Thanks for the shootout and the encouragement MurphyDog, pics are indeed take on a bad day. I agree with you that the look is great and works for me… yet I keep seeing flaws and defects in it in the way of texture, shape and what not. On some level I realise 90% of it is in my head, but still it gets to me sometimes.

Dunno, I guess beard envy plays a part as well as I meet bearded folks everyday where I work and most of them have serious, near-flawless full beards going on, which makes me feel like I'm trying too hard or something. It's like a joke we have in Italy - "Yeah, it ain't bad, but good things are different". Dang