I Didn’t Shave my Beard for a Whole Year
I’ve always had this appreciation and fascination of projects that take a long time, show time going by or have basically anything to do with time passing quickly. I find it interesting since time is so important to us all and, to most people, extremely frightening. I’ve got this pure acceptance to the fact of life where I don’t feel scared about death or, in that sense, time passing by quickly and I guess the fascination for time evolved from that revelation.
A dying man needs to die, as a sleepy man needs to sleep, and there comes a time when it is wrong, as well as useless, to resist.
The Idea
I got the idea from watching a guy on YouTube called Shay Carl. He was, at the time, documenting a project where he wasn’t going to shave his beard until January 1st, 2009. I’m not sure when he started but I really liked the attitude he had for the whole project, how he approached it and how fun it looked to be so totally out of the ordinary people actually recognized him for it. The growing of the beard became his trademark and I remember thinking; “Wow, this is awesome! I can do that!!”
A few weeks went by and I found the right moment to launch this project. At the time my little sister, Birgitta, was going to South America as an exchange student and I thought it would be a perfect time to do this. And so it began.
The Process
It’s not hard growing a beard. I mean, it’s basically just not shaving … that’s the whole task. I had the rule that I couldn’t even trim it, except for my mustache, so the beard grew wildly and all over the place. I loved it, for the most part. It worked as an icebreaker for every single person I met and I was getting approached by a lot more random people who wanted to know what the hell I was thinking. That being said, girls didn’t seem to enjoy it as much as I did myself. Don’t ask me why, but my honest guess is that I used the wrong colon that year, wore the wrong clothes or it might be the fact that I just scream, uncontrollably, when girls come up to me.
Hey, what’s your na … AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
So as planed, this went on for a whole year and since me and a few friends had the fantastic idea to create a web based TV show at the same time, called Dead Drunk but Trying, it gave me a mini-trademark of my own. I was recognized on the streets of Reykjavik, Iceland as the weird bearded dude from that awesome show on YouTube. It also gave me an idea for the next project I wanted to do, but that one is still in the works so I can’t tell you about it for now. I can tell you that it has something to do with time and music. No more! My lips are sealed!!
The Finale
A video says more than a year of growing a beard … or something like that. Please watch:
Conclusion
Would I recommend doing this? Yes, if you’re brave enough. Would I do this again? Hell no, I’m not brave enough!
