I have written here before about my beard and my guide to having a beard (https://shumpty77.com/2012/06/01/i-have-a-beard-and-i-am-proud/).  I was asked the other day by someone who had known me long the following question: 

So what is the story with the beard: are you just another hipster trying to look cool?

Now obviously this uninformed person does not read this blog nor do they know me well because never in all of my 36 years could I have ever been considered to be a hipster nor do I really know what a hipster is.  

That question though did spark a conversation about the seeming current popularity in men, indeed even in male models, to having a beard.  I had cause to joke during that discussion about the fact that, in my own view (sarcastically expressed), I actually had a beard before the current crop of hipsters and, in fact, I may well be responsible for “bringing it back” (sarcasm again intended). 

As I trimmed my beard this morning I again had cause to ponder the art of “beardage” and the fact that, as with most things in life, growing a beard should be a matter of personal choice and not something done just because it is, all of a sudden, popular to have one. 

More to the point: if you want to have a beard, whether it be a trimmed effort or a full blown Ned Kelly type, grow one.  Just don’t be a sheep and do it to be “cool”.  

I, for one, can not see myself shaving off my beard … ever! That will inevitably mean that during my life I will go through a number of periods of beard unpopularity and then renewed popularity and I will, no doubt, be again asked the question quoted above and, no doubt, I will again answer sarcastically that I am responsible for “bringing the beard back (again)”.