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I Forge Iron

Blacksmiths and Beards


Blacksmiths and Beards  

440 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you have a beard?

    • Yes, I have a full beard
      236
    • Yes, I have a goatee
      97
    • No, I'm clean shaven
      79
    • No, I couldn't grow a beard if I wanted to
      23
    • No, of course I don't have a beard - I'm a woman!
      5


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I normally I shave my entire head have been for the last 8 years or so. But in the last month I let it go. I now have a full head of hair and a goatee. Now everyone at work wants to know whats the deal and alot of people didn't know I had hair. It's all for fun I have alot of friends that can't grow hair and they give me a hard time about having hair and shaving it off. So now I'm growing it out so that when I decide to go back to shaving it again. I'm going to shave it in your typical male patern baldness style and go to work just to agrivate the boys that can't grow it. Should be good for a lot of laughs. The goatee is known as my third arm pit around my house.

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... If I could just keep it at the 2-3 day growth mark without maintenance, I'd totally keep it at that length.
That is what I do. I use a electric trimmer every 3 or 4 days with a guard on it so the beard is all the same lenght. Every other day (or so) is with a razor, but that is only for the neck area and other trimming/ shaping.
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So now I'm growing it out so that when I decide to go back to shaving it again. I'm going to shave it in your typical male patern baldness style and go to work just to agrivate the boys that can't grow it.


I've thought of something like that. I keep threatening for Halloween to grow out my hair, and shave it in the middle, then do a comb-over.
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Native American men (Indians) are going to have a difficult time growing a beard, because genetically, they have no beard or at least, very little facial hair. In Oklahoma, I've seen a few Native men who carried a short length of old fashioned, window shade roller spring in the pocket. These small springs are in a coil, but thin and of flat stock. The men would grab the very few stray hairs between the coil gap and just pull the hairs out. In that way, tweezers and mirrors were not needed. They could be running that spring over the face and pulling hairs while haveing an ordinary conversation with you. The hairs grew back, but the handy spring was still in the pocket.

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I normally I shave my entire head have been for the last 8 years or so. But in the last month I let it go. I now have a full head of hair and a goatee. Now everyone at work wants to know whats the deal and alot of people didn't know I had hair. It's all for fun I have alot of friends that can't grow hair and they give me a hard time about having hair and shaving it off. So now I'm growing it out so that when I decide to go back to shaving it again. I'm going to shave it in your typical male patern baldness style and go to work just to agrivate the boys that can't grow it. Should be good for a lot of laughs. The goatee is known as my third arm pit around my house.


I'm one of those with MPB. That's just mean!......... But hilarious!!! The mental picture made me laugh and spill my coffee!! :D
I have never been concerned about my exposed dome ;) Or my early arrival of the "little gray hairs" Beard started to go grey in my early 30s
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I'm sadly in the group that can't grow a beard!
I want to, as i've wanted a beard since I was around 15. Not due to blacksmithing (as i'm very much a beginner) but more for my love of Vikings.
At 30 years old I get very little facial hair, which is massively irritating. I'm just letting mine grow to see if anything appears.

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I got sent home for "needing a shave" in the eighth grade. Have had a full beard most of my adult life. Went to see my dad once when he was in eighties. He said " how long have you had that beard son"? I said " oh about forty years Dad" and he,being the staunch old German he was said " OH maybe that's why I'm starting to get used to it"!!!

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When I was in the military I got in the habit of being clean-shaven but I grew a goatee for our town's 125th anniversary celebration in 2009 then shaved it off again. Last winter I regrew it but shaved it off for the summer...not sure if I will grow it back or not. The wife isn't big on me having one but doesn't mind the look when I do have it....just says it tickles too much.

oh now i get it hahaha
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  • 3 weeks later...

ive not got a beard, but am a massive fan, and if i was a bloke i would most certainly sport one! so much choice!!! endless novelty and variety..... i do feel slightly at a disadvantage for achieving the blacksmithing feel good factor, but i guess its probably better for a female to remain smooth chinned :) despite her line of work.. here are some i might have, if i was male, and if i were not like tom, and could not seem to grow one :) tom - youre great as ya are!!!

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and the quite genius
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i think on balance, karl marx is rocking the most sensational face of hair, it envelopes his whole head like a cloud!! and of course, lets not forget father christmas....

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When I started in the '70's I had a beard no mustache as it was the time of the bicentennial. It was the Colonial look? Since about the '80 I've been clean shaven, but now with a ponytale.

George E. Ohr was one of the best potters, ever! Way ahead of his time. He said he was so good because he was a blacksmith first and had the strong forearm muscles required to control spinning clay. He was also an eccentric. At one point he had a 3 foot long handlebar mustache. He liked to do camera stunts and one well known one was to comb his hair and beard like it was blowing in the wind. I know, I digress. But he was a smith at one time... :D

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Think of the "Founding Fathers" of the USA:

Pretty beardless. I think that beards came back into fashion with the romantic movement of the 1800's At least by the end of that century there was a massive choice in facial hair available, burnsides, muttonchops, the Muir look, Alexander Graham Bell (young and old), etc.

(And I remember having to shave for the Bicentennial parade I was in in colonial costume...)

Since the 19th century tends to be where most of the blacksmithing "traditions" date to; it is only fitting that "traditional look" beards are part of that.

(of course my interest is more in the 9th century than the 19th these days but beards were big back then too!)

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