Sunday, January 31, 2010

The beard subculture

Ok... I'm sporting a full beard now..some of you know..but some of you I haven't seen in a while may have missed that. But if you're on fb or twitter you might have noticed this fact.. I've been wearing a goatee for probably a decade or so but this is the first time I've grown a full beard just to grow it.. not to be in a cast at church (wise man or something)..

But you know I never really thought that much about beards until a friend of mine made a comment about another guys full beard.. "Man he's got a man's beard"..something like that.

Anyway..that kinda stuck in my mind.. did I grow this out because of that statement..Nope.. really thought I might be Santa and a church thing for a little while but then I just kept it..

I say all of that to get to this..

I'm walking through lowe's the other day and a young man that looks kinda like this.....




...says "Hey man..how's it going?".

He was an employee. He didn't ask me if I needed help. He didn't try to find out what I needed. It was a friendly greeting.. like I was some one he sees often..like we ran in the same circles..like we were a part of the same group or subculture. It was kinda cool. It was refreshing..then I started wondering if I was now a part of some beard subculture. Kinda like greyhound bus drivers that always wave at each other as they pass on the highways. OR.. maybe an even deeper subculture.

I then started thinking of an SNL skit I saw back in the...well..it was a long time ago. I then had to look it up. I laughed hard..I hadn't seen it in so long.. I doubt the beard subculture is as strong as the one depicted in this vid but it could be..



I'm gonna be much more selective of what my loan officers looks like at the bank.. facial hair will be a must!

3 comments:

JBo said...

I will not lie. I have a beard to "sorta" hide my 8 chins. My kids wanted me to shave it last year. I did. My son immediately said "Grow it back."

J.T. said...

I went to Baton Rouge over the Thanksgiving holiday for the LSU/Arkansas game, and when I was walking around campus on gameday, I got more "Whoa - sweet beard, man"'s than I can count.

And that's not just because I'm from LA, and we can't count that high.

Artie said...

Jes..you're funny. J.T..so it is as I suspected.. No one comments on a goatee..but the full beard? There is something going on there.