Tom, couple of things. First of all, the pic above, it might be uncomfortable and bulky, but that one massive braid is mind blowing. Being a underwater kind of guy, the very first mental image that struck me was that it looked like a rather larger albino lobster had grabbed your jaw and was just hanging around. The darker center of your 'stach & soul patch gives the definition for the apparent claws around the chin and grabbing you by the ears.

The other thing is you comment about the comment from your boss's boss regarding ZZ Top! As you have been to Singapore and noted, there are very few beards here of any note. My field staff are mostly Indians and Malays. The have started calling me ZZ Top as well but I still got a "long" way to go, but most haven't seen one this long first hand so it's an ego boost I have to admit.

Another thing occurred to me while reading you post on pros & cons of long beards. Sleeping and waking up with an unruly mop. You said that braiding wasn't any good and yeah, I can understand that. But there might be another alternative you can think about. Find an ethnic Indian Community (Asian Indian) and see if there are any Punjabis there (Singhs - the ones with the Turbans. They let their beards become extremely long as well, but most of them keep then 'secured' with a panty hose like fabric that cups the hair to the jaw and encircles the top of the head. Like wearing a woman's hair net upside down.