Mr. Mustache

I found this photo on my hard drive. I had forgotten that I had taken it. The man in the photo was walking past me in Shibuya when I asked if I could take his picture. I had to. His mustache looked like something out of a storybook or an old-timey movie. It was quite a marvel to behold. I have never been good at growing a beautiful beard or mustache. It always goes through the four phases of 1.new refugee 2. not so bad 3. unkempt rogue 4. homeless fellow. I can never trim it to look clean like they do in magazines or on TV. Maybe over winter vacation I will lock myself away for a month and grow a full-blown Rasta man type beard. It’s not that I really need a beard. I just get bored with my face and want to change it from time to time. The danger of growing a beard is having to shave it off. There is always the “weird face” shock of seeing ourselves without a beard. The guy in the photo has made a strong character image with that beard of his. I can’t imagine him getting rid of it. He would become a completely different person.