To shave or not to shave…

This morning I woke up and realised I was going to have a bad hair day. Okay, you already know about my rather difficult history of hair, but this time I’m not talking about the hair on my head. That’s right, for the last few weeks I have been sporting a beard. Those who know the actual Fred and Fred, know what I’m talking about. For those who don’t here’s a pic (in which I use some current reading material for an incognito-effect).

This time (I’ve done it a couple of times before) I stopped shaving somewhere at the end of October and by now I have more or less a full beard, and most of the time I’m pretty happy with the result. I think it makes me look less serious and I would lie if there wasn’t an amount of male pride involved with pensively scratching my beard in a conversation.

This morning, however, I was dissatisfied with the depicted stuff on my cheeks. All of a sudden my beard seemed too scruffy, too scrappy, too patchy, too itchy, and most importantly, totally shapeless. Yet from experience I know that this is the most critical moment in the beard’s existence. It signals that one should start trimming the beard, but that’s a difficult undertaking. After all, most bearded men aren’t exactly hair dressers, and what’s more, there’s a fine line between looking like a monkey and looking like Craig David:

(as you can see from the first pic, the one and only site for images of the wonderful world of hirsutism and tips on growing a beard is www.beards.org)

So automatically, rather than worrying about how much to trim, I feel a strong urge to shave the whole damn thing off. I mean, having to trim and cut does defy the whole purpose of a beard (i.e. not shaving), doesn't it? However, much like going to the hair dressers’ and saying ‘I’d like it short, please’, more often than not I end up regretting my decision.

Therefore, I have decided to trust the unending wisdom of our readers this time. So tell me what do you think. Should I keep it or not? Use the comment box, I’m curious!