This is the season of razors sitting idle on sinks and chins disappearing in silky and wiry, trimmed and untamed, curly and cascading decoration. Growing a beard might be about solidarity with No-Shave November, or it might be a permanent state of face. Either way, “beard” isn’t just a familiar noun. It’s a verb, meaning “to confront and oppose with boldness, resolution and often effrontery.”
On this page (and Page 20), you can see such boldness on Curtis Joe Walker, a local photographer who calls it his “chemo beard.” Walker went through treatment for lung and testicular cancer last year, losing his hair as the drugs ravaged his fast-growing cells. Coming from a very personal place, he thinks No-Shave November strikes an exceptional balance between a fun, hair-centric gimmick and important work surrounding a heavy subject.
“It just fits,” he says. “Because when you go through chemo, it’s the one thing you can’t have.”
No-Shave November
- Meet these Vegas beards
- Time to celebrate No-Shave November, and the adornment of our time
- Local barbers dish beard grooming tips and products
- Bearing witness to culture's leap into the bearded age
- The Gay Beards are out to make the Internet smile
- That time I accidentally bared my face to the world
- That time my dad went to Vegas and never came home
- Quiz: Name that beard! A dozen famous faces with plumage you should know
Walker has since grown a doozy of a beard, and shared it at the November 1 kickoff of Atomic Liquors’ month-long contest benefitting the American Cancer Society. Men and women and all manner of face fur were invited to go for greatness in categories like Awesome Man Beard and ’Stachiest MoFo. This is just one local example tapping into the good-hearted levity of No-Shave November, which encourages folks to forgo shaving (and grooming, if employers allow) “to evoke conversation and raise cancer awareness.” Not to mention funds. Through December 31, the organization pledges to give no less than 80 percent of donations to participating charities ranging from the ACS to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
When the web-based nonprofit launched in 2009, it reportedly raised $2,000—and last year brought in more than $1 million. It happened because eight kids lost their dad to cancer, and creatively fought back. On the No-Shave November site, their sentiment boils down to this: “We want every participant to embrace their hair for the many cancer patients that lose theirs due to vigorous treatments. We believe that together, anything is possible, and we’ll get closer to eradicating cancer one whisker at a time!”
For details and ways to get involved, visit no-shave.org.
