Tom E wrote:
I also find that the weight of the bead, slight though it is, helps keep the braid from curving to one side or the other.  Now I just need to find more for variety!

 

Tom -

It will be some months before I can consider bedazzling my beard, but I belatedly wanted to stop by your thread to thank you for helping me negotiate the path toward my first beard. For nearly four months, as a newcomer to this site, and in order to avoid stepping on any toes (or beards) I swore an oath only to post on threads I had read in their entirety. Well, this self-imposed policy left me effectively quarantined in the establishing fora for, try as I might, there are certain journies on this board that grow faster than I can read. Your own journey is an epic at which I continually chip away, but I must confess I have not yet read every word.

However at this point I simply must thank you. Your fingerprints are everywhere in this community and the community benefits hugely by your influence. Your journey was half the reason I started my own and your kindness, class, and good humor have kept me on course toward my bearding goals. I have seen beardsmen in countless threads jump up and down with glee like six-year olds when you stop by with a kind word. Myself included.

You are equal parts shepherd, shaman, and spirit guide for so many men who choose to pursue this oddly anachronistic coming-of-age ritual. And all the while you are wearing your enviable mane, a totemic testament of your desire to see more beards in the world and the triumphs, large and small, that accompany their growth. I cannot thank you enough.

Next time I stop by over here, I promise I will post on-topic.

--
Kindest regards,

Greyfur


 

My journey

In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd. ~ Miguel de Cervantes
Re-examine all that you have been told... dismiss that which insults your soul. ~ Walt Whitman
I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat. ~ John Milton