Beard Prejudice

Professional Santas who have a "real" beard are very lucky and very well appreciated, especially monetarily. My PS is one of those lucky guys who has had his beard change naturally to a lovely silvery white as he has gotten older. For a while it had a gray-ish tinge, which we tried to bleach out. That was a trial and a bit of a failure, so we decided that if his personality did not sell the character, then he was in the wrong line of work. Again, he was lucky in that nobody noticed what we thought was a defect - he even had comments about how nice it was to have a real-beard Santa! If you read through some of the Santa blogs, the guys get neurotic about the beard; how long it should be, should it be curled, should they bleach and how to bleach. It wears on a person's mind after a while and causes my PS and I to have long discussions about it. Here are my feelings:*If the beard is white, or close to white, use your own beard. If it is not white, look on-line for a good fake beard, like ones used in all the Santa movies. They are out there, they are expensive, but no worse that constant bleaching of a person's real beard. Beard hair is course and hard to bleach, grows quickly, and the chemicals can damage your face.

*Curling is optional, as Santa is depicted with many versions of the beard. Again, beard hair is course and easily burned, as is your skin on your face. My PS does have naturally wavy hair, so sometimes he will wrap the beard hair around his fingers to give a little curl, but not too much.

*How long? Long enough to look like a beard, not a one-week growth. Take the time to cultivate the beard, with proper trimming and training, and plenty of time to get it right before the holiday season. I read a debate in one of the Santa groups about sleeping with the beard under or over the covers! Please, if it is that long, it starts to look fake again, and a little scary. My PS wears his as long as it covers his collar in the front - in other words, if he wears a bow tie, nobody can tell. Any longer and it gets wire-ry and too bushy.

*People come to see the Santa, not the beard. He needs a beard, but he also needs a winning personality.

But what about the other 11 months out of the year? How does a PS keep the beard and still find work? That has been our dilemma where we live in the Poconos. There is an antiquated viewpoint among many employers around here that a beard means unclean, unkempt, or (horrors!) you are an old Hippie! For an area that boasts many outdoor types, hunters and mountain-type guys, there is a prejudice against facial hair. Three day growths= fine; full beards and it may upset the guests, customers, etc.

Now the real beard is my PS's pride and joy, and his money. To shave it off in order to take a moderate-paying service job, like at some of the resorts up here, or some grocery stores, is just a pity. It is not like he can take off one month before the holiday season in order to grow in the beard! He has gone through the interview process, been welcomed with open arms, about to sign the papers to start work and the HR person has said "Oh, when you report to work, you need to shave the beard." Why? "Company policy." Why? "Sanitary concerns." For working at the front desk? The irony is that 'back-of-the-house' personal all had beards and they were doing the cooking, cleaning, etc. The resort had instituted the policy back in the 1960's as part of the knee-jerk reaction against the culture at that time and had never re-visited that policy. I guarantee you that my PS's beard is cleaner than most people's hair, but it is there and bothers some people - except at Christmas! When asked if an exception can be made, the person interviewing usually says "The beard doesn't bother me, but it is policy, so it has to be done." Frustrating!

My PS finds work, to be sure, but it hurts his pride that people cannot see beyond the facial hair - the rest of the year.