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With No-Shave November having ended, my participation in the event has likewise ended.  Although, as I noted before, I had worn a beard more or less continuously since entering graduate school, after shearing away the hair on Halloween (it is still a scary image), I found letting it grow back this past month to be...uncomfortable.  My neck itched abominably, and some comments were made as a result of the change in my appearance that I found...unhelpful.  Then, too, there was the oddity of someone else's face staring at me as my own, as I noted.  But all that is past now, and I am glad of it.

I have returned to my own face.  I have returned to some semblance of the distinguished professorial dignity I hope to convey through my visage and carriage.  I have returned to looking like myself as I see myself, looking like this:

The photo is courtesy of my lovely and loving wife.

I am vain enough to be happy with the way things have turned out.  If it is the case that my beard did not grow quite so much over November as I had thought it would (based on past experience of the time between needing beard trims), it is also the case that I did have a lot of people ask me after why I did as I did, which was part of the point.  And I also reminded myself of why it is that I do not shave away all of the beard and moustache with which I have been so generously and excellently provided.  (I did note that I am a bit vain, did I not?)

Perhaps, if I do No-Shave November again, I will shave something else entirely.  I do not think that I will need eyebrows...