Bill's Purple Beard

The whole thing started at Christmas time, 1996. I decided to let my beard grow. I hadn't grown a beard since graduate school, over 30 years ago. I was curious about what color it would be. (It turned out to be much grayer than I had expected!) So I started letting it grow with the intention of shaving it off again before I went back to work from my 10-day break over the holidays. Well, too many people at work heard about it and wanted to see the results. Also, my daughter liked it and encouraged me to keep it. (My late wife, Donna, then my girl friend, didn't like my beard back in school. That's why it disappeared then.)

When I came back to work, everyone liked it, so I decided to let it grow a bit longer. (Well, one guy didn't care for it, but it's good to get at least one contrary opinion.) I knew that it was definitely not going to survive into spring. It would be too hot running. I already have trouble with my skin getting irritated due to crystallizing salt from my sweat. I can't imagine what a beard would do to me!

But how long to keep the beard? There had to be some definite cut off date (pun intended). I decided that I would choose a date and on that evening I would borrow my daughter's purple (lavender) hair dye, and dye the thing! I would then wear it that way to work, for one (1) day. Then off it comes!

With more and more warm days coming in March 1997, I was finding the beard less and less comfortable, especially running. So I decided that the week of 9 March would be it. I just had to choose a date when I wasn't gong to have a meeting or something. The 9th of March was out - I was to attend a presentation by an Admiral. (It wouldn't do to show up for the Admiral's "show'n'tell" sporting a purple beard!) So the 10th it was.

First, I took some pictures of me with the gray beard. Then I got out the dye. One side note - the manufacturer's name and label are hysterical! Here's the label:

At work, the reactions were mixed and generally humorous. People fell into four broad groups. The first group knew of my plans and were waiting. "Oh! You did it! Come over here to the light where I can see" was the reaction. Another group just wasn't paying attention and didn't see the color. Even when I just stood there looking at them, stroking my beard! A third group saw but immediately looked away, like they didn't want to be seen staring. I got the impression that what they wanted to say was "Hey buddy, your Grecian Formula has gone bad, but I'm too polite to call your attention to it!" And then, of course, there there are the irrepressible people (I normally fall into that group). "My God! Is that purple? It looks like it's fluorescing in black light! Like it was glowing!" Complete strangers.

On the evening of the 11th I took a couple of additional pictures after I shaved the beard off.

Here are three of the pictures, Before, Purple, and After. Click here to go to a page with a few more.