So, the Super Bowl is over, the more bearded team won, Colin Kaepernick will finally be forced to grow an actual beard vs. his awkward 'goatee'... all good things right?
Well, the commercials this year were something dreadful... really uninspiring (e.g. sleeping with horses sounds horrid; God didn't create farmers, he WAS one, Adam just pilfered his crops!), disengaging and most of all hairless. This is a shameful representation of our culture, and the bearded and facial hair arc we all know we are at the apex of (or better yet, climbing toward). This was a missed opportunity...
Unless you lived in a small part of the United States (tiny portions of Texas, Oklahoma and Montana, or perhaps Sweden)... then you saw a Will Ferrell Old Milwaukee commercial during your version of Super Bowl XLVII. Thanks Yahoo! News (and Jay Busbee of Shutdown Corner) for the find. Enjoy the below folks, really, let your inhibition go and let the ad take you to that special, warm place... a place, with mustaches and better kissing abilities than Bar Refaeli.
Thanks to the myriad of beard scouts we have out in the field, whether they are aware of their roles or not (in this case Mido Aboshihata aka @mid0 is not) we find or stumble on awesome gems... we love them even more if they are in New York or San Francisco (B-a-B home markets)...
Check out this awesome (and accurate) ad by Braun, a frenemy of B-a-B, near NYC subways.
Dear Braun, we'd support you buddy, if you ditched the 'shave' part of this 'business strategy' of yours... style and trim is ALL you need. Take note, Braun... if that is your real name.
"We must depend upon the Boy Scout Movement to produce the MEN of the future. " - Daniel Carter Beard
Daniel Carter "Uncle Dan" Beard was an illustrator, author, youth leader, and social reformer who founded the Sons of Daniel Boone in 1905, which were later merged with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA)... he also had a pretty bitchin' goattee.
Well, more than 70 years after the death of Uncle Dan... the boy scouts finally started producing men of the future. And if you wondered, the men of the future will look like children with beards. Way to prove it Boy Scouts of America, well done.
As everyone and their mother, girlfriend, sister (and so on and so forth) knows, Brad Pitt (of Brangelina fame) had been growing his much-discussed beard for about a year... and when he so clearly and significantly trimmed it down last month, we all knew he was preparing to get rid of it.
Well, earlier this month, the day finally came... I say finally because even though B-a-B is categorically against shaving, there is only one other thing that cuts us deeper... and that's black eyes to the facial hair aficionados everywhere.
Brad's beard drew so much criticism that we were afraid it would derail all the work our community has done in building up the profile of beards... we do not want to go back into the dark ages of beard hatred and pogonophobia, so if that means supporting Brad's shave... so be it.
That said, it was a pretty cool beard... RIP Brad Pitt's Goat, we hardly knew yee... you were infamous, which is like really really famous.
It’s been just a few months since we welcomed Josh Hamilton Rufer (aka @inMyBeard) to our bearded family... but the site he created was dedicated to a full year worth of stuff in his beard has closed up shop... Whether by suggestion or by personal initiative, the hairy creations Josh injected into the web -- in some cases odd and in others melancholic, it was always entertaining -- is nothing short of amazing... the good news is he will keep the beard, or is a goatee?
Regardless, to commiserate over the news of the deadline’s passing, and to celebrate the 365 days of pure beard goodness, Build-a-Beard flew down to Alabama right after our exclusive meeting with Rocky and Balls in the UK, to sit down with Josh to take a look back... For the record, Josh's chin mane achievements are just about the only reason we'd go to Alabama... seriously.
B-A-B: What prompted you to embark on such an expansive (and dedicated) bearded adventure?
JHR: Near the end of 2008 I found myself in a creative rut. I wanted to find something that would force me to be on my toes inventive without consuming every moment of free time I had.
I was inspired by ZeFrank's year long project The Show, but didn't feel that I had something to say that was worth listening to. I decided that I should leverage what I did have. A camera a beard and a whole bunch of junk.
B-A-B: You do know that technically your beard isn’t a beard… it’s a Goatee… a fine one, but a Goatee nonetheless. Would you ever grow a full on beard? Why, why not?
JHR: Not to be contrary but I believe my "beard" is in fact a beard. Merriam-Webster defines a beard as "the hair that grows on a man's face often excluding the mustache." By That definition, What I have is a beard. One could even argue that my "beard" is not technically a goatee by the most strict definition, as a goatee is described to be "a small pointed or tufted beard on a man's chin." Though the term "small" is subjective, I assert that my beard would not generally be described as such.
I have wondered what I would look like with a full beard. In fact, I have even let my cheeks grow out a bit from time to time. Unfortunately, when I do so, the cheek hair appears sparse and splotchy. I am unsure if this due to an uneven distribution of hair follicles across the entirety of my face or simply an optical illusion caused by the new growth's proximity to my already substantial chin hair. Either way, I would have to shave the chin to give the full beard a chance. I'm just not sure I'm willing to do that yet.
B-A-B: Hm, seems like we’ve hit a nerve… we say, give it a whirl and #proveit when you’re ready, goat boy. Regardless, we’ve never seen your face… why the incognito approach?
JHR: When I first came up with the idea for this project, I took several test images to see what would look best. I noticed that most of the full head shots I took looked like pictures of me making funny faces. The fact that something was in my beard was easy to over look and if the object was small it could disappear all together. I knew that if my full face was in the images, the result would be a bunch of pictures of me... not a bunch of pictures of my beard.
For the record. I do have a face.
B-A-B: And a fine face it is Josh, not to switch topics of anything, but… How many of the items were suggestions? Or did you come up with most of them yourself?
JHR: Most of the objects in my beard were of my choosing. Some days I selected an item that fit my mood or a theme. Other days, the item was the first think I found on my desk or. That said, I did get both fantastic and disruptive suggestions from friends and followers.
My new found Twitter and DailyBooth friends were very helpful.
@NutellaCoffee requested a romantic comedy DVD to counter balance a recent action video game. What she got instead was a copy of the video game Lips. @ReelVixen suggested a garden gnome. @Mary808 was awesome enough to snail mail me two vinyl figures for use in my beard!
My real life friends were far more likely to make suggestions that involved fire and the general destruction of beard material. After giving them the "I'm not lighting my face on fire" look, they were also very helpful.
B-A-B: What was the heaviest thing that was ‘In your beard’? How about the silliest?
JHR: The heaviest thing by far was the octopus soap dispenser. Though not that large, it is made of thick porcelain and full of liquid soap. I had to screw it's lid onto a small portion of my soul patch. I had to tense my entire face to keep the weight from pulling my bottom lip down. As for the silliest thing, that has to be the shaving cream. It sounded like a great idea at the time. I didn't take into account how it would lather when water is applied. I spent a long time trying to wash it all out before giving up and jumping in the shower.
B-A-B: You sure do seem to have had a LOT figurines in your beard this year… did you buy them special or is there a private collection you tapped?
JHR: I do have a small collection of figurines but eventually I had to make a weekly ritual of hitting the discount bins at toy stores for new and relatively cheap material. When Christmas came around I found lots of little treats taped to my presents. Most of the material for the weeks on either side of the holiday was of those extra gifts.
B-A-B: What is YOUR favorite ‘in your beard’ post? *ours is still the conjunction in your beard, but it’s close to the cupcake and candle… we like the danger factor.
JHR: My absolute favorite was the Halloween post.
I knew I wanted to have a costume for my beard that day and decided on the jack-o-lantern headed mummy. I was planning on wearing it all day so I spent the day before fitting the head and building a little skeleton out of metal wires so I could pose it. That morning was spent braiding the skeleton into the beard, wrapping the arms, legs and torso and then attaching the face. It was the most work I put into any of the posts but it was very rewarding to do it.
B-A-B: Build-a-Beard got two spots on the montage… we are honored… do you read our blog? What’s your favorite post? #selfishquestion
JHR: Though I have sported a beard for several years now, I never though much about beard culture before starting IMB. I was amazed to see how many people were interested in beards. Since then I have been reading Build-a-Beard along with a few other sites. My favorite post was the one about the guy lifting small children with his beard. I felt that guy's pain.
B-A-B: There was a bald chin shot in the montage… when’s that from? Or are your follicle growing skills unmatched by mere humans?
JHR: Sadly I do not have super-human beard growing powers. The bald chin pic was my April Fools Day post. I wanted to fake shaving my beard so I photoshopped a friend's bald chin onto my face.
B-A-B: Finally, what’s next for “In My Beard”? Another year of awesome? Mass hysteria? A shoulder to cry on? TELL US!
JHR: The In My Beard project was a year long experiment and is now complete. The project archive will remain available on my site. If the good people of twitter continue to use the #inmybeard hash tag I may update the site to feature other user's pictures.
I will definitely be starting a new project soon but I haven't decided what that will be. I'm very open to suggestions and have even been talking with some of my DailyBooth and Twitter followers about ideas. Whatever I do next, I would like it to be a more interactive experience.
In short, I vote for mass hysteria. I think that would be a lot of fun.
To catch the entire voyage from cover to cover... see below for the amazing montage that Josh put together to commemorate the end of such a hairy initiative and overarching devotion to the hirsute we can all be jealous of… take it away JHR:
Zach Galifianakis (who is now dead to us for shaving) aired his interview with Ben Stiller to discuss his new movie Greenberg on "Between Two Ferns." You can catch the clip HERE, but most importantly, check out Ben's salt & pepper goatee. He looks like a wise old sage (who needs to eat a sandwich).
With the 2010Consumer Electronics Show now days behind me, numerous publications and bloggers have been giving their two cents about the successes and failures from the floor... whether rolling their eyes over the saturated TV market news or jumping for joy over killer apps. That's fine to report, but Build-A-Beard's recap is ignoring all electronic device announcements - and simply showcasing the absolute best of #CES.
And where did we find the best of the best? Amongst a sea of cynical (and sometimes drooling) tech dorks (sorry, guys/gals - but let's be real - we're geeks), manufacturers, horrible convention center 'food', insanely overpriced Starbucks... we stumbled upon someone who caught our eye immediately at the Boxee party.
It wasn't so much that he was sporting 'the best' beard of the night... but God Damn... it certainly was the best overall look. Allow me the pleasure to introduce - Rob Spectre.
His hair is held up by 3 cans of Aqua Net, 2 glue sticks, and one pack of Bubblicious. His goatee is soft & friendly.*Unconfirmed
When a person has the power to capture your attention amongst the most major tech developments - to make you remove your 3D glasses to take another glance at him just to make sure he's real - well, that type of man deserves the recognition of B-A-B.
Dear Beardos, heed my word... While we are winning the battle of facial hair adoption, we are losing the war of beards vs mustaches vs goatees.
Wahl Clipper Corp.has crunched the numbers and did the math (Shocker 101: a beard trimmer maker putting out a study on facial hair growth) and here are theirresults:
64 millionproud men nationwide sport facial hair for at least part of the year (YAY!). The goatee tops the facial hair ranks with25 million(really?). The mustaches cashed in on17 millionmen (and god knows how many women)… but our favorite, the beard, only mustered13 millionbrave souls this year...
So gents, what are we doing wrong?! You have to ask yourself, are you with us or against us? This guys gets it, and is ready to rumble… are you?
