Thread: Beards?

I have had mine for 55 years. I usually keep it reasonably short, about 1 or 2cm, but it occasionally gets a bit longer. I have only once had it Santa Claus length.

Lot of years ago. Hair half down my back and beard nearly as long. Returning from a weekend away and feeling tired, I pulled over for a nap, couldnt get comfy in the car so I got out and slept very soundly in a ditch beside the road. Jumped in the car in the morning to the girlfriend of the time laughing her head off. It was about that time I realized I had slept in buzzies. I reckon we were still plucking them out a month later.
cheers
blaze

In the late 1970s, I was clean shaven, but my identical twin had a beard. I was working in a office in Melbourne, and my brother (who was living overseas at the time) had arrived in Melbourne, and came round to the office to hook up with me. The receptionist, when he stepped out of the lift nearly had a heart attack - she thought I had grown a beard while she was out for lunch!

Originally Posted by JDNSW

In the late 1970s, I was clean shaven, but my identical twin had a beard. I was working in a office in Melbourne, and my brother (who was living overseas at the time) had arrived in Melbourne, and came round to the office to hook up with me. The receptionist, when he stepped out of the lift nearly had a heart attack - she thought I had grown a beard while she was out for lunch!

I thought your twin was your sister. Under those circumstances, the receptionist's reaction was understandable.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

I've only had my beard for 33 years. One valuable aspect of it is that it reduces the skin cancer risk for at least part of your face. (Had a telehealth consultation this morning as part of the followup with my melanoma specialist!)

I once diagnosed a melanoma on a patient’s neck that was hidden under a beard he’d had for over 20 years.

Another patient came to grief with a melanoma in his stomach - the sun never shone there.

Telehealth is good for a chat, but not so good for a skin check.

He is happy about the skin check I have been getting locally - found four BCCs in the last year.

From my reading, a large part of the risk from sun exposure for melanoma is from sun exposure before age 20. This is demonstrated by the fact that immigrants statistically match Australian rate of incidence if immigrating before that age and their country of origin if immigrating after that, allowing of course for skin type and other genetics. It has always seemed uncertain to me whether the actual site of the melanoma is necessarily the site of sun exposure - melanoma can occur for example between toes. Sunburn rather than simple sun exposure seems to be the precursor for melanoma, which is definitely not the case for most other skin cancers.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

He is happy about the skin check I have been getting locally - found four BCCs in the last year.

From my reading, a large part of the risk from sun exposure for melanoma is from sun exposure before age 20. This is demonstrated by the fact that immigrants statistically match Australian rate of incidence if immigrating before that age and their country of origin if immigrating after that, allowing of course for skin type and other genetics. It has always seemed uncertain to me whether the actual site of the melanoma is necessarily the site of sun exposure - melanoma can occur for example between toes. Sunburn rather than simple sun exposure seems to be the precursor for melanoma, which is definitely not the case for most other skin cancers.

Spot on!

When I had a BCC cut from the back of my neck a few years ago, the doctor had to lift up what he described as my mane to get at it.

That part of my neck probably hadn't seen the sun for several decades, but when I was a child, I had the traditional short back and sides that almost every boy had in the 1950s.

My neck would have seen a lot of sun in that spot 60 or 70 years ago.