Category: vanity

June 9, 1973, was the most recent time I shaved. Before I had much of a beard, I loved shaving—lather, hot water, cold steel, and some blood makes a man. But when it got to shaving every damn morning to look presentable, I chose unpresentable. When I got laid off the first time, I decided I could modify the psycho biker look I favored. After much thought, I got a haircut and didn’t wear the red Chuck Taylors to the interviews. I kept the beard and bowtie (this was back when jobless men wore ties]. [My brother said he never hired a man who interviewed in a bowtie; that was the surest sign of being a rebel. I said ‘correct.’] In 2005 when I asked my wife if she minded how gray my beard was, she thought for a second and said: Still better than your face.