Considering Participating in Movember in Merritt?

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Movember Musings from a Goatee Greenhorn

 

I remember hearing about Movember in Merritt BC. Some called it “No Shave November”.  However, back in high school I thought it was an awful idea. No, I don’t mean the millions upon millions of dollars in charity raised each year for vital causes like mental health and cancer treatment! I just meant that I was a scraggly teenager. I had inadvertently participated in every previous Movember without much to show for it. But times have changed.

Wiser Movember in Merritt

I’m a twenty something year old man now. I have my own place and I drive around in a responsible midsize sedan.  Perhaps most surprisingly, after a recent camping trip when I forgot my shaving kit, I looked in the rearview mirror as I got on the highway back home and decided I had begun my clumsy foray into the world of ‘stache ownership. Therefore, I had to decide? Was I in or out on this ‘stache movement? 

My Movember in Merritt

While I can’t say that my newfound crumb catcher is a result of a Movember pledge – this was more of a mid-September thing. The convenient thing about being early is that I can pass some potentially life-saving advice. Advice passed down to any readers who might be considering, or already well on their way through a no-shave challenge. Without further ado, here’s the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of participating in Movember’s most popular campaign, a month without shaving.

 

The Good: New (and Bizarre) Compliments

I was lucky enough to get by the most awkward stages of stache development. Hiding  in the woods for nearly a week will do the job. If you’re not able to isolate from society for 3-6 days and let the “did your shaver break or are you keeping that?” days roll by that way, just try to tough it out! You’re doing this for charity and to look more like Chris Hemsworth; both very honourable causes. 

No-One Recognizes You After No-Shave

Anyway, regardless of how long it takes you to grow your ideal facial hair. Do not worry, and especially during these bizarre COVID times, friends and acquaintances will be seeing the new look for the first time anyway. We tend to recognize people by their faces, so significantly changing up that familiar face has a way of getting people to really tune in; what I’m trying to say is that you were always a handsome son of a gun – they’re just noticing it more!

The Bad: Patches, Invisible Hairs, and More

I was fortunate enough to have spent the formative days of my goatee journey toasting up marshmallows and reading by the campfire. However, once I got back to work, I realized just how out of sorts the whole thing was panning out. While I was gunning for a tidy, definition building goatee, I was a bit more Inigo Montoya and a bit less Walter White. There’s a few things going on here. Therefore it is important to note any burgeoning beard is going to come with a handful of patchy and uneven spots. And yes, these do eventually fill in! Perhaps more interesting however, is the breadth of colour that the average mustache is likely to represent.  

Reality

In real life, you’re liable to see your regular hair colour, about three or four shades on either side of it, gray(!), black and “invisible hairs”.  This mix-match of colour is easily remedied in the movies with a little beard dye. If the colour does not suit the cause then you can deal with it, either by taking matters into your own hands or consulting a pro. Local beauty salon TC Hair & Medspa offers an intriguing one hour long beard colouring service that’s likely to assuage even the most picky among us. Check them out and tell us how it goes!

The Ugly: Remember Those Marshmallows I Mentioned?

As you might have surmised by the title of this section, you’re going to be sharing your food from now on out. In other words the good news is you’ve got a tea strainer with you wherever you go! The bad news is, it’s also a soup strainer, crumb catcher, marshmallow shredder, and a few other things I won’t get into. However, you can style your stache and rein it in to prevent some of this. Although long term you’re going to need to learn to keep on top of this new problem. I’m serious about this one. There’s an entire YouTube channel online dedicated to keeping food out of the face furniture. In addition,  you’re going to eat a little bit of mustache hair. Sorry. At least you know all those famous bearded celebrities are, too!

In Conclusion

There we have it – everything you probably never wanted to know about Movember participation. Jokes aside, participating in a fundraiser challenge or even just a show of solidarity like this is a very commendable endeavor. This cause has been supported in many different and interesting ways by the Movember Foundation since it’s inception and we’re lucky to have a challenge on our hands that is arguably even more do-able in the current COVID situation. Consequently, and unfortunately,  other raffles, runs, and competitions have had to take the year off

Movember in Merritt BC

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