The Journey Begins…

Shaving my beard off wasn’t an easy decision to make, well, it was but it also wasn’t….

Let me take you back a few years (exact year is a bit HAZEy) to a time when beards weren’t the ‘in thing’ and most people not only turned their noses up at my beard, but actively told me how gross they thought beards were (still happened in 2019!!) I didn’t care though, I loved my face fuzz! It may have been dry, unkempt and hella itchy, but it was mine!

Fast forward now some years and my beard has gone from 4 inches, to stubble, to 2 inches, to goatee, to chinstrap and back to beard. I’ve always had some sort of facial hair, but this time I grew the biggest beard of my life (so far..) It started out of sheer laziness and a complete contempt for razor shaving. I would keep my beard short with an electric shaver, barely off the face kind of short, but I liked it, it was me. Then one day I just stopped trimming it, I let it grow. It was annoying, it was dry (most of the time) and my moustache wouldn’t stop going in my mouth!#$@!! Everything I ate pushed my moustache into my mouth, everything I drank was shared with the f*@%&!£ thing!! I hated it, I didn’t want to shave my moustache but I also didn’t want to swallow half of it daily!

“Where help was needed, help was sought!” Off to Google!

Fruitless! I found countless pages about ‘shaving your beard’, the top 5 best razors to buy for shaving your beard and “Why are you growing a beard anyway? Gross!”… but nothing of use about caring for my beard! At this point, I’m at a loss, then a friend suggested coconut oil..!?…I use it for cooking and making my hands all soft and delicious smelling, why not for my beard!? Because it wasn’t for my beard. I don’t know the full benefits of coconut oil on the human body, but for beards, it wasn’t working as planned.

“What do you do when Google doesn’t have the answer?”

You leave your house! You go into town! You trawl every damn beauty shop, hairdressers, barbers (or like 3, I checked maybe 3!) until you find what you’re looking for!

After grabbing a really gross, custom milkshake from an undisclosed milkshake shop in a particular shopping centre/mall, I continued onwards, ever hopeful of finding some sort of beard care product, an oil perhaps, I heard that’s what I needed, so that was my target! Long story short, I happened upon the holy grail, a hidden gem in the centre of this particular shopping centre/mall, a relatively small stall from a mostly unknown (at the time) company called Mobros.

They had oils, balms, combs, brushes, razors (eww) and even something called ‘Beard Butter’! I absolutely love butter! On scones, on toast, in the pan while cooking, only thing I don’t do is eat it off the knife, everything else is fair game! So obviously I want some butter for my beard! I got an oil too, both Vanilla & Mango scented, come to learn it was their top seller and I could definitely see why! It was AMAZING!

Let’s fast forward again, cos I am WAY off topic here, to a few weeks into using the products and J*sus H Ch*ist they were amazing! (actually started to work almost instantly, but we’re a few weeks ahead now, keep with it) Use oil first to nourish and soften, butter last to moisturize and style, I was also totally digging the matte finish with the butter, wasn’t keen on a shiny beard. Then I found the balm was better for me overall and the shiny beard came back!

“So why the beard shave, Gary? That is why we’re here!”

Well friend, let me tell you!

My beard had become mostly dry inside the hair itself, damaged on the outside and full of knots after years of abuse, bad trims and inferior products. I could barely run my hands through it without it tugging and catching! I was contending with split ends and occasionally, for some insane reason, some hairs would tie together in my sleep or something and I’d end up pulling them out as I brushed! Something had to be done! I found a new barbers and the ladies in there are fantastic at what they do! We take the kids there when they need cuts for school and it’s also where I get my hair cut! The amazing barbers at Charles Barry in Corby town centre tried to tame it, but when I go in nervous and NOT wanting to trim it, they kinda have a hard time. But enough was enough! I was done with this beard! I want a new beard! A better beard! A beard with blackjack and hoo…wait, what was I saying?! Yeah, beeeeard grooooow!!

The beard shave!

I was planning it for a couple of months, my girlfriend and I would chat about shaving it and why, even let the Mobros know and they were willing to sponsor the grow by sending out the very same kit I’d recommend all the time to customers growing their first beards.

Comes with everything a growing beard needs!

So me being me, bit of a drama queen some might say, but to them I say “HA!..You don’t kn..even know the half of it sister!” I’m not a drama queen in the literal sense of the word, I’m just an emotional kinda guy and I’m not afraid to show it! If me showing it looks a bit ‘drama queen-y’ then that’s not actually my problem, is it? Edit: Ok, yes! Based on that last paragraph, yes!

I decided to take a photographer with me to document my beard shave. I put out a post asking for a TFP photographer and within 30 minutes I was chatting to a man, a bearded man, a man called Kryz Prygmyr about what I had planned…he was more than up for it! So I’d let my amazing barbers know I was bringing a photographer to document my beard shave, cos you know, that’s what normal people do, and I went in and we began!

I can never do my hair properly! Do I need to start this again!?

Zoe is an absolute pro! Featuring Steph, not believing what I’m doing!

Almost 6(ish) years of growth. Just gone! I’m not gonna lie, I was feeling a tad, little, tiny bit upset about the whole ordeal, but overall I was looking forward to growing it again, letting it grow naturally, using nothing but Mobros incredible products. Ever since I found those 3 brothers it’s opened the door to countless other opportunities! Most notably, working on the same stall I bought my very first beard products from!

We kept the moustache intact for the duration of the shave, I f*****g HATED my moustache for such a long time, but when I started to take better care of it, I fell in love and we became firm friends, one might say it..grew on me!

I almost kept the thing!! We discussed it, at length, whether or not it was being shaved off, but ultimately (because the missus would NOT been seen anywhere with me like this) I decided to get rid and start fresh!

“So what now? Why the big fuss?”

Well, friend! I grew the beard out of negative…I dunno, it wasn’t good for me growing it at that time… I didn’t care for it and it showed. I didn’t care for me and that showed too. I started to take better care of both, and it was working wonders! My beard was shiny and healthy, my attitude was much more positive and I actually enjoyed life! For aaaaaaages!! Then it all started getting a bit sh*tty again. 2020 is, for me, a great year! I like when the numbers are the same. I often notice the time at 22:22 14:14…you get it, and I like it! It feels ‘nice’ to me, I can’t explain it any better than that. And also 2 is the day of October on which I was born. 2 biscuits are better than 1. I like 2. Its that simple. So I decided to…*sigh*….make this year, my year! (wooooo!)

New Year new me…bullsh*t! I’m gonna be the same person, I’m just gonna be a lot better! Healthier inside and out! I’m using the beard growth journey as both an outlet for my mental growth and of course, my actual beard growth too. Gonna take a picture a day for a year, keep up with this blog and document my ‘Gary Growth’ (is that what we’re calling this? My beard and myself will be growing together, but it also sounds like I need medical attention..)

Thanks so much for getting this far, if you didn’t and simply scrolled to the end….why? Why didn’t you just close it, you weirdo?

Here’s a picture of 14 year old me from yesterday.

(probably should have trimmed his eyebrows…)