Atom FeedThe Moustache Competition
So one of the guys at work organized a moustache competition last November. I deemed it silly and opted to pass. But this year I decided I’d get in on it. What the hell, I’ve never gone more than about 4-5 days without shaving so why not? The rules are fairly simple. You had to be clean shaven at the beginning of November and have your moustache style shaved into place by the beginning of December. As for style, you pretty much could grow anything you wanted with two exceptions… 1) There has to be a disconnect between the beard and sideburns; and 2) no hair anywhere below the lower lip with the exception of the “soul patch”.And so it began with this clean shaven face at the official start:
It was a rather nice treat to not have to shave everyday. I’ve been doing it so long that I didn’t even realize what a pain in the ass that is on a daily basis. But then I discovered I needed to shave my neck area after about a week as it was very itchy. I would end up repeating this on a weekly basis to keep from going insane. But other than this minor issue and much to my surprise, it actually filled in pretty well. It also grew in very gray in the chin area as apparently I’m an old man! So here’s a self inflicted photo with the beard:
But then it came time that I had to shave it into a competition legal style, but what to do? The beard had come in fairly well, but the moustache itself was a bit thinner. In any case, I decided to opt for a Fu Manchu style with a soul patch as seen in my official finishing photo. Note the silver gray tips as they garnered me bonus style points:
There were several judging stations to determine style, length, thickness, etc…
Some other stuff and yes, absorbency. This required us to try to get it to hold as much buttermilk as possibly and sort of blow kisses. Have you ever tasted buttermilk? Gah! There’s a nasty treat for you to try sometime.
And the results? We started with 33 contestants with 10 dropping out. So out of 23 I finished 4th with 90 points, missing 3rd by 3 points and winning it all by a distant 7 points. Here’s the group photo afterward. Matt Copland (front, second from right) won first place. Tom Peters, one of my employees (front, second from the left) “won” for finishing in last place.
And being none of my family had obviously never seen my like this, I opted to grow the beard back before traveling home for Christmas. Surprise! After returning home I was going to shave it all off, but my wife kept encouraging me to keep the moustache and goatee. So I can take a hint and have opted to keep it for now. Today I mentioned that I was going to shave it after the Superbowl…which was meet with a rather sad look. So it may be staying even longer although if I do, come March it’s definitely coming off. I know I don’t want to keep it once I start cycling outdoors again. It was getting a bit shaggy so I trimmed it with my clippers I use to shave my head. Interestingly enough nearly everyone else shaved right after the contest. Actually it worked pretty well as you can see in this self inflicted photo:
So there it is, one more thing I guess I can check off the list of life achievements. I’ve also been told that it makes me look both older —presumably due to the gray hair, and interestingly enough “evil” and “mean” by a couple of people. So be nice or I might just kick your ass! ;) January 11, 2009 @ 12:30 am | Category: Brainwork
