The cost of a child

The last time I had a beard was 13 years ago.  I had just gone on parental leave from work and I was excited about not having to look corporate, so I let my hair and beard grow out.  It worked for awhile, but eventually Pinkie Pie got enough coordination to seize on my beard and yank.  Having my tiny person pull herself up on my facial hair was extremely unpleasant, so the beard came off. 

While I was bearded back then, this is how I looked.

Just recently I grew a beard again, though this time the reasoning was different.  This time I was getting into a cycle where I didn't shave until it *really* itched, then finally got grumpy and took the facial hair off.  After a few cycles I started to get comments about how terrible the constantly disreputable thing looked, so I let the beard grow out again.

This is how I look today.

I have a lot less hair, that is for sure.  Both in the 'I cut it short' sense... but also in the 'male pattern baldness' sense.

But what stood out more is the grey in the beard.  What a difference in look.

This is what having a kid around for 13 years will do to you!

Pinkie Pie thinks it is funny that I blame my grey hair on her.

I don't know that I will keep the beard for long.  One of the big reasons to have one is to save myself the annoyance of shaving, but people seem to think that I need to shave under my jawline to make the beard look better.  Shaving a bit less area just isn't accomplishing the No More Shaving thing that I want.  If I am shaving at all, I would rather just have the goatee because I think that is what works for me best.

I do find it amusing though that now when I have a cat on my desk while I game it is me who is grey, and the cat who is pure black.  Before it was me having the pure dark colour, and a cat with lots of grey.

Evidently somebody around here always has to be grey, one way or another.