The last couple of years I have had a beard. Not a world class ZZTop beard. Beards like that will never be forgotten. But it’s a beard. My beard. My strategy is more facial hair means less of me on show. Don’t want to step on George Clooney’s shoes 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Today the beard came back to haunt me.

I needed to set up the works bank account app on my home computer. All was going well until I got to the identification check. Take a picture of either my passport or driving licence mugshot. Then record a short video of my weathered face to match the mugshot.

Time and time again the verification failed. Then it dawned on me. My ID photos are all pre beard….

So here’s the moral dilemma. Do I wait 7 days for the postal verification verification code to arrive OR do I shave my beard off. Do I like work that much….

Not a chance.

44 thoughts on “Beards…..”

  1. I was wondering that about face ID’s. If you change your face somehow (I get this rash around my eyes sometimes which I think is food allergy related although I can’t pinpoint the food) I was wondering if you couldn’t get into your device or whatnot. I steer clear from them just for that reason! I say keep the beard too!

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    1. Tip: Check to see if any of your skincare or makeup products contain mint or menthol. It’s a common addition to make things smell “fresh,” but it is also a common allergy (I discovered the hard way). I usually go for fragrance-free products when possible because fragrances can be tricky as companies are often not required to list all the scents they use. Fragrance combinations are often considered to be “secret recipes” and companies don’t want their unique combinations taken.

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  5. Keep the beard if it makes you comfortable. Just two weeks ago I had a totally different kind of encounter with my beard. A goatee, really, with my half-indigenous blood I can’t grow hair on my cheeks, but my chin and upper lip are well covered. I was nuzzling and smooching with my horse whom I had not seen since just after her birth because of Covid. I was surprised that she remembered me from our first meeting back in 2019 (she lives 1400 kms away) but as soon as she saw me she nickered Hello and started hugging me and nuzzling my cheeks. Suddenly she took my goatee into her mouth and tried to pull the damn thing off my face. I thought she was going to succeed, she pulled so hard. But when I said Ow she let go. I was almost in tears.

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  6. It’s your face and your beard. I don’t think you work better or worse only because you have a beard but you feel better because you love it. They need to accept you the way you are … however you are.

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  7. I started growing a beard in 1981 and as a consequence have saved forty years of saving time shaving – if my quick calculation is right I have saved . . .er . . . well, quite a lot of time plus a certain amount of pain and several pints of blood. And a fortune in razors and soap. 🙂

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    1. Facial recognition programs are actually famously flawed. They work best with white men, but frequently misidentify women and people of color. It’s caused a lot of problems, actually, with its increasing use by the law. People have been arrested for crimes “they” committed when they weren’t even in the same country. It’s nuts.

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      1. On Thu or Fri, last week, the local city news ran a story about facial recognition being opposed. I didn’t even know the city had it!! I do notjing illegal but am not okay with AI… might have to start wearing a beard in public!!

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  10. Option 3: Tape a current picture onto your license before scanning it to see if it works. I don’t know if most scanners are capable of telling the differences. If it does, awesome. If not, you tried. (Remember to remove the current picture when you are done)

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  15. That seems a little daft. Technology in all it’s glory!
    Last time I came through Heathrow, the automatic barrier did not think I looked like my passport photo, so I had to queue up to show a man that I really was legit – and I have never had a beard!!

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