University Star

November is the prickliest month.

Residents across the United States are participating in No Shave November.

Men throw their Gillette’s into the storage cabinet and declare they will not shave until Dec. 1. UrbanDictionary.com describes it as “The month of November in which you don’t shave any hair of your body but instead you grow more bestial, brutish and manly.”

But what are the advantages of going a whole month without trimming the soup catcher?

“It just seems like a fun thing to do,” said David Sellers, construction technology junior. “You walk around campus and see everybody with beards growing.”

Sellers said his girlfriend will “definitely” object to his newly formed facial hair.

“She might say ‘you look like you’re 40,’” Sellers said. “She’ll definitely (try to get me to cut it off). It might annoy her, but that’s my thing — annoying her all the time.”

Sellers’ stubble is modest now, mostly resting on his chin with a few patches elsewhere on his face. But he has no plans to try and contain his beard as it expands throughout the month.

“I’m just going to let it grow — nasty neck hair and all,” he said.

Eric Mathis, studio arts junior, said he is participating in the annual event but has heard it referred to as “Novembeard.”
Mathis is participating in Novembeard.

He’s starting off with a chunk of scruff, his red whiskers growing down his neck like a river flowing downstream.

“I got the neck beard and that’s the prime part of it all. My mom hates it, but I like it,” Mathis said.

He said itchiness can be an issue.

“I feel like there’s fire on it sometimes, but it’s all good,” Mathis said. “Plus it’s sort of red, so it makes my Irish heritage come out. Makes me drink Guinness better.”

Some men don’t treat their whiskers as short-term projects, but let them flourish over the years. David Meischen, creative writing graduate student, said he has had his beard almost continually since spring 1982.

“I liked it for the longest time,” Meischen said. “I shaved it off briefly 10 years ago. And every time I looked in the mirror it didn’t look like me.”

Meishchen’s beard is full fledged. It’s certainly no Grizzly Adams, but it goes from ear to ear and around the mouth. The grey hairs are accented with darker hair on the mustache and sideburns.

“I was living in California and I always told myself I looked like someone who could teach at Berkley,” Meishchen said. “It was kind of professorial looking.”

As Sellers pointed out earlier, No Shave November does not only affect the men of the world, but the women who have to live with them.

Some women whole-heartedly object to facial hair on a man, as Beatrice said in William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, “I could not endure a husband with a beard on his face: I had rather lie in the woolen.”

Elisa Luevano, Texas State alumna, said as long as the facial hair looks tidy and presentable, she’s OK with it.

“I would be OK with it for a while,” Luevano said. “But if you give your boyfriend a hug or a kiss, you don’t want to be scratched up all the time. I’d probably be a bit fed up with it by the end.”