Keep growing.  Today marks the sixteenth anniversary of all about beards, the longest-running beard site on the web.  If all about beards has encouraged you to grow your beard, helped you to improve your beard, improved your view of beards, or had any other positive impact on you, please share by leaving a comment here or sending an email.  Thank you to all of the site’s friends for your support over the years.

The happiness for the new beard year did not even last one week for me.  My little sister was taken from us unexpectedly — suddenly and without warning.  The loss has been too difficult to bear.  Understandably, updates to beards.org ground to a halt.  Normally, I would see when the gallery views counter hits another million.  This time, I did not.  I figure, however, that it was most likely on January 9th.

Right now, I cannot feel any optimism for 2012.  But I have to carry on.  The sixteenth anniversary of “all about beards” is only days away now.  In my sister’s honor, somehow, I will do everything I can to make it the best year yet for beards.org and to surpass that each year that follows.

Have a wonderful new beard year 2012! Happy beard growing!

Anthony graciously participated in an official beards.org photo shoot yesterday.  Here are some preview photos from the shoot.  Stay tuned for a lot more on Anthony, including his upcoming beard feature.

Stay tuned to beards.org for more.

At approximately 5:07 PM Pacific Daylight Time on October 7th, the beards.org gallery views counter hit eighteen million!  It’s a worthy milestone.  Now, let’s get more visitors to beards.org and hit nineteen and twenty million in record time!

So which was the eighteen-millionth photo viewed in the gallery?  Well, the true number of gallery views is unknown and is actually higher than the current count at any given moment.  The number got rolled back a bit after a server hard disc failure some years ago.  Also, the number only reflects gallery views since the current gallery system was implemented on the site on January 26, 2006.  Also, when photos get deleted, their views are subtracted from the count.

The eighteen-millionth photo viewed is largely ceremonial, because the true number is larger and unknowable.  Yet it does provide a meaningful milestone since the seventeen million mark was reached.  We hit eighteen million views not long after today’s update of the beards of the world gallery.  So I was here to see the ceremonial eighteen-millionth winner:

Holder of the title of the eighteen-millionth gallery photo viewed is Justin.  He appears to be viewing the world through rose-colored glasses.  Click on his photo to see the larger version.  Congratulations, Justin!

Thanks, everyone, for your continued interest in beards and beards.org!

August 2011 was the biggest month ever in terms of number of visitors to beards.org.  That was even more remarkable because the northern hemisphere summer months are usually a bit slower.  There is no doubt that the interest in beards is growing.  Let’s hope that more visitors to beards.org results in lots more beards growing everywhere!

Help beards.org add more beards to the world.  Tell all your beard-capable friends and neighbors to go to beards.org and start growing.  Fall in the northern hemisphere traditionally signals a surge in the growth of new beards.  Let’s make this the biggest beard-growing season yet!

Oops!  The gallery views counter hit seventeen million…sometime.  It was about a week ago.  I missed it.  Oh, well.  Here’s a little belated commemoration of the momentous occasion!  Photo above is another preview shot from Scott’s beards.org photo shoot.  His beard feature will appear one of these days…soon, I hope!  Stay tuned.  Oh, and thanks, everyone, for all your interest in all about beards!

Beards.org’s famous “truly outstanding beard” man has occupied a place of honor in the beards.org logo in the upper left corner of the site for years.  No one else’s beard had ever been seen in that spot…until recently.

With the launch of Paul’s beard feature, his comment about rivaling the “truly outstanding beard” man stuck with me.  Soon, I decided to try out the unthinkable: replace the “truly outstanding beard” man with Paul in the logo.  At first, I thought the switch would mainly be done for fun.  But once Paul was up there, I have been thinking of leaving the changed logo there for the foreseeable future.

Of course, no one could ever actually replace the “truly outstanding beard” man.  He is definitely a beard hall-of-famer.

Today is a sad anniversary for beards.org.  One year ago today, we lost a dear friend: Cody Smith, beards.org’s bearded barber.

Cody was a friend to all and a special friend to beards.org.  He was a great advocate for beards and a supportive fan of beards.org.  He was proud of his great beard and his background as a bearded barber.  Cody was quite skilled in the proper care and maintenance of the beard.  He was eager to share his considerable knowledge on the subject.  In his honor, I am designating Cody as beards.org’s official bearded barber.

You are missed, Cody.  Thanks so much for your friendship.  May you rest in peace.