It’s not just a monthly fad of “no-shave November” anymore. According to Jerimi Miller, President of the Midlands Whisker Society, the acceptability of facial hair in society today is here, and it’s here to stay for a while.
The Midlands Whisker Society is a social club located in Columbia that celebrates the growth and development of facial hair. They recently hosted a facial hair competition for a good cause. Proceeds collected at the event went to Camp Wonderhands, a service for deaf and hearing-impaired children provided by Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital.
“Often just at a first glance, someone may think [someone with facial hair] is kind of lazy because he looks disheveled, but there’s a lot of people that look disheveled that have really big hearts,” Miller says. It’s those who are biased that Miller is trying to change. “Just because we don’t look like the acceptable norm, we’re out here, we’re doing good. We’re helping our fellow citizens…our brothers and sisters.”
There’s a full gamut of categories and subcategories of facial hair types—from the Van Dyke to full beards, and even the styled mustache—the possibilities are as endless as the imagination.
