Think of your favorite November traditions. What comes to mind? Thanksgiving? Football? Celebrating Christmas at full force even though it’s only been one day since Halloween? There is one tradition that is often shunned and forgotten: No Shave November.
No Shave November is the sacred birthright of men everywhere. It was originally founded in the archaic year of 2009. It was started as a way to raise awareness for cancer, specifically prostate cancer. Each year there are over 150,000 new cases of this disease, and it is not slowing down any time soon. No Shave November is just a small way for an average person to make a difference. Participants in No Shave November are encouraged to donate the money they would spend on grooming products to charity instead. This year’s charities are the Prevent Cancer Foundation, Fight Colorectal Cancer and St. Jude’s Research Hospital.
Although Wesleyan may have stripped away this rite of masculinity from us students during the school year, there is no restriction on students during the summer or teachers year-round. Let’s take a moment to appreciate some of the most bodacious beards Wesleyan has to offer.
Franklin Pridgen
Style: Described as a “Gentleman’s Beard,” contrary to the longer “Mountain Man” variety.
Origin: Started last fall. His wife and the football team were fans, so he decided to keep it.
Grooming Regimen: Nothing special—he just tries to keep it clean and trimmed regularly.
Josiah Emmelhainz
Style: He calls it a “Full Beard” and claims that it is really a Viking or “Berserker Beard” at heart; he says his beard “has a fiery disposition.”
Origin: He has always had a “dread fascination for beards” but says that he specifically decided to grow it “when Wesleyan took away [his] invaluable rights.”
Grooming Regimen: He washes it with more vigor and more passion than he does his hair. He brushes it, and it is naturally oiled throughout. He does not use any product other than typical manly shampoo conditioner. He claims that “anything more would muddy and ruin it and the essence of what a beard truly is would be lost.”
Liam Coxhead
Style: He refers to it as “a Wolverine type of beard, which makes [him] look fierce.”
Origin: He started growing it at the beginning of summer.
Grooming Regimen: He normally uses shampoo to wash and groom it, but if it is a special occasion, he uses Dove for Men.
Scott Schroer
Style: He just goes with whatever style grows whenever he decides not to shave.
Origin: As soon as he graduated from Wesleyan, he started growing it. He claims “it wasn’t a conscious decision; it just happened.”
Grooming Regimen: He uses Mountaineer Brand Beard Oil, Pine Scented.
Joe Tamel
Style: He considers it to be the kind demanded of a bald, grunge drummer.
Origin: He started growing it about 15 years ago.
Grooming Regimen: He uses the body wash Du Jour and Maestro’s Beard Wash. He says that, “when whimsy strikes or the wife drops hints, I’ll employ Mail Room Barber Company’s Appalachian Scent Beard.”
Joseph Cooper
Style: It used to be the shaved-edges, trimmed beard, look but now he goes with the “whatever you call not touching a razor for three or four months” look.
Origin: He first grew it in August of 1997, when a fellow teacher mistook him for a student and told him to grab a seat before the school assembly started.
Grooming Regimen: He claims that “styling/grooming products are for girls” and that “the whole point of growing a beard is to avoid grooming.”
