As we now enter into the colder months, I am ready to finally expose my face to the icy blasts of winter to raise money for Amaze, who are a wonderful Sussex-based charity who work families with disabled young people and children.

Some statistics for the relevance of this act:

• My current beard has been with us since late 2016
  
• My chin has not been seen exposed since c. early 2016
• My jawline has not been bare since 2011-ish (?)
• My top lip has not seen the light of day since September 2001, which was the last time I was clean-shaven
  
• I have never had a fully shaved face and head

But all of this is ready to be blown out of the water! I will be giving myself a full shave next weekend, ready for my first clean-shaven All Saints Day in nearly twenty years. I was not quite ready to give up the Hallowe'en possibilities. In the cover photo above you can see the result after I have put photos of myself through a sophisticated machine-learning algorithm to give an artist's impression of what I may look like afterwards.

Donate some money to the wonderful Amaze charity to discover the answers to the following questions:

• how much will I cut myself after living the majority of my adult life never having used a razor?
• will I uncover weird marks that have lain hidden for many years?
• did I get any regrettable face tattoos the memory of which I have repressed in the intervening years?
• is my face a really weird shape behind all the extra nonsense?
• will anyone I've met since secondary school recognise me??
• will I still get served without my ID?!
  

Additionally, if you donate money then I am willing to hear suggestions for beard styles to do as I slowly shave my beard off. As any responsilbe full-beard-owner knows, it is the correct thing to do to try and maximise the number of styles to try out on the journey down to clean-shaven. As such I can make no promises on individual styles, but I will try my best to do as many/the best suggestions as I go along.

Stretch goal:

If we manage to raise £1000 for Amaze I will just go nuts with my new-found skills and shave off all of my body hair* and leave myself fully at the mercy of quality clothing to keep myself warm.

Much love one and all,

Andy

(* except eyebrows and eyelashes, as they are TOO CRUCIAL for debris-based eye protection. Plus I don't want to look too suprised)