Every morning I wake up slightly surprised that I still have a beard. It’s been there on my face for more than a decade, but I still don’t think of myself as being in any way committed to it. That’s because nothing about a beard involves commitment; I got it by doing nothing, and I could get rid of it tomorrow. Mostly, I don’t think about it.
But when I do stop to consider it, I have to wonder how many favours it’s doing me. It certainly makes me look older, although shaving it off wouldn’t necessarily make me look younger: the face beneath hasn’t stopped ageing, and the last time I saw it – briefly, last summer – I was shocked by the settled weight of my expression. So the beard came back, only greyer this time. Which is better? A beard takes months to fill in. How could you even begin to compare the two looks, one against the other?
