to be(ard) or not to be(ard)?

“Do not trim off the hair on your temples or trim your beards.”

The king said, “Stay at Jericho till your beards have grown, and then come back.”

Leviticus 19:27 & 2 Samuel 10:5

Note: Today’s post has zero devotional content and is just for fun…

– the classic “in the car after the trim” pic

So finally – after letting the growth get “wild” for a couple of months – I made my way to see Lauren at Who Does Your Hair for a little sculpturing.

I haven’t commented on the beard lately, as my whiskers have moved well beyond novelty and are now an actual thing. But summertime is coming, and it’s time to make a decision. Do I keep the look or shave it all off?

Remember of course this is the first time in my life I have opted for facial hair of any kind. First, as a fair-haired fair-skinned former Brit, I could go days without shaving and there would literally be nothing visible. Add to that Rebekah’s strong distain for the idea and it simply never came up.

Then the fall of 2020 came around and Sandy Christos asked me to grow a beard for WFPC’s annual Walk Through Bethlehem event. Rebekah surprised me by getting on board, and then she surprised me even more by actually liking the way I looked.

So I kept it.

Other than my mother, who never misses an opportunity to put in her two-cents and lodge a new objection, the consensus has been favorable.

So what do you think, readers? Should my next book feature the “author with beard” look, or does it need to come off?

– DEREK

13 comments

  1. For one of us normal guys I would say loose the beard, but for a famous author, it looks scholarly.

  2. If I were to grow a beard everyone would call me Patches, so I’m clean shaven . But, your pics prove you can obviously grow an acceptable beard, unlike me. I say either clean shaven or the current, shaped beard look equally good.

  3. A neatly trimmed beard would be my advice. And as Ray mentioned every author should have a beard and a couple of decades ago you would also have been smoking a pipe.

  4. I don’t normally like facial hair on a man, but on you, I think it looks great! I say keep it!!

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