Hipster Dad Encases Beard In Lucite Because He Wants To Make Sure His Child Knows How Cool He Was
It’s probably a good thing that babies are bald, because babies and hair don’t mix. Anybody who has ever had a baby grab hold of the little baby hairs at the back of their neck can probably imagine the pain a bearded man goes through whenever a baby grabs two fistfuls of facial hair and pulls with all their little baby might. It’s not good, but one Brooklyn dad has figured out a way to keep his hipster beard and his adorable baby, Willa June, in peaceful coexistence.
Luke Hughett was a Brooklyn dude with a big long lumberjack beard. He said he’s had facial hair for most of his adult life, but then he had a baby and realized that facial hair is inconvenient around babies. Not only did Willa June yank it and spit up in it, but she appeared to hate it. Whenever he’d wear her in a baby carrier, the beard would be all in her face, blocking her vision and annoying her. The beard had to go, but Hughett did not want to lose it, and rather than shave it off and regrow it in a couple years when Willa June is past the beard-pulling phase, Hughett came up with a complicated solution: Beard taxidermy.
“Beard taxidermy” is officially the most hipster thing I have ever typed, and I once wrote an article on handmade, organic, artisanal Easter Peeps.
Hughett started by spraying his beard with enough hairspray to hold it roughly in shape while a barber shaved it off. Then he carried the beard and mustache, still in one piece, to a “beard taxidermist” and had the thing mounted in a block of solid lucite.
Hughett made a video of the process, and the best part about it is all the baby side-eye he’s getting from the baby while it’s going on. She’s not even a year old, and she can already say, “Oh my god, dad! You’re so weird!” with her eyes.
“It’s pretty weird,” said Willa June’s mom, who has very long hair but will probably not be freezing it in carbonite any time soon.
While I think most beard-wearing dads will just grow their beards back later, this is a good option for a dude who is really, really attached to his facial hair and has the money to have it preserved for posterity. (Someday this beard in lucite is going to confuse the hell out of future archaeologists.)
Check out the whole process in this video:
[vimeo video=”113322179″]
