WHO'S GROWING WHO?
Everyone knows the aesthetic reasons for growing a beard. Beards make you look more masculine, rugged, transform a weak chin into a powerful jawline, yadda yadda yadda.
But many people don’t realize that growing a beard also transforms you as a person.
Below are three things that growing a beard teaches you:
HOW TO BE UNCOMFORTABLE
We’ll spare you the clichés about getting outside of your comfort zone, but we’ll put it like this — you can’t grow a beard without going through awkward stages. And in those awkward stages, you’re going to feel weird and uncomfortable about how you look. Embrace it. Those awkward stages are the perfect opportunity to tone down the vanity and boost your inner confidence.
PATIENCE & PERSISTENCE
Nobody grows a beard in a day. Okay, maybe Carlos Costa grows a beard in a day, but for most people, it takes around three months for the beard to really fill in and another three months to get some significant length. Remember, hair grows at an average rate of one-half inch per month. Patience and persistence are crucial when growing a beard — and in most everything else in life.
CONFIDENCE
Where does confidence come from? It comes from taking action even when you are unsure of yourself — from making mistakes and learning that you can recover from those mistakes. Sure, you’ll be wobbly the first few times you trim your own beard, but you’ll get better at it. Like most things in life, just start — you’ll figure it out along the way.
It just goes to show that sometimes you grow the beard, and sometimes the beard grows you.