Well, I got my first beard mockery today in the form of a Mormon joke that evolved to an Amish joke. Hopefully, that doesn't offend anyone here. It was from a coworker who is a friend and it was all in good fun, but I have a feeling that I have a lot more of that to come from people in the coming weeks. 

Simmo- Yes, I am certainly done with the carving for the forseeable future. I have two different types of Kent combs that I have been using daily. They are both the same comb, one is just a smaller pocket size. In general, I know brushes are good for spreading the oil out evenly, and I've seen some say that they can help to tame, though I tend to have the opposite effect. When I brush, it seems to like to poof things out, so I generally do it at night before bed. I am going to leave the longer hairs that poke out near the ear for now. They aren't bothering me now that I have them tamed a bit and they aren't sticking straight out.