Hello beard gurus,
I've been lurking on the site for a couple of weeks now and have finally decided to start a thread for my first beard. Reading through all of the first beard and beard journey threads has been very inspiring and the RoBA has helped me through a couple of rough mornings already.
I'm 27 and have always been clean shaven except for a two-week goatee about 8 years ago (had to shave it off for a dress-code and never grew it out again). Tomorrow morning will be 4 weeks since my last shave; my moustache is at 3 weeks because I shaved it once before finding this site and reading the RoBA. I think it is coming along ok, and I actually think it looks better in person than in my pictures. My goatee is definitely my strongest area, and I think my chin is generally good. Cheeks are sparse/have some weird patches, and my soul patch/stache are so light/sparse they're almost invisible.
The experience so far has been pretty positive, especially since my wife is totally on-board and has been nothing but encouraging (shout to her for taking the pictures). I think the negative reactions from friends/family/coworkers have been pretty minimal because I recently cut off about 12" of my head hair (selfie of me in DC in mid-November), so everyone that has seen me recently reacts to my haircut and not my quasi-furry face. Many of my male co-workers are bearded and have been at least open to me growing, if not outright supportive.
So here are my 4 week pictures, I haven't been taking weekly pictures as of yet, but I'm planning on posting weekly updates from here on out. My tentative plan is to grow for 13 weeks as many on the board suggest. I would love to have a full beard, but not sure that its in the cards for another few years. If I can pull off a nice riker or circle beard after 3 months I'll be happy, just hoping that my stache improves a bit for those styles.
All comments and feedback are appreciated. I'm excited to be sharing my first beard with this awesome and supportive community!






I've been lurking on the site for a couple of weeks now and have finally decided to start a thread for my first beard. Reading through all of the first beard and beard journey threads has been very inspiring and the RoBA has helped me through a couple of rough mornings already.
I'm 27 and have always been clean shaven except for a two-week goatee about 8 years ago (had to shave it off for a dress-code and never grew it out again). Tomorrow morning will be 4 weeks since my last shave; my moustache is at 3 weeks because I shaved it once before finding this site and reading the RoBA. I think it is coming along ok, and I actually think it looks better in person than in my pictures. My goatee is definitely my strongest area, and I think my chin is generally good. Cheeks are sparse/have some weird patches, and my soul patch/stache are so light/sparse they're almost invisible.
The experience so far has been pretty positive, especially since my wife is totally on-board and has been nothing but encouraging (shout to her for taking the pictures). I think the negative reactions from friends/family/coworkers have been pretty minimal because I recently cut off about 12" of my head hair (selfie of me in DC in mid-November), so everyone that has seen me recently reacts to my haircut and not my quasi-furry face. Many of my male co-workers are bearded and have been at least open to me growing, if not outright supportive.
So here are my 4 week pictures, I haven't been taking weekly pictures as of yet, but I'm planning on posting weekly updates from here on out. My tentative plan is to grow for 13 weeks as many on the board suggest. I would love to have a full beard, but not sure that its in the cards for another few years. If I can pull off a nice riker or circle beard after 3 months I'll be happy, just hoping that my stache improves a bit for those styles.
All comments and feedback are appreciated. I'm excited to be sharing my first beard with this awesome and supportive community!






