Gray Beard
During the lifetime of many of us boomers facial hair fads have come and gone. As contemporary as we may be in the age of electronics, the natural animal still appears in most men if they don’t shave. Give it a few days and the look is rugged. In a few weeks we blend in with the ages.
There is a strong sense of conforming to the time by virtue of facial hair style. In my time, goatees were hip in the beatnik years. In the early hippie years mustaches were cool, especially Fu Manchu style. The later hippies got into full beards. A period of clean shavedness followed before goatees came back. Full beards have been in style for several years and are so ubiquitous it seems another change may be in order. Until then, the need to be part of the pack is strong and many men emerging from middle age have followed along.
Gray beards, however, come with a certain side effect which Lou discovers this week. Something as inescapable as time itself.