My friend and fellow blogger, called me this afternoon, she said, ‘Hey, I need you to write something in a hurry, we’re running out of content’. I thought ‘ that can’t possibly be true’. As I sat wondering and rubbing my hands through my beard in a manner that drives my wife mad! It came to me, Beards, yes Beards!

How it started.

If you’d have said when I was 21 that I’d have a beard at 50, I would have fallen over in fright. You must be joking – why? how? that must be a mistake! I’m not a beard guy, I shave twice a day and there’s never even the slightest sight of stubble not even when I’m camping!

But it’s true I can vouch to my younger self that I have a beard. I love it, it’s fab, well I think so, and I’m never going to be without it.

It all started with a prod from what was fashionable perhaps 5 years ago. I’d dreamt about having a go, I’d gone a few days before without a shave and thought how dreadful. I’d tried a few times and just couldn’t. I came across a photo of the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman in a magazine and he had one, I thought I can do this too. I think if you’re going to grow one then the obvious time is over the Christmas holiday period. So that is how it started.

The Early days.

As my beard began to become a real beard, I had a stack of questions that needed to be answered. How do I maintain it? do I shampoo it? should I cut it myself? Oh dear the list of questions endless. I did some online research and leant about beard oils, balms and styles. Web content was far and wide, Instagram pages were even dedicated to beards, where did it end?

The most important decision I made in the early days, was that I should never ever cut it myself. Don’t even think about it! How many times had I seen guys with a beard one day and gone the next following some self-grooming gone wrong. I so wanted to avoid this. Afterall, you kind of got used to looking a certain way and the beard to no beard transition can be frightening.

There were times in the early days that I gave up and had to start again. I spent a month once growing a decent beard only to shave it off one night after a pint or two. As soon as it was gone, I desperately wanted it back, argh!

What I’ve learned about Beards

My closest friend when it comes to beards, is my Barber. Aside from myself he’s the only person whom I’ve ever let near my beard. His advice on styling has been outstanding. The shape of the beard is of huge importance and his advice in the early days invaluable, particularly with what suited my face shape and what worked with my hairstyle. We agreed that a beard could really rock with a great hairstyle. A bad hairstyle along with a beard would make me look like a hobbo or a sad uncle at the family Christmas party. I’ve looked to avoid this and constantly booked appointments at the Barber for every 4 weeks to tighten the beard and ensure my hairstyle equally as tight. I think my Barber calls this a ‘tune-up’.

Always one for a change, I’ve identified that the correlation between hair length and beard length is minus one for those mathematicians. What this means, and this is my approach at least, is as my hairstyle gets longer the beard goes shorter and as my hairstyle gets shorter the beard gets longer. Right now, my hairstyle is what I would describe as tight, similar to one of my role models, that being the French actor Vincent Cassel, whose short style is a favourite, and therefore my beard is a little fuller. I love it, I really do.

I think one of the reasons I love my beard, is that my face underneath is of the rounder shape, the beard elongates my face, and, in my opinion, a longer face makes sunglasses look better and hats suit you like a dream. How superb can it be that one can changes one’s appearance without doing anything at all, just sit and wait for it to grow!!!

My tips

• I always avoid the too manicured beard styles, these kind of remind me of 90’s boy band looks.
• I prefer the natural fade down the jaw line rather than a hard line which to my mind looks like the beard is a stick on one.
• A beard balm smells fab and keeps your beard in check
• Seek advice from your Barber, avoid DIY grooming If you can’t do it in style, then don’t do it.

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