jerryc41 wrote:
Just curious - How many of you (men, only) have a mustache or beard of any kind? I had a mustaches for decades, and then I shaved it off. Now, I have a mustaches and chin whiskers. Since Covid, many more men have beards.
I generally prefer to be clean shaven, but these days I'm often not. That is because I no longer shave regularly like I did when I was working. I am not retirement age; however, I choose to no longer work because being made redundant and/or being treated badly by middle managers annoys me too much.
I own my own home, which is well above the average home in terms of its value, location and quality, and I have no mortgage or other debt. I also own some rental properties, again with no mortgages. And my wife still works. So now I can spend more time on photography instead of working for jerks and instead of shaving every day.
Each time I hear in the media that many employers can't get enough workers here in New Zealand I have a laugh to myself these days. Anyway, so I don't need to look clean and tidy for a job anymore, so I usually only shave for weddings and funerals now, and occasionally at other times if I feel like having a shave, but other than that I can't be bothered to have a shave. It has nothing to do with going through the Covid lockdowns for me, I was doing this prior to Covid. Sometimes I joke with friends about sometimes looking like a homeless man, which of course I am not a homeless man, but looking this way a lot of the time is great to keep the
vultures (sales people) off my back.
Also, here in New Zealand we have the annual 'Movember" month , where some blokes temporarily grow a moustache for some sort of November fundraising or men's issues awareness campaign.
During Covid lockdowns, with people stuck at home and working from home, I guess people could let themselves go a bit, shaving included, and so men have discovered that it saves them time and money to not shave every day, and in some cases some men look better with a moustache or a beard. Fashions come and go though, and they come back again - we've had times before where beards have been the
'in thing', and that has been in my lifetime.