beards and facial hair in general

I really like beards. I'm not sure what it is about them that I like. Maybe it's the fact that they can conceal someone's identity both by being grown or being shaved, depending on what you're expecting, or maybe it's because the university that I attended prohibited male facial hair of the tasteful kind (in other words beards were a no-go, but creepy mustaches were a-ok) so whenever I see someone with a beard I think of them inherently as some kind of rebel. My dad seems to think my affinity for beards comes from the fact that he had a full beard for most of my formative years, though he now sports the ever popular goatee. Perhaps my love of beards stems from the simple fact that I can't grow one myself. The grass is always greener on the other side, right? The picture above is of Willi Chevalier, aged 65 from Germany who won first place in the partial and freestyle beard categories in the World Beard and Moustache Championships in 2007. The men who participate in this competition come from all over the world and not only do they have fantastic facial hair, but fantastic old man names as well! We're talking names like Franz Mitterhauser (whose wife's name is Brigitta), Elmar Weisser, and Gunnar Rosenquist (who "lives in the woods with his woman and his daughter"). Simply stunning.

Regardless, I loff beards. I just loff them. And recent podcast watching and web surfing has revealed to me this wonderful woman who makes beards for those of us who cannot grow them ourselves (or those who can but prefer the versatility provided by handcrafted beards). She makes beards out of yarn or felt and they are simply fantastic! I mean, look at the picture to the right. Doesn't it just make you want to go out and buy a beard so that you too can look this amazing?! She has normal looking ones (brown and gray and black) but she also has crazy colored ones (green and bright red and multicolored). I want them all. I think I would wear one when it was cold out to keep my little face warm, or if I needed to do some serious thinking, I would put it on and stroking it would help the creative juices flow.