After all the laughs I got on the first day of Movember wearing an already full sized moustache, I returned to work clean shaved and everything returned to normal.  I was no longer the company laughing stock.  At least for now.

I didn’t shave for a couple days since it would have been too difficult to try to keep just the moustache.  On November 4^th I did my first shave and you can see the results here.

I then hit the road (having taken the day off from work) to go to Syracuse for the weekend to celebrate Dan’s birthday.  The weekend involved seeing a lot of old friends and having some good times getting together.  Dan and I got to join in on some Haranshire fun and attended their coronation feast and made a Wayfarer announcement.  It was a good time and I managed to find the time to continue to shave and took another picture on the 6^th.

On Monday morning, I found myself awake at 4:30AM to take a flight to Billings, Montana for work.  I kept on trimming every morning but each one had me up before 6AM and taking a picture was never really on my mind at that time of the day.  While there is never as much time as you want on a work trip to really get to see the places you visit, I did have a couple hour drive to meet our customer and got to see a lot of very beautiful Montana sights, including mountains and deer.  I didn’t actually see too many moustaches out west.  I also saw snow.  The temperature was often below freezing.  Sometimes I really forget how lucky I am that even though I live in Canada; Toronto is a pretty warm place overall!

I didn’t really think about a picture until I was in the airport waiting for my transfer in Denver on the 9^th.

While this is being published on the 10^th, I wrote this the night of the 9^th, and haven’t been to my office since
November 3^rd.  In a sense, my plan to get everyone in the office used to my moustache gradually coming in isn’t
going to work with not having to go in for six days.  Still, I believe the moustache I am currently growing will look better than my former eyesore.

I will continue for the month to grow my ‘stache in support of bringing awareness to men’s health issues in support of Movember.  I’ll be checking in again around November 21^st to let you know how it’s growing!

Tags: awareness, cancer, men’s health, moustache, movember, shaving, travel

Not every idea is a good idea.

My moustache got a lot of attention at work, but not necessarily the positive kind.  “I can’t even look at it,” a colleague of mine tells me, as he laughs and stares at his computer screen to avoid seeing the monstrosity on my face.

I believe it was the sixth or seventh person to see me in the day to see me to only smile and not make a big deal of it.  I told him thanks for not laughing at me like everyone else had.  He said he experimented with moustaches in the past so he understood what they looked like.

Every female coworker that saw me laughed, without exception.

While I didn’t get any truly negative feedback (I certainly caused a lot of laughter) I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to survive this for the full month.  Especially so early when most men participating in Movember were all shaved.

So I decided to go back on my plan to cheat the rules, and I’ve shaved off the moustache.  On the evening of November 1^st, 2011, I was clean shaven and taking part in Movember like I am supposed to.  I’m hoping that growing the moustache will ease people into it and it won’t cause the shock it did today.

My moustache was even mistaken as a fake!  I was told that I was supposed to ‘wear’ that yesterday (referring to Hallowe’en) by my coworker who sits by the mail that should get a glimpse of me every day.  Apparently, she hadn’t realized that I had grown a beard in October.  When things come in slowly, they are less noticeable (even a full beard).  But when you have a hideous thing like my former moustache suddenly appear on your face, everyone notices!

Movember should be an interesting month.

Tags: awareness, cancer, men’s health, moustache, movember, prostate, shaving

What’s facial hair to a man?

November is a month where every man has a choice.  He can go about his facial hair like he normally does.  Or he can grow a moustache and participate in Movember!

Now, I’m not a big fan of moustaches.  Actually, I find they look hideous.  However, considering that I’ve signed up for a month long trek through Scotland to raise money for cancer research, what’s a month with a moustache on face?  If my facial hair can raise awareness about men’s issues, such as prostate cancer, sporting a moustache for a month is an easy sacrifice to make.

Without reading up on Movember’s official rules, I decided to grow a beard so that I could shave off all but the moustache on the night of October 31^st.  In the meantime, I decided to be a lumberjack for Halloween. Why not, I had a beard!  The beard came in really well and I’ve had a few people tell me that I should keep it.  However, I was committed to participating in Movember so the beard had to go!

So I now sit, shaved down to my moustache, fully aware that I’m not ‘technically’ following the rules of Movember.  I’m supposed to start the month with a clean-shaven face and only let my moustache grow.  But since this is my first year participating, I’ve decided that I’m allowed to break a rule or two.  I’ll just start raising awareness right away, starting now, with this article.

The tagline for Movember is: “Changing the face of men’s health”.  I hope you can appreciate the moustache I’ve grown – and will continue to grow – and contribute to a great cause.

Are you going to participate in Movember?  If so, how?

Tags: awareness, cancer, lumberjack, men's health, moustache, movember, prostate, shaving