I thought you might like a smile at my expense today. I have dyed my beard! There are three main reasons for this. Over the years, it has gone grey in bands. It is rather fetching (he thinks!) Thus, there was a canvas awaiting the transformation from black-and-white to technicolour!

Secondly, I get bored easily. I went to see my pink-haired friend, Vanda, and we decided it was time to change style. With no hair on top, options were limited. But Vanda did have product – which she gleefully ‘pushed’ on me (“Like there was any resistance?” – Ed) In fact, Vanda stands alongside the mighty Dawn who has had parts of pinkness for as long as I’ve known her, and I’m a big fan of both. I think I wanted to join their tribe because we all want to be more like the people we like, don’t we?

Then there’s “Eric.” I haven’t met Eric yet but his legend precedes him. He is the Chef at The Black Swan and I have been mistaken for him many times – leading to one lady sharing some rather intimate details with me about her operations… until I politely pointed out that I thought this was a case of mistaken identity! Fortunately, she saw the funny side. He is French so I would have thought the accent was a bit of a clue…

The way to lay the confusion to rest, I thought, would be to stand out with a pink and now pink and blue beard! (The addition of the blue was at the request of the bride whose wedding I shot last week!) The confusion continues…

Anyway, I’m having a lot of fun with the affect the beard has on people. It’s clearly a magic beard. Stranger strike up really friendly conversations or flip the other way. One shouted, Weirdo!” at me when she saw it! The top Google entry on “Weirdo” says, “a person whose dress or behaviour seems strange or eccentric.” That’ll do nicely!

My favourite was last Saturday morning. A friendly chap was freight-training a cage full of cardboard for recycling through our tiny Tesco-Express. Being shy, I found myself making the sound of a Steam-Train-Whistle as he shot past. Turning round to grin, his first words were, “Love the beard!”

Here’s the truth, I’m trying to get in touch with my inner warrior. To assert this, I replied, “Thanks, I’m going for the whole ‘Braveheart’ – Mel Gibson – thing.” To the utter joy of all who heard his reply, he said, “Nah, it’s more like ‘My Little Pony’!”

It’s a kind of magic… Dare to be different but don’t be surprised if your ‘difference’ is interpreted in the way the viewer wishes to see you!

Lex

A Moodscope member.