Some guys out there can just simply grow a beard. Unfortunately, I’m not one of them.
No matter how long I let my facial hair grow, it just doesn’t seem to fill in the spots necessary for something people would actually consider a beard, instead of someone who’s just lazy and doesn’t shave. I can pull off a goatee, but that’s about all.
For a little while now, my wife has been hinting about wanting to see my clean shaven face again, but I think it was more of a ploy for me to get rid of my “beard.” But after a trip to Lucky’s Barbershop last week, she’s probably wishing I hadn’t touched a single hair on my face – at least not unless it was all of them.
It was sometime last month during a meeting at the office when we were spit balling ideas for the Insider when the topic of Movember came up. “You guys should totally do it,” was the gist of it, but Jon wasn’t about to get rid of something I only wish I could grow.
And as I’ve told you all before, I’ll do just about anything for a story. So like the Taco Gigante, I answered the challenge – even though my one and only experiment with a mustache lasted about 24 hours and looked as though I shouldn’t be allowed within 500 feet of a school or playground.
But I figured why not give it another shot. It’s for a good cause, since Movember brings awareness to men’s health issues, such as depression, prostate cancer and other male cancers. It started in 2003 when two friends in Australia got 30 guys to take on the challenge of growing a mustache. It has grown to where 21 countries took part last year with close to five million participants and almost $650 million raised.
“It’s a great cause and it doesn’t cost anything to do,” said Josh Craggy, owner of Lucky’s.
It certainly is an attention grabber and conversation starter – assuming people actually can keep a straight face when taking to me.
So I called Craggy to see if he’d be willing to give me a professional trim. Turns out Lucky’s is a big supporter of Movember, so he was instantly on board.
For the last four or five years, Lucky’s has been donating to the Movember cause in both monetary terms and facial hair. What I learned from my trip to the local barber was that you’re supposed to start November with a clean shave and then grow out a stach from there. But if I tried to do that, it would probably be January before I had anything that resembled one. So instead, Craggy gave me a trim that I’d have no chance of replicating at home. You could tell this wasn’t his first mustache formation, and he even gave me a couple options. There was the trucker ’stache, the handlebar or what he called the dad ’stache.
I landed somewhere between a trucker and a handlebar (see photo).
“Most people don’t like rocking a mustache,” Craggy said. “But people who can just look great.”
But the guys at Lucky’s are doing it right. All seven barbers went clean shaven on Nov. 1 (four of which had beards) and are growing a mustache for the month.
And if you haven’t got on board with the movement, there’s still time. If you don’t feel like doing it on your own, head down to Lucky’s and put your name on the board and tell them you’re there for Movember – they’ll know what to do. Anyone who participates will get some free razors courtesy of Harry’s, while supplies last, of course.
“They were nice enough to send us a good size box of razors to give out,” Craggy said.
You can also donate to the cause on Lucky’s behalf by visiting mobro.co/luckysbarbershop.
