Movember - Barbers London - Shaving.

It was the summer of 1996 and I had been away on a school trip. It was one of those coming of age summers; hot, sunny and generally the stuff nostalgia is made of. But then a phone call home changed everything.

My mum broke the news to me, “Your father has shaved off his beard.” I came home full of dread curiosity. Would I like my father clean shaven - hell would I even recognise him? This might all sound rather dramatic and in truth it is a little, but in my defence, for all my life I had known my father only to have a beard. Back then it defined you. You made a decision, “am I of the facial hair camp or am I clean cut?” I guess it was a hang over from the hippie peace movement, the free spirits vs.

the clean shaven suits, but even then the suits would sport a well groomed moustache. So anyway I came home to a father I barely recognised and vowed when I was older I would honour the memory of my father’s beard with my own. And so began the age of facial fluff. Now, over a decade later, I sit here and pontificate on how best to move this article along and, as I muse on my options, I scratch at my well groomed manly black (with a hint of copper) beard. The problem I face today is that having a beard no longer defines me.

Sure, if you were going to describe me to a stranger, one of the first things you might say is “Oh he has a black beard, with a bit of ginger in it” – though I’d hope you’d use the expression copper, not ginger. But the beard has essentially become a male accessory and a very fashionable one at that. Once upon a time, if I asked you for famous beards, the answers would be; Abraham Lincoln, Jesus, Vincent Van Gogh, Brian Blessed. All were a talented bunch of men and all went through their adult lives with facial hair. Today however many men grow and cast away facial hair with ease.

I can’t think how many times I’ve seen pictures of David Beckham with, and then without, a beard; not to mention George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp. Maybe the trend to experiment more with beards has come from an improvement in the trimming and shaving tools we have at our disposal, or maybe we just feel freer to experiment and not be ridiculed for our facial exploration. So why not try growing a “chin curtain” or a “French fork” and if you’re really brave why not give a “Hulihee” a whirl.

I would say the only facial hairstyle not permitted anymore is the “toothbrush” moustache; originally made famous by the comic brilliance of Charlie Chaplin, only to be damned for evermore by Adolf Hitler. So let me guess you clean shaven beard virgins are thinking, “Sure, I’d like a beard, but my girlfriend won’t like it.” Or, “the guys in the office will make fun of me.” Well, if you’re looking for a perfect excuse to give it a go then I have one word for you, “Movember”. Yes, I have spelt that correctly.

Movember is a charity movement where you, preferably with mates from home or work, grow moustaches for the month of November to raise money for charities dealing with prostate cancer.The rules are simple: start clean shaven on November the 1st and see how that upper lip looks by the end of the month.

Now some participants are very strict and will continue to shave the rest of the face while they cultivate the hair follicles on their upper lip, but others will try out the goatee, mutton chops and various other forms of facial hair throughout the month until the fateful 30th November when all, bar the upper lip, must be shaved in the name of charity.

It is a truly fun way to raise money and help bond those ties between lads that only primal male grooming can achieve. So the question is, “Are you man enough to try?”

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