goodbye, beard.

I've never known Nate without a beard. I've seen pictures of his baby-faced college days. His Nashville friends have seen the picture and said, "That is not you!" Nate replied, "I'm beginning to think all you people see is my beard!" All "my eyes are up here" jokes aside, the beard was sort of a legend around here. Strangers would say "nice beard" and "I like your beard!" But alas, the beard is no more.

Nate's beard (02/12/13)

Nate has been growing out his beard since we got married in July 2011. About 19 months. Except for the occasional trim, he pretty much let it go and was chosen for Beard of the Month and was the focus of beard envy everywhere he went. I even dressed up like Nate for Halloween, beard included.

That's a lot of beard.

Nate had been talking lately about cutting his beard short. I told him it was up to him. (Despite popular beliefs, I am not that wife who made her husband cut off his beard!) ;) I liked the beard. It was softer than a short beard, and sure, he got food and things stuck in it sometimes, but it was a very distinguishing feature. Charles Spurgeon did say, “Growing a beard is a habit most natural, manly, Scriptural, and beneficial.”

The last photo of the beard. 19 months old.

But on Tuesday (my birthday), Nate came home from his Hebrew class and announced the time had come. The beard was going. Time to look a little more professional. It would be a different look, but his beard was short when I married him, so it wasn't going to be a total shock. We went in the bathroom, put a trash bag in the sink, got out the clippers, and started cutting.

I'm going to be vacuuming up beard hair in the bathroom for a week.
On the bright side, Nate can stop using my hairbrush.

The quantity of beard hair was impressive. He didn't go completely bare-faced, just short beard and mustache. And I shaved the top of his head. It all grows back in a month. Nate took a shower and cried a little (just kidding) and it was late, so we went to bed. He worked the next morning and when he walked into Starbucks, all the other baristas just stared.

Goodbye, beard.

Nate and I laughed when the beard first came off because his chin looked so small! And the beard had grown back/down his neck so I had to bic a lot of neck-beard. But there he is, just like the day I married him. :) Nate says there is such as thing as post-traumatic beard disorder. I like it however he wears it, but if he wants to grow it out again, it could be back by August 2014.

RIP, beard. You were pretty epic.