My huge beard – The Barbarians!

These late 19th Century Australian gents sport their impressive man toperies. Did such impressive outgrowths send the corseted ladies of Victorian Australia a-swooning?

I have few talents.

Growing hair is one of them.

I have therefore decided to focus on this and let my barbe grow to immense proportions.

On a recent jaunt to Melbourne I discovered in a junk store a collection of ancient photo printing blocks that had been found in the basement of an old church. Amongst them was a collection of “my kind” and had to snap them up. Their luxurious late 19th Century beards now give me inspiration in the bookcase.

Do I look like Santa? This question does not require a response.

Who are they? I have not the remotest idea. Given Australia’s past they could be anything from Scions of the Church to wild bushrangers. None appear to be Ned Kelly himself, but I would rather not meet a few of them in a darkened alley.

Strange to think that possibly a wild bushranger or indeed a pillar of the Victorian Church would nowadays be a hipster idol.

That the Romans named the ravening hordes that overran their empire “barbarians” (the bearded ones) intrigues me. The various Olafs or Gunters or whatever the barbarians called themselves must have been a hairy lot and the Romans weren’t keen on them, obviously unappreciative of the wonderful potential of a full flowing hedge of hair attached to your chin. The nutritional value alone of the various crumbs and gravies that find their way into the fibres is justification  enough, but when you add to that the capacity of a beard in middle age to hide “a multitude of chins”…well, I ask you…”Who wouldn’t grow one?”

My current “barbe” Do I look like Ernest Hemingway? This question does not require an answer.

I was at least delighted the other day when I was told by someone that they found my beard offensive. When I asked why they said it made me look like Ernest Hemingway…and they hated Ernest Hemingway. Now I don’t believe that I actually do look like Ernest Hemingway but it was a definite improvement from being mistaken for Santa which is the usual comparison made.

Never mind, I know it is sheer beard envy that provokes such unkind allusions and I shall be the one that has the last Ho Ho Ho!

Cee’s Oddball Photo Challenge: http://ceenphotography.com/2015/10/18/cees-odd-ball-photo-challenge-2015-week-42-and-new-camera-accessory/