I’ve recently turned 31 and have decided to mark this occasion by trying to grow a beard. Now I know this has nothing to do with me being in a chair or living in London but what the heck, I’m going to blog about it anyway. Now, I am not a naturally hairy man, I don’t have a Tom Jones style rug on my chest or a lawn of back hair that needs a good once over with a Flymo once a week, so it is fair to say this is going to be a challenge.

I’ve never tried to grow a facial carpet before and have never gone more than three or four days without shaving. It’s also been said that after a few days away from the razor I look like I’ve glued iron filings to my face rather than developing stubble. So two weeks in and it doesn’t look like I need to nip down to the local garden centre and buy some Miracle Grow after all as joy of joys people have been asking at work if I’m growing a beard. Even better I’ve actually been told it looks good. I’ll take it looking average so saying it looks good is like a gift from the beard gods!

Now as you do when embarking on a significant adventure such as this I’ve been doing some research. So I’ve been on www.beards.org and the advice is that I should start shampooing my face and not to go anyway near my face with a razor or beard trimmer for at least four weeks. It also says that I should plough through the itchy face stage and the benefits will be wonderful. So two more weeks and then I’ll make a decision whether to stick or shave and will post the photo on here. Any tips, beard facts, words of wisdom or other beardy weirdy type stories would be most welcome.