Needle, Meet Haystack

My father, for the past 3/4 of his life, has not been completely clean-shaven.  And not only that, but his facial hair has remained in the same style, outliving fashions of the hippie, disco, yuppie and day-glo eras (his sideburns, sadly, cannot say the same – mutton chops, Dad?  Really?!).  His van dyke has, besides going from black to gray to white, remained unchanged throughout the years.  No matter what else changes in his life, there is one immutable law: my dad will have his beard and mustache.

In fact, my mom has never seen him without it.  For the past 30+ years, she has never seen him without his facial hair.  His sister doesn’t remember what he looked like without it (not counting in childhood, before his beard could grow to its permanent resting place).  In fact, much like Jesus Christ between ages 13 and 30, there is a gap of time in which there were no photographs of my dad at all.  It’s as if he left the land of pictorial remembrance, and when he returned, his beard and mustache came with him.

I don’t think that my father will ever, for the rest of his life, put razor or clippers to the hairs above, below and to the sides of his lips.  He will forever be a bearded man.

Dad’s facial hair decision echoes a trend that has existed in cultures and workplaces since the dawn of mankind: if you find something that works, stick with it.  And while there is wisdom in this concept, there’s also a great deal of foolishness.

Once a method or practice has been shown to work consistently, it becomes ingrained in a culture.  Personally, we call them “habits.”  Professionally, they’re “operating procedures.”  Sure, they might not work all the time, but if they work for the majority of cases with little or no incident, there’s no real cause for concern.

And this can be fine – innovation is not essential to success.  But then, how do we know we’ve chosen the best methods?  How do we know that what we’ve become accustomed to is the best choice?

I’ve asked Dad at various times to shave off his beard.  He won’t do it.  After what I can presume to be much trial and error in his wilderness years, he found something that works for him.

So the only real way to establish a habit or operating procedure is through trial and error.  It can take a long time to determine the best method, but once it’s done, it at least seems like the best way to do things at the time.  But if it starts losing effectiveness, that’s a clear indication that one must innovate.

My dad’s facial hair hasn’t reached that point – it hasn’t lost its luster, even after decades of sameness.  Still, I can’t help but wonder how he would look without the beard and moustache.  But as long as it works for him, it’s not a mystery that really needs to be solved.