Chagrin On The Chin

I have not shaved lately. It's been a few days at least. I would say it's been nearly a week. I'll have to shave it soon enough just because it isn't part of my look for acting. My headshots are me clean-shaven (or at least close to it) with a moustache and lots of curly hair, and looking like that is probably my best chance of working. I will, therefore, undoubtedly shave before long, as I can't go this way to an audition. Still, it's interesting.

I never have had good coverage for a beard, as I'm sure I've said before. It gets awfully patchy. I've been advised that if I let it go long enough, that will be less a problem, but it's the awkward phase that would present a problem even if a bear was feasible for me. If a bear was part of my look and I could hole up for a few weeks, maybe I'd do it. If I was back in college, a beard would be a good summer project (or Chistmas, given that I spent breaks back home in sweltering Phoenix).

I did a beard in college actually, but it was just on the chin, and I feel considerable embarrassment over it now. It probably looked terrible even then, and if I'd had very many friends around, one would surely have leveled with me. I used to have to worry about trapping the beard in the zipper of my winter coat, but I thought it looked good. I guess that everyone has to go through that phase, and I'm glad my came before I move to LA.

Presently I'm nowhere near out of the awkward phase, and I doubt I'll get there. I'm a bit past the acceptably scruffy look sometimes seen on movie stars, and close to passing the "CNN war correspondent" look that passes only because the man doing it has indispensable news to report and is a brave hero. As I'm not a hero, it will not work for me. As nothing really could work for me, I'll shave. It'll be traumatic to my rather sensitive skin, but that'll pass, and I'll be back to my usual style soon enough.