To beard or not to beard

One of John Peel's most familiar stories was of when he shaved his beard and the face staring back at him was a "cross between my mother and Mussolini".

My brother shaved his beard off for a dare this summer, and was most perturbed to see our grandfather's chin staring back at him from the mirror (probably also our father's, but he's always had a beard, so we've never seen it). The beard is now back, and staying.

It is one of the great tragedies of my life that I have no beard - and I think that if you are beard-enabled, you owe it to the rest of us to bloody well grow one! (Just think what would happen if women grew beards - we'd have beard salons, special beard shampoos, gels, waxes, etc., beard dye, and all sorts of silly styles...)