Furry face

“You cannot grow a beard in a moment of passion” wrote G.K. Chesterton. 

I have used that line plenty of times in my classes.  Like a few days ago too, when I told the class that writing a paper is not something that they should do at the last minute.  If they did, it will be as futile as trying to grow a beard in a moment of passion.

I said that while stroking my bearded chin ;)

It is yet another no-shave November.  Most young men who try to grow one will look at me in envy.  One of those rare moments in life when I will serve as a model ;)

When I am asked about growing a beard, I use the same lines that a late great-uncle did.  He was a bearded man himself.  If people asked him about his beard, he would reply with a snort, "I don't grow a beard.  I simply stopped shaving."

Which is why I like this approach to no-shave November--it is clear that the beard is a result of not shaving.  It is as simple as that.

As a bearded professor, I have more than a passing intellectual interest in beards though.  My curiosity knows no bounds after all.  Like, if only I could recall that exact moment in graduate school when I decided that I would grow one--a beard, that is.  Try as I might, I don't recall.  The few photos are evidence that I have consistently had a beard since sometime in my third year in graduate school.  But, when was that first attempt, and what was my thought process?

Those are the many moments that I seem to have forgotten.  Just like I don't really remember when it was that the first hair on my chest showed up.  When did that happen?  And when did they start turning grey?  Or on the legs?   For that matter, when did the first pubic hair appear?

I wish somebody had told me to remember those historic events in my own life; instead of remembering some random and trivial events of world history! ;)

Source

The end of November means it is time to shave?

Not for me, of course!

If I shaved, I will look like this:

Yep, behind the furry mask hides a baby-face ;)

To those men who are thinking about shaving off the beard, well, a reminder that facial hair plays a significant role in a man’s love life:

women said the sexiest men were those sporting heavy stubble, followed by short stubble. Men with full beards and clean-shaven men were rated the lowest on the overall sexiness scale.

Mine is a well-trimmed full beard, which rates well among women choosing a long-term partner ;)

Men with heavy stubble and full beards were the clear winners on this question, suggesting that men who are ready to commit might do better if they shave less often.

So, what is going on?

Barnaby Dixson, a human behavioral ecologist at the University of Queensland and a co-author of the beard length study, has been researching mate preferences for a decade. He explains that both sexes judge men with beards as older and more masculine, and describe them as generous, sincere, industrious and self-confident.

You are perhaps thinking, "hey, don't be heteronormative."  Here's the response for you, too:

It’s not just women who prefer bearded alpha males — men also prefer men with facial hair.
Dr. Dixson and colleagues asked 1,577 men and women from Brazil and the Czech Republic about facial hair. Compared to heterosexual women, gay men had stronger preferences for men with more facial hair.

So, throw away that razor, men.  Get yourself a beard-trimmer, and have a great time!

But, what about men who cannot grow beards naturally?  SOL, as my students would say ;)

Remember, Remember, the Month of Movember

I love November because that is when all of a sudden a few students look up to me with great respect.

For once!

No, it is not that I become any wiser in November.  Not any funnier either.  And definitely not because I look like George Clooney come November.

It is all because of my beard.

With every passing year, it seems like more and more students sign on to the "No Shave November" idea.  While it might have begun in order to highlight men's health issues, especially prostate cancer awareness, I would think that quite a few males merely wait for an opportunity to neglect that five-o-clock shadow and let it grow into a month-long shadow.  We men are lazy and we know it, and we are not going to waste an opportunity to be lazy.

And thus some students embark on growing facial hair.  Perhaps even for the first time in their lives.

Which is when many find out that not all are born lucky to have hair growing into a beard.  A couple of years ago, a student told me "not all of us can have a beard like you, Dr. Khe."

And I worried that I could never be a role model for students!  Ha!!!

A year or two prior to this student's appreciation for my beard, a student had included in the free-response part of the faculty evaluation form "He has a cool beard."  Apparently she (I have this nagging suspicion it was a she--the evaluations are anonymous) couldn't care whether the class was good or bad because of my intellectual abilities or how good or awful I was in the classroom.  Or, perhaps she was merely employing the old wisdom not to say anything if there is nothing good to say, which is why she didn't comment on my teaching!

Anyway, I worry that women will think that they too want to participate in no-shave-November and will stop shaving.  Their legs, of course.  hehehe ;)  It really doesn't take much to amuse me!

These are interesting and strange times.  Women might stop shaving their legs for the month.  And then, like men posting photos of their beards and mustaches, they will post photos of their hairy legs that can compete with my hairy leg.  Imagine Facebook posts of female friends proudly showing off their unshaven hairy legs!

And you thought all the scary tricks ended with Halloween!

Perhaps it is with the No-Shave-November that some will come to understand what GK Chesterton humorously said decades ago: "You cannot grow a beard in a moment of passion."  Beards, like all good things in life, take time.  But, worth all the time and the effort, of course.

In time for November and this post on no-shave, a gift arrived from my daughter.  She knows the open secret that beards are more than facial hair--these are serious philosophical and religious statements ;)

You cannot grow a beard in a moment of passion

Carefully look at the person in this photograph:

Source

Is he:
a. Saudi?
b. Iraqi?
c. Indian?
d. Persian?
e. Afghan?
f. Italian?

Could be any one of those, right?

Now, consider the following photo of the same person without the beard:

Source

Is he:
a. Saudi?
b. Iraqi?
c. Indian?
d. Persian?
e. Afghan?
f. Italian?

Not sure, eh!

Look at the two photos again.  Doesn't the one with the beard seem more like a Muslim and the clean-shaven one more like a non-Muslim?

Doesn't the guy portrayed in the photo below look like a Muslim?

Source

Yep, that is the point.

The first two photos are of the same person--Amit Majmudar.  I have blogged about him before.

So, why do I blog about Majmudar and his photos with and without a beard?

Here's why:

Especially as a guy with a #beard, and being from the Subcontinent, I loved Amit #Majmudar's poem in @NewYorkerhttps://t.co/qt3TYnsg0G

— Am.Dr.Khe (@congoboy) July 4, 2017

Read that poem at the source that I have linked to.  Better yet, listen to Majmudar read that poem.

Oh, in case you are waiting for the correct answer to the multiple-choice question, yes, Majmudar is an American.  Ok, yes, an Indian-American.

In my previous post, I wrote:

Amit Majmudar is yet another Indian-American who makes me feel like I am nothing but a blabbering idiot who does nothing. Majmudar is a radiologist, novelist, poet, and writes commentaries. And, yes, he is a family man. Seriously, isn't that supposed to be four different people? And, oh, he is yet to turn forty! I hate such people who make a good-for-nothing out of me!!! ;)

Majmudar has more to say about his dual career life:

 Majmudar, whose poetry has appeared in The Best American Poetry 2007 and periodicals like The New Yorker and The Atlantic, won the 2011 Donald Justice Prize. Majmudar was amused when asked to explain why many Indian-American doctors are also writers, prominent examples being Abraham Verghese, Siddhartha Mukherjee, and Atul Gawande. “I don’t know why that is,” he said, “except if you look at the Indians who came over in the sixties and seventies many were doctors like my parents. Medicine is the Majmudar family profession. My sister and I are also doctors. Going forward, I don’t think we will see this split. If someone is interested in writing, he will go into writing, and that will be the end of it.”

May a million writers--bearded or not--bloom!

ps: the title of this post is a G.K. Chesterton quote.

Face it, this post is hairy!

“You cannot grow a beard in a moment of passion” wrote G.K. Chesterton.   Of course.

Or, as a late great-uncle--a bearded man himself--put it, "I don't grow a beard.  I simply stopped shaving."

As a bearded male, I have more than a passing intellectual interest in beards.  If only I could recall that exact moment in graduate school when I decided that I would grow one--a beard, that is.  But, those are the moments that I seem to have forgotten.  Just like I don't really remember when it was that the first hair on my chest showed up.  Or on the legs?   For that matter, when did the first pubic hair appear?  I wish somebody had told me to remember those historic events in my own life; instead, I remember trivial events of world history!

Intellectually, scientists have long been puzzled by the facial hair--on men, to be clear.  As I noted earlier in the context of many young men sporting beards these days,

The answer, according to The University of Western Australia researchers, is because men are feeling under pressure from other men and are attempting to look aggressive by being more flamboyant with their whiskers.
Published in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour, Dr Cyril Grueter and colleagues were investigating the idea that in big societies, male primates have developed increasingly ostentatious "badges" which may enhance male sexual attractiveness to females and give them the edge over other males.   

But, there is more to the scientific curiosity about male facial hair.  A lot more.  Especially because it is so unique:

It is tempting to think that beards are a holdover from our much hairier progenitors, that for whatever reason, this trait survived as we developed into the naked ape. Yet bonobos, our closest relative in the animal kingdom, lack hair around their mouths—precisely where the human beard grows. It would seem that, if anything, human beings have added hair to their faces, even as they lost it most other places. Even if our ape ancestors had had hairy faces, a question would remain: Why did women lose this hair while men retained it? As it is, a hairy chin and upper lip are virtually unique to the human male.

No, do not slip into thinking that we were made in god's image; most Indian male gods are clean-shaven, which would make me a satan then!

What if the beard is nothing but an evolutionary accident?  You know, that old theory--shit happens!

But most scientists have been reluctant to let it rest there. For one thing, insignificance is an unprovable supposition. It is impossible to say for certain that beards are simply along for the ride, at least not until all the functions of all the human genome are discovered. Scientists seek reasons for things, after all, and it is far more interesting to suppose that beards serve a purpose, obscure though it may be.

In other words, scientists always want to know why that shit happens.  Or, here, why the male facial hair?

A second possible solution builds on Darwin’s idea that beards are ornaments that charmed prehistoric women and can presumably still charm women today. Adherents of this line of thought have worked to replace Darwin’s reliance on vague notions of taste with more concrete psychological and biological explanations for women’s preferences. A third theory takes the opposite approach, arguing that hair is a threat device useful in intimidating rival males and establishing dominance. Women, then, have been attracted, not to the beard as such, but rather to the social dominance that impressively bearded men achieve over other men.

My beard serves a practical purpose too--stroking the beard makes it seem like I am a thoughtful and thinking professor in the classroom.  It works, as long as students do not find out that the beard is a mere prop in the awesome stage that the world is, especially in the fifth part (age):

And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part.

A professor's hairy questions on life!

It has been a few months since I last met with my cousin.  No surprise, therefore, that the first words out of her mouth, after she said hi, were "your hair is fully gray now."

If she has inherited the genes from our grandmother, as I did via my mother, then it is only a matter of time before the black on her head transforms into grey.  Haha, the joke's on her ;)

The first gray hair on my head appeared even before I had experienced the agony over the first pimple!  But, the grey hair's appearance did not bother me at all.  I had grown up with quite a few gray-haired adults around me and I thought it was normal for some to have grey hair.

The process to fully grey, of course, was one that took decades.   When I started growing a beard, I was a graduate student, and the hair on top and on the face was mostly black, with occasional gray.

Now, the little bit of hair I have seems to be all grey, and so is the beard.

The beard though wants to grow uncontrollably fast compared to the hair on top, and if it were not for the beard trimmer that I use every few days, I will pretty much be a real-world example of the caricature in the following cartoon :)

As you can see, I don't look that different from the cartoon image .... muahahaha

Why does the hair turn gray anyway?

Gray hair, then, is simply hair with less melanin, and white hair has no melanin at all. Genes control this lack of deposition of melanin, too. In some families, many members' hair turns white in their 20s.

Btw, is is white hair or grey hair?  More importantly, is it grey or gray?

Gray and grey are different spellings of the same word, and both are used throughout the English-speaking world. But gray is more common in American English, while grey is more common in all the other main varieties of English. In the U.K., for instance, grey appears about twenty times for every instance of gray. In the U.S. the ratio is reversed.

So, given that we are part of the ape family, one has to wonder: do male chimps go bald?  do orangutans go grey?

Don't be a bag of lazybones and expect me to answer everything--find out for youself before you grey and more ;)

Bearded bandits: Grover Norquist and Mohamed Morsi

It is such an interesting coincidence that two bearded fellows are making lives difficult for most of the peoples in the countries within which they operate.

(Of course, it is a bearded blogger making such an observation!)

One thinks that he is the pharaoh of Egypt and the other believes that he can reduce government to a small enough size to be able to flush it down the drain.

In fact, they kind of sort of look alike, too, which is scary!

I intentionally chose these images (sources 1 and 2) of the two of them with their respective country flags in the background for two reasons: first, for the easy affiliation, of course.

The second reason is the more important one--to convey the old Samuel Johnson line that "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."  And such patriots often wrap themselves up in flags and other symbols.

The scoundrel on the left wrapped up in the American flag is Grover Norquist, and the other scoundrel is Egypt's Mohamed Morsi.

As George "papa" H. W. Bush famously asked two decades ago, "Who the hell is Grover Norquist, anyway?"  And who made Morsi the pharaoh?

They give us bearded men a bad reputation; no wonder Americans are deeply suspicious of men with facial hair, and we haven't had a bearded president since Benjamin Harrison!

PS: No offense meant, Santa; please deliver me the gifts, and more :)

The last bearded American president

It was Benjamin Harrison--the 23rd President.  We have not had a bearded president since the end of the 19th century!

He was a Republican. 

Like the famous bearded President, Lincoln, who was the first ever President to sport a beard, and was also a Republican.

Anyway, other old beards as Presidents?

Ulysses Grant, Rutherford Hayes, who seems to have had quite an unkempt beard, and James Garfield ... and all were Republicans.

Not a single bearded Democratic president! 

None, nada, zilch, zippo ...

A few had mustaches.  Seriously, one would have expected the other way around--that bearded presidents would be Democrats.

But, even Uncle Sam sports a beard!

Unfortunately, it does not look like we will anymore have presidents with beards--Republican or Democract.  Why are they so afraid of beards?

Oh well, I suppose it is only Sarah "mama grizzly" Palin who has enough cojones to grow one ... muahahaha

Image of the day: on beards

Two students, who are sisters and one just graduated, have a dog named Chesterton.  Yes, named after that literary intellectual G.K. Chesterton.
Well, perhaps as serious Chesterton fans they already know what he said about beards; in case you don't get all the way to the bottom of the graphic (click on the graphic for a clearer image), having a beard--even a shaggy one--is a sign of commitment and dedication because, as Chesterton said:

One cannot grow a beard in a moment of passion

Cool! But, Chesterton himself did not sport a beard, but had only a mustache :)

That is smooth--well, no beard :)

Every few years, I begin to wonder how much difference my beard makes, and sooner or later I shave it off ... and within a matter of days I start growing the beard again because it is now so much a part of who I am ...

So, yes, that is where I am now ... but, I am doing it in stages ... I have only a mustache on for now ... looks hiiiillllarious :)

Come to think of it, if I had not left India, there is a fair chance that I would have retained my moustache (as it is spelt there) ...

I tell you, it doesn't take much to amuse myself ...

According to Shakespeare, the beard shows up in the fifth part we play in this world that is a stage:

And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part.

I have commented to students on quite a few occasions that Americans are mostly a tad suspicious of men with facial hair.  Thus, it is rare for a male politician or CEO to sport a beard, or even a mustache.  (Yes, that is yet another reason why the Oregon governor race is all the more interesting!)  The last bearded president we had, well, you know who that was :) 
To a large extent, men with facial hair then tend to be found more in higher education settings and in the public sector.  Yet, I am always surprised that quite a few male faculty do not have beards, and even more surprised when they say they have never ever even experimented growing one ...

Anyway, next step--removing the mustache too.  But, a post on that is at least a week-plus away ...

Beards, bald-heads, presidents, and me

Yes, this is me. I wanted to find out how I would look without facial hair--it has been a number of years since I last did this. Not bad, eh!

One of the most admired presidents--Lincoln--had a beard. Teddy Roosevelt had a big fat mustache. But, think about this: we no more have presidents with facial hair. And, at the same time, we no longer have male presidential candidates who are bald. With female presidents, we will not have beards and baldies--well, it will be rather strange to have a bald and bearded female president. Heh heh!

The last president who had a shiny dome? "I Like Ike". Ike was also the last president to almost alays ever wear a hat while out in the public.

JFK, photographed often on beaches and on sea, eliminated hat-wearing, and also set the trend that baldies are ineligible for the Oval Office.

As Time put it, it was the simple sartorial gestures of John F. Kennedy that really shaped 20th century American style. The images are iconic now—a rolled-up sleeve, an untucked shirt, a shaggy head of hair—like something out of a J.Crew catalog or a Ralph Lauren advertisement. But in 1961, Kennedy's confident, carefree style was a radical departure from the copycat boxy gray suits and felt hats that had defined men's fashion for previous generations.
Among other things, Kennedy banished hats for men, even disposing of the top hat for his inauguration speech.

I like wearing a wide-rimmed summer hat. My favorite was a hat I had purchased when we visited the Amish countryside in Pennsylvania many years ago. I wore it a lot when we lived in the hot and dry Bakersfield. Until my daughter sat on it and crushed it one day :-(