Movember

Since the beginning of the month, I have been contemplating the spirit of Movember whose origins are to raise awareness for men’s health issues. If you are interested, you can donate directly on the Movember.com website. To a lesser and more entertaining extent, I thought this would be an excellent chance to make a fool out of myself, and I decided that I would grow a mustache, take daily photos and keep a blog up-to-date with my progress. Half of Movember had elapsed before I decided to join the fray, but I’m determined to extend my Movember on to the end of the year to make up for lost time.

I have made several attempts in the past at growing some sort of facial hair. In the past, I have not really had much success in said growth. Despite sharing some DNA with quite a few mustachioed fellas my attempts have always come up a bit short (or in my case thin). My brother grew a ‘stache in the last couple of years and I gave him a good-natured hard time early on. Since we will see him in a few days for Thanksgiving, I am preparing to take it as well as I could dish it out.

Warning: Before you read or scroll down any further, please be prepared for some particularly terrible self-photography. Not only that but the subject of that photography is my ugly mug. Please proceed at your own risk.

Week One

Week one seems pretty encouraging so far, which is par for course based on my prior attempts. Although despite tweeting and posting it on my Facebook page my darling wife asked me on the third day, “Is there some dirt or something on your lip?” and it was not until day five or six when a co-worker asked politely but incredulously, “Are you trying to grow a mustache?”

Week Two

The second week progressed slowly. I know it progressed slowly because now I have pictures of both day 7 and day 14, there is definitely progress in those seven days, but you have to look hard to see it. I took some good-natured (and well-deserved) ribbing from my family at our Thanksgiving gathering. On that theme, I thought I would give some mustache-themed thanks: I am thankful that my adorable niece could get a fistful of my mustache, I am thankful that food was ensnared in my mustache (it’s like portable leftovers!), and lastly I am thankful that I got to spend the time with my family. A great week of vacation and family and a less-great week of mustache growth.

Week Three

Week three can be summed up very well by this video, I could have used some encouragement from my friends like the encouragement that Nick Offerman offers to his fellow Movember-mates. Week three also contained the conclusion of Movember. I intend to keep this up, so I can gauge when my Movember should start next year (I am thinking August or September)

I am conflicted; I would really like to continue to keep growing the mustache. However, two very important factors came up during week three. Firstly my wife has begun objecting to the mustache protesting every time I give her a kiss. Seeing as how Christmas is in a few weeks, I am wondering if my mustache might keep some presents out from under the tree. Secondly, I have had a job opportunity (or two) pop up seemingly out of nowhere recently, and there is a very likely chance that I will have a job interview in the next few days. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and I think my “middle-school lip dirt” might not go over quite the way I intend although, it may be a good conversation piece and a chance to set me out from the crowd–you never know. Instead of counting my chickens before they hatch, I plan to keep going at least until my wife is on the verge of exasperation.

Week Four

Well week four wound up being not much of a week after all. Originally, I said I was going to take this to completion or humiliation. Unfortunately, life got in the way of my mustache (and its blog). It looks like I will have a job interview or two in the next week or so, and rather than creep the poor Human Resources managers who have to sit in on the interviews, I decided not to creep them out. As superficial as it seems, I believe in making that positive first impression. All this being said, I plan to start next year’s Movember and document from day one again. This time, I also want to get involved and try and raise some money for the cause. This has been fun; I look forward to seeing what happens next year.

Progress in Pictures

I have been using my Samsung Galaxy S3 to take two pictures on a (mostly) daily basis: a picture of my fine self in the mirror, and then a close-up of my face using the front-facing camera. I may miss a day or two, or I may forget to take one kind of picture, but I plan to take at least one photo every day and update the slideshow on a daily basis until I have achieved my mustache.