth. By Christmas, Scott could have picked up a side hustle playing Santa with legit whiskers that even Kris Kringle would have been jealous of!

So the months went on and the beard kept growing & growing & growing & growing. Scott has now officially hit his 1 year anniversary of quitting corporate life and I wanted to have a little fun!

The first photo below is just days after quitting and Scott wanted to go our to IHOP to celebrate. A Mr. Money Mustache t-shirt was fitting for this day. Thanks Pete!

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Beard Trimming Variations

The Year of the Beard draws to a close and on his 1 year anniversary, Scott was ready to shave the beard and was game for me to have a little fun in the process. I spent the last month trying to decide how we were going to trim it. I really wanted to see mutton chops and a mustache was a must!

Side note: Years ago, Scott grew a few month old beard and then shaved it to a goatee and then a mustache. I just about peed my pants with laughter when I saw him with just a cop mustache! He is so square! Such a look! 

So we wanted to recreate that cop mustache look as well, so I had to be very strategic with how I was going to trim the beard down so we could end with the mustache. 

Check out the little video I created to capture the final trim and the fun we had along the way.

Moral of the Story

If you want to be in the Beard Club, you will need to be dedicated to your craft. You will need to be patient, you will need to really let your whiskers develop and build character. You will need to give nods to other dudes with long and wild beards, as they are as dedicated to their beard as you are. 

Oh, and have a wife that is super patient and doesn’t give a rat’s ass what you do to your facial hair! Just have fun people, it’s only hair. 

PS

Congratulations Scott on your 1st year of Post FI Life! It has been a wonderful year together and glad you decided to take the leap. You seem more relaxed, rested and ready for next stage of life. Love you!

PSS

Another video clip on Scott’s 1 year anniversary about asking better questions.

Jen

Jen

I started this blog to journal about my Post FI Life and help me process my transition from working in Corporate America for almost 30 years. I am on a journey to find happiness, joy and fulfillment. And to have a little fun along the way.

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5 Responses

  4. Hi Jennifer! Had some time to read some of your blogs! Loved the video of the beard removal. You’re very talented with the shears!

    Reply

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