No Beard Comments

I received quite a few comments on my beard. By contrast, after I shaved it off, I had quite a bit fewer comments, most of them all within the first week. The comments being mostly in the first week is somewhat understandable, since a beard takes a while to grow, so some people might just think, early on, that I forgot to shave and don't say anything. Still, I'm surprised how many fewer commented on the nonbeard. As with the last--and only other time--I've had a beard, most people who liked the beard said "Cool" when I had it; most people who didn't reserved there statement of dislike regarding the beard until after I'd shaved it off.

Beard Progression

So I didn't shave for eight weeks. Here were the results by week, for weeks 3 through 8 (unfortunately, I didn't think to take photos of weeks 1 and 2):

 

Beard Comments

I grew a beard about seven or eight years ago. This past winter, I decided to grow one again. There wasn't the same kind of angst as the first time I grew it. I was just being lazy and trying to avoid cold. Still, it's been curious people's reactions, most of whom don't remember the six months I previously had a beard--or maybe they do, since fewer people have commented on it this time around, it seems, as can be seen in the following chart, denoting the first time a given person has made a remark about my beard:

Crushes by Hair Color

I've never quite understood why hair color is even something people pay attention to when talking of people they are attracted to. Sure, I might find some blonde gals attractive, but that won't mean all blondes are, nor that I won't find a redhead or a brunette or a black-haired gal even more so. It really depends on the whole woman--figure, face, haircut itself. Add in personality as well--I've seen some very pretty women who fairly quickly didn't appeal to me because of their general demeanor, and a few other less-immediately physically attractive gals have grown in appeal because they were simply so much fun.

Anyway, I very unscientifically have tried to sort through gals I've had crushes on over the years to see if any hair color overwhelms, or if it's more or less even. Of course, there's also the question of what constitutes a crush. There have been girls I was interested in, but I wouldn't have called it a crush--I guess because it was less intense, as she was not someone I spent a lot of time thinking about when she wasn't around me. So what I'm trying to restore to memory here are the women, from high school on, who I spent a lot of time fantasizing about--even obsessing over--the possibility of being in a relationship with. (Unfortunately crushes are what most of my dating life has consisted of. Rare is the girl I actually had a crush on who accepted a date from me, and rarer still such a girl who I managed to score repeat dates with.)

Looks like I'm a guy who prefers blondes. Of course, if we take into account that brunette outnumbers other hair colors, then the preference becomes even more apparent (just as the absence of redheads might be explained by their relative paucity in the population as a whole--the most rare of hair colors). Growing up, redheads appealed the least to me, though I've come to appreciate their beauty in their own right as I've gotten older. I can think of a few I had an interest in--even a strong interest--but I can't think of any who inspired a full-on/lost-my-mind crush, as I'm defining it here.