Five months of growing a beard
5x5 I’ve been a dabbler in the beard for many years, but three months pottering around the other side of the world was the perfect opportunity to let my facial hair grow out. Here’s how the first five months panned out.
Note: I do not appear in the right hand side of photos.
1 March I set off on March 3, and this is about three weeks in. We’re really just at the ‘haven’t shaved for a while’ stage. Could be just laziness, an extended hangover, or the lack of an opportunity to use a razor. This is the hardest point of growing a beard because it just looks like a bum’s stubble.
2 April A month later and there’s no doubting that it’s a beard. Still no need for a trim, even along the moustache line to keep it out of my food. This lovely location is along a series of waterfalls in the Emerald Valley near Huangshan (the Yellow Mountain) in China, near a spot used in the making of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
3 May Practising my duckface (it needs some work) as I journeyed up to the Great Wall of China at Mutian, we can see the chin is starting to fill out nicely and the white hair is definitely beating the dark. The best thing about the Great Wall? This bobsled run.
4 June A month later and the sides have started to bulge, the underbeard is curling up, the chin is like a nest of Cthulhoid tentacles, and I’m due for a trim to keep it in shape. That’s the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow, which is either a grand example of Soviet-era Brutalism or a concrete monstrosity, depending on your opinion and the weather. It looks really bad on a grey day.
5 July How long does it take to look like Brian Blessed? The answer, I can confirm, is around five months. It’s begging for a summer trim, but for this moment the beard is perfectly suited to my alpine garb, a full white chinstrap rising majestically from the chops with an underpinning of dark hair and a neat-looking ‘tache.
