PRINTTo Beard or Not to Beard: Many Don't Have a Choice
Quinn Kelsey
February 21, 2008 | 12:00 a.m. CST
As the Spanish proverb goes, “Chins without beards deserve no honor.” Good thing Kyle Montgomery isn’t Spanish.
In fact, he’s pretty much your typical American college student. He stays up late finishing projects, dabbles in guitar and prefers a T-shirt and jeans to anything remotely fancy.
But there’s one thing missing: the usual stubble resulting from a college man’s busy schedule and, well, late nights. Why no whiskers? Montgomery says he can’t grow a beard.
Technically, it’s not that Montgomery can’t grow a beard. It’s that some men can’t grow a beard of substantial length, according to Jefferson City dermatologist Dr. Barbara Ebert.
She says there is a more complex medical explanation for the apparent lack of facial hair. “It is a human variation in the actual length of the growing phase (of the hair),” Ebert says. In other words, men with a longer growing phase can have a five o’clock shadow by noon while for others, it doesn’t appear until next week (think Mel Gibson versus Zac Efron).
Although Montgomery might not win the World Beard and Mustache Championship (being held in Anchorage, Ala. in May 2009), he says life isn’t too bad. “At least I always have a baby smooth face,” Montgomery says.
