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No Shave November serves up manliness
The art of growing facial hair can be serious business.
Published Nov. 13, 2009
College is undoubtedly a coming of age experience for all students. Some events are monumental, such as figuring out a lifelong occupation. Others carry less significance, such as the first keg stand. For most men, one college event seems to be a right of passage, it's a collegiate bar mitzvah so to speak: No Shave November.
No Shave November, or Novembeard, is self-explanatory. A person does not shave for the duration of the 11th month of the Gregorian calendar. Most commonly this applies to males and typically refers to not grooming facial hair for 30 days. Though humorous, No Shave November is no joke.
Sophomore Kyle McDonald has participated in the event for four straight years. McDonald has been growing beards since high school and almost got fired one time for his refusal to shave.
"What can I say, I'm a bearder," McDonald said.
Some people have a knack for basketball or for art and some people are meant to grow beards. McDonald falls in this last category.
"You see a lot of guys scratching their beards all the time, and they just look uncomfortable," McDonald said. "But I'm impervious to itch. I don't use conditioner and when I have an itch, it feels wonderful to scratch."
As with a lot of beard enthusiasts, McDonald isn't just doing this for November. He is actually part of a larger challenge called Whiskerino. The goal: to not shave from Nov. 1 until March 1.
Some say growing beards together is no different than meeting someone at a favorite band's concert — there is some immediate, unspoken bond.
"I respect bearded men more when I have my own," McDonald said. "It's like an instant connection."
Sophomore Sam Hefter is no different in his commitment to facial hair. He has been growing out his mustache since October and is doing Movember, which is the mustache equivalent of No Shave November.
Hefter said he has loved the experience so far and is planning to keep it going past November. The biggest snag has not been with women but with eating.
"Food gets stuck in the mustache all the time," Hefter said. "Sauces get caught on the brim so you have to use your tongue to get that stuff off."
For first-time mustache growers, Hefter recommends using conditioner to take away the itch. Conditioner becomes essential around two weeks into the growing process when the hair starts to get thick.
"The itching stage made me want to shave it off," said Hefter, who began this venture with two friends from his fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi. "They couldn't handle the itching so they shaved it off. But I'm too committed to do that."
Hefter took his commitment one step further by shaving his beard frequently to accentuate the mustache. Hefter has embraced the good and the bad with the mustache, even when it comes to girls.
"No girl wants to kiss a guy with a mustache, but I'm OK with that, it makes me feel manly," Hefter said. Sophomore Abi Getto reasserted this idea.
"I think they're pretty heinous," said Getto, commenting on the look of beards and mustaches. "But, seeing them is hilarious."
Getto is not partaking in No Shave November but only because she is unable to grow facial hair.
"If it wasn't weird for girls to have mustaches, I would definitely grow one," Getto said.
The trend with No Shave November is originality. When it comes to facial hair, the bigger or more unusual, the better.
"If you're going to grow a beard you have to go all out," Getto said, "While some scruff isn't bad, the Grizzly Adams beards are the best."
Like all symbols of manhood, be it Chuck Norris or Sean Connery, it's not about what you do but what's on your face.
McDonald echoes this sentiment.
"The best part of having a beard?" McDonald said. "Respect."
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