The De-bearding Of Stephen

It proved to be quite a hassle getting rid of 5 months of growth, with chunks of wirey hair being cut with scissors, then shaved with a razor.  I didn’t have the luxury of a set of trimmers.  Firstly, let me remind you of how I looked just before I started the process

The first step was shock, simply shaving the head.

On facebook, I got comments like Irish Taleban and some strange, deluded people thought it was an improvemment.  Nice.  Then I trimmed it all, and shaved from the bottom of my bottom lip to my chin, and then removed most of the hair on my neck.  The Redneck look:

Audrey felt it made me look very sad, like droopy dog if you remember him.  In order to determine if I was a redneck, Scott (van Niekerk) helpfully posted the following (the one in bold being the highlight):

Just as a test do you do any of the following now?

When ordering a beer do you say "Hey there sweet thang, how's about gettin' us a cold un!" 
Do you have any shirts left that still cover your midriff?
Do you think loading the dishwasher means getting Audrey drunk?
Do you now own a homemade fur coat?

Then it was time for the Hulk Hogan look, but couldn't be bothered getting it bleached the right colour:

The ‘tasche and the sideburns got trimmed a bit for the final look before it all disappeared.  How anyone took me seriously through some of these transformations, I can’t imagine (but luckily I still managed to get my visas):

And that was the end of my beard.