Bye Bye No Shave November!

This post is in response to blogger Khushboo Motihar's tag for the #WillYouShave campaign. Her matter-of-fact take on lazy men turning up unshaved for formal meetings only reiterated what my thoughts on the issue.  And it's not just us, many bloggers of I've interacted with share the same sentiment that men with unkempt beard or stubble leave a not-so-perfect impression.

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November is gone, and it has left me feeling happy and well, relieved. Relieved, yes you read that right. I am relieved because I can now hope about seeing more men embracing December with a clean shaven, spic and span look. I have had enough of seeing quite a few of them dressing up their laziness in garbs of fancy causes. So bye bye to ‘No Shave November’ and a warm hello to squeaky clean (hopefully) December! 

For all of you have not heard about the concept of No Shave November, it’s a custom of ‘not partaking in the use of a razor for the entire month of November’. This custom is more heard about in the west, where men let their facial hair grow free in the month of November. Of late No Shave November has been associated with spreading awareness and raising funds for cancer research, but the men I see around me seem clueless about the cause, and use the hype around ‘No Shave November’ as a nice excuse to not shave for a month!

But you know how the wise men say that sometimes one has a to pay a price for aping the west and following trends blindly. Something exemplifying this age old wisdom happened with an acquaintance   recently. This will read like a quite a cliché, but in the last week of November, he was short-listed for a face-to-face interview with the HR Manager of a top notch finance firm. Now this yuppie type had been upping his so-called coolness quotient all through the month of November, in the name of showing solidarity with 'No Shave November' month, though slyly admitting that it gave him a valid excuse to avoid shaving.

No Shave month is gone, pick up the razors please!

So he arrives for the interview, immaculately dressed, but for his shabby beard. Needless to say, the beard comes up for dissection in one of the interview questions.

'So you say you are following a trend, Mr. Rao. Does that imply that you will keep following all the trends that come up, and will put them before company's priorities and code of conduct?'
Ah, too bad for Mr. Rao, all his confused babble of yes sirs and no sirs and sorry sirs, failed to change the Manager's decision in his favour. 

This post is a part of #WillYouShave activity at Blogadda, in association with Gillette.

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I tag my blogger friends –

Nandini Deka, who writes at Nandini Speaks,
Swarna Rao, who blogs at Swarna's Diary, and
Ranjith, who writes at A Light Hearted Talk to share their take on #WillYouShave activity. The word limit is 300 words. When you write, please mention that you picked the tag from me.

Here are the suggested prompts for the write-ups –

For men - 

• Missed chances - Stories or instances where you missed out on an opportunity because of a non-shaven face.
• Luck of confidence - Will you leave your fate in the hand of destiny or will you step up and say yes to a well-groomed face to be your best every day.

For ladies - 

• An instance when stubble came in the way of a man's chance to make a good impression.
• An instance when a well-groomed look ensured that they stuck gold on an opportunity given to them.

This post is a part of #WillYouShave activity at Blogadda, in association with Gillette.
Photo Courtesy: shavingemporium.co.uk