Facial hair is an important part of many people’s day, from waking up in the morning and trimming it to seeing it in the mirror when brushing teeth. Powell High School [PHS] has seen a number of immaculate beards, mustaches, and other facial pieces over the years, showing how important they can be to students and staff alike.

“Why would I say it’s important to me—I guess probably because my wife likes it,” math teacher Mr. Gregory Stenlund said. “I saw this somewhere, some movie somewhere ‘I want to try that.’ My wife liked it a lot, so that’s a good reason for anything.”

The decision to get a particular styling of facial feature can come from anything, whether it’s just where the hair itself decides to grow, to what someone’s significant other approves of.

“So some beards, if they’re longer, I guess their personality kind of changes compared to the beard,” senior Johnathon Harms said. “Some people just grow a mustache, and they’re more like a hick and redneck.”

A person’s facial hair, whether it be a mustache, goatee, or beard, defines who some people are and how they approach life.

“I can grow a full beard in a month,” Mr. Stenlund said. “It grows fast and easy for me.”

While growing facial hair comes easy to some people like Mr. Stenlund, others like junior Liam Taylor find the journey to growing a successful facial centerpiece more of a chore than some are led to believe.

“First of all, I have facial hair,” Taylor said. “Second of all, it takes a long time to grow because it’s my body working on quality. Here’s third of all, I want facial hair.”

Facial hair can be almost selective in a sense, with only certain people in a large group being able to grow their hair out a substantial amount.

“I’m the only one in my family as of right now that can grow a beard,” Harms said. “I personally think I look better with a beard, and it gives me a jawline.

A question emerges when taking note of the variety of hair seen around the school: what makes facial hair good, and what makes it bad?

“If so, if the facial hair is like really thin and, like, patchy, I don’t consider it a beard or consider it good facial hair,” Harms said. “It’s got to be thick enough, and you gotta keep it well.”

Though people agree on the correlation between hair type and who someone is, others think that the correlation between the pair may happen more subconsciously, despite what they might want to think.

“I’d hate to judge someone off their facial hair,” Mr. Stenlund said. “I probably think I do that, whether I realize that or not. I probably subconsciously do that.”

From the people who have it, to the people who don’t, everyone can agree that facial hair is an important part of people’s day.

“I am able to grow a ‘stache and that should be quoted,” Taylor said. “Stop fake making fun of my ‘inability’ quote unquote, that’s false. I don’t have an inability, I just choose not to. Mustache is a choice for me. No one [grows a mustache] better than me. No one, all right.”

NOTE: Liam Taylor does not have a mustache.