Dear reader,
As you know, I have decided to keep my beard. It will be the Balbo beard. Read on about my beard adventures.
Growing your beard is like a journey of discovery.
Once you decide to keep your beard, you face an uncertain future. You start from scratch but don’t know which path you will take or where it will end. Of course, you don’t know how the beard will develop. Will it be a thin, wispy beard or a full Viking beard? Will it be a neat, tidy lawn or a sparse patchy grass? Should I also grow a mustache, and should I let the beard grow all the way to my ears? I absolutely don’t want a goatee. According to Youp van ’t Hek, that’s a so-called ‘talking pussy.’ Then the question arises: which type of beard will I choose or suits me? I was advised to just let it grow calmly and then see what suits me best. The beard you choose also depends on the shape of your head. What shape is my head? According to my wife, I have a square head. The so-called Balbo beard sounds good to me. That’s a beard with a floating mustache combined with a wide goatee that follows the jawline and shaved sideburns. Luckily, my wife agrees. Well, she has to look at it all day long.
Beards and razors
Anyone who thinks that having a beard means never shaving again is very wrong. If I do nothing, the beard grows wildly. Before you know it, it’s going every which way. I don’t want to look like a homeless person. My barber advised me to keep about two fingers’ width of beard under the chin and along the jawline and shave the rest of the neck area. This keeps the beard looking neat and well-groomed. Some guys let the beard stubble grow on the neck as well. Everyone can decide for themselves, but I don’t like that. On the cheeks, you can choose to shave the beard contours super sharply in a curved line from the corner of the mouth to the ear. I don’t find that very attractive myself. I prefer to keep the beard edges a bit rough. That suits me better. So regularly I tidy up the beard contours with my Gillette razor. It’s a bit tricky, though. Because the long beard hairs quickly get stuck between the blades of my Fusion. The Fusion has about 5 blades surrounded by a wide strip. This makes it hard to see exactly how the blades are shaving. It has happened to me a few times that I accidentally shaved too much on one side, so the beard contours no longer match. Very inconvenient. In short, I’m not completely satisfied with the razor yet. I’m still looking for the ideal razor for perfectly shaving my beard.
Sharp beard contours
Normally, I shave my beard with a little shaving foam from the spray can. The downside is that you smear a big white cloud on your beard. You can’t really see what’s underneath. You don’t have a clear view of the beard edges. Often it goes wrong and I don’t get the edges sharp enough. To my great frustration. My neighbor a few houses down advised me to use a transparent shaving gel. This way you get a protective layer and a clear view of the edges at the same time. Oh, why didn’t I think of that myself earlier? Good advice and very logical. I immediately bought a shaving gel. I put a little shaving gel on my beard and can now very precisely tidy up the beard contours. Perfect. Yes, I’m getting there. Step by step.
It’s clear that my beard adventure is not a neatly organized trip. But it is an exciting journey of discovery. To be continued.
Johan
