Pre-face

Hello, my name is Sam-o and this is the virtual home of a little project I like to call 366 Days of Facial Hair.
First, a long, unnecessary history of this project: I don't remember when I started shaving, but it was either 7th or 8th grade. Looking back the fact that I thought it worth clearing my chin and upper lip of the four or five wispy, downy hairs every few months seems silly, but as my face became furrier the frequency of razor-to-skin contact increased, and before long I was a shaver like the rest of 'em (albeit, a couple years earlier than most of my peers). Somewhere around my junior year in high school I decided to experiment with letting my face revert to its state of nature, which after a while opened the gates to endless possibilities--the 'stache, the goatee, the handlebar, the mutton-chop, the Lincoln, the jaw-line, and so forth. My skin learned to adapt to a constant state of change--clear one month, gloriously bearded the next--and my dexterity and vocabulary with the various tools of the trade grew stronger.
Of course, this was all superficial and appearance oriented; it wasn't until I went off to college--and my first Midwest winter--that I learned the functionality of a beard. The longer it grew, the more it filled in, and the warmer it kept my face. By the time spring had sprung I had grown so accustomed to my woolly countenance that after one shave and a subsequent trim I decided to let it go untouched through summer, fall, and early winter, which brings us to today...
Somewhere along the way I began to wonder at what rate my face actually produced said hair. I wasn't quite sure of when exactly my last shave was--was it April? May?--nor how much I had shortened it after an early summer trim, so I decided the best way to figure it out was to pick a day to go clean and take regular notes on its progress. Thusly, I decided that on New Years Day, 2008 I would shave my beard and leave it untouched for one year, no matter how itchy, no matter how ungainly, no matter how unkempt. I plan to regularly take pictures to chart its progress, and note any points of interest, all to be organized on this blog.

So for the next 366 days, please enjoy watching shit come out of tiny holes in my face.