Filed under: Movember | Tags: facial hair, meditation, moustaches, Movember, rites of passage, shaving
This is the longest I’ve ever gone without shaving (my moustache – I’m still shaving my ‘beard’). The closest I’ve come is February 1997 when I went on a Vipassana retreat. It was a time in my life when there was a lot of chatter around me. When a colleague told me about a 10 day retreat where you don’t talk to anyone, I was sold. Then I found out that it was a meditation retreat. I had my doubts. I’d never really attempted meditation for more than a minute. But I like to throw myself in the deep end and felt that I should give it a fair go before judging anyway.
The concept was pretty simple. Ten days of noble silence where all you do is eat vegetarian food, sleep for 5 hours a night, and meditate the rest of the time. The actual meditation techniques they taught were simple, but the practice required a lot of discipline. It’s certainly not for everyone and there were a number of people who did the runner, but I came out of it on the biggest high I’ve ever had. I maintained my practice for five months and only needed five hours’ sleep each night. As with all things though, this passed, but it is something that I’ve gone back to from time to time.
It was during this retreat that I last attempted to grow facial hair. It was the longest I’d gone without shaving since I started at the age of 16. Unlike most boys, my dad never taught me how to shave. In fact, he used to tell me not to start, or else I’d have to shave every day. On my 16th birthday I decided to give myself the rite of passage. I took one of dad’s disposable razors, read the instructions on the side of his can of shaving cream and have never looked back. I’d been shaving for nine years by the time I went to Vipassana and I’d never gone more than a couple of days without shaving. Even after ten days, I didn’t have a very impressive moustache. I shaved it off before coming back into society. I decided then that I’d never be able to grow a moustache. That was before someone threw down the gauntlet last month. It’s hard to back down from a challenge. And when the cause is as important as men’s health, it just wouldn’t be right not to take that challenge. So now twelve years later, my mo is slightly longer than it was back in 1997, but it’s just as sparse. Some of the baby hairs look like they’re about to sprout, but I think they’ll only ever be bum fluff.
Filed under: Movember | Tags: Arab, courage, depression, facial hair, injustice, Movember, opression, prostate cancer, terrorism, USA
He’s gone ahead and done it. A man braver than me. My half-Lebanese, half-Dutch boss Anthony had actually signed up for Movember and not told anyone. It only came to light when I spammed all our colleagues telling them about my (attempted) mo-growing exploits. Anthony had a photo ready to put up. The funny thing is that I’ve never been seen with this much stubble and he’s never been seen as clean shaven as he is in that picture taken on Day 1. We were both flying solo, but all of a sudden it was Rush Hour with him the tall swarthy Tucker and me the short hairless Chan. And we got a few donations to boot.
He’s a far braver soul though. He’s flying to the US in a couple of weeks where he always gets pulled over and screened like a suspected terrorist. And now he’s donning facial hair. It’s like wearing a t-shirt saying “Come and get me you bastards!” Good on ya you jolly swagman. So now you know that when you support Movember, that you’re not only supporting research for depression and prostate cancer, but for men taking a stand against injustice and oppression. Support the cause.
My mo’s starting to take shape (of sorts). I’m sort of looking like a torture victim. It’s like someone’s stuck electrodes above my lip and burnt off some of the stubble. But at least it is still just stubble. Perhaps that’s a good thing.
Filed under: Movember | Tags: Arab, Asian, charity, donate, facial hair, men's health, Movember, Russian
“Well you know that if you hate it half way through November, I can’t just shave it off? I’ll have all these sponsors and I can’t let them down”.
I went three days without shaving to see just how lame it could look. It was pretty sparse. Well the ridicule is something I’ll have to live with. It’s for a worthy cause. It irritated my girlfriend’s face a bit. She agreed to live with that too.
I looked for a group to join, asked my colleagues and guys I’d sponsored in past years. No one wants in. One’s on holidays and gets back too late to join in. I’ve got several Asian colleagues like me who know they don’t have enough facial hair. A Russian colleague is too sensitive and gets itchy after a couple of days, then there are the guys who would feel naked shaving off their goatees and moustaches. One guy said ‘yes’ today. He’s my half-Lebanese, half-Dutch boss who looks more Arabic than European. Then he realised that he’s going to be in America for a couple of weeks in the middle of all this. He gets enough shit at the airports without facial hair. The last thing he needs is another excuse for them to ‘randomly select’ him for interrogations and tests, so we decided that it was a ‘no’ for him in the end.
Now I’m biting the bullet and going to give it a shot. I’ve signed up and I’m flying solo. Only five days to go.
It's Movember. Just gimme a mo ok? 