Growing a beard is something I wish were more accepted in society nowadays. However, this is nothing you should be worried about when traveling around the world– another good reason to go on journeys. After growing one since traveling around the globe, I had a funny idea to take growing beards to the next level and style them like Christmas trees. Below you can read how the people in Cali, Colombia perceived this flower power beard project and how I managed to convince a Harvard graduate to do it.
PRINCES SHAVE, KINGS HAVE BEARDS
THE EXPERIENCE
TRAVEL BEARD
Luckily, I had grown a little travel beard during my time of traveling around the world, and it remained while I was in Cali, Colombia. I was taking very good care of my beard, as much as my scant knowledge allowed me to, ha ha. After I bought my first t-shirt in 7 months, which just happened to be quite colourful with flowers.It inspired me to have the odd idea to also decorate my beard full of beautiful flowers.
CONVINCING A HARVARD GRADUATE
At this point, I had been in Cali for a couple of weeks and knew Gly from the United States (a Harvard graduate) from the hostel and also from the salsa scene. When I told him about the project, he was literally laughing and was right away up for it. He didn’t know that the only reason I asked him was because he had a SLR camera to take some photos. He never found out the truth.. probably until now.
FLOWER BEARD DAY
On the day, we had no idea where we would go or what we would look like; and so we spontaneously caught a taxi to Galeria Alameda in Cali. A friend recommended this place. It‘s a great market where you can buy fresh produce, but for us even more importantly, FLOWERS ! We walked into the store and told the women what we planned to do. After a little confusion she made a nice combination for our individual type. This unusual request was about 10:30 am in the morning.
After successfully shopping for some flowers, we headed back to San Antonio where we had planned to shoot the photographs. But before we could do anything we firstly needed to find a way to fix the flowers in our beards. Since unfortunately the girls from the hostel didn’t have time to join us today to help, we decided to head to the local barber where I had gotten several haircuts. I had actually already been there that morning inquiring how to fix the flowers, with the suggestion of using pins. So we went back hoping they could help. This was our last resort as I was tight with time with my salsa rehearsal for the upcoming show starting in two hours.
For some reason, my friend Gly started backing out of the project when the barber said how much it would cost. This was the last thing I wanted and I had to really persuade him not to; “no you can’t let me down like this” I even went so far as saying I would pay the $10 for fixing us both. Which wasn’t necessary as he was only having a slight hesitation about the whole thing.
Since I had briefed the barber in the morning, I decided to take a seat first and encourage him to let his creativity go free. Trust me the barber had a lot of fun and had his employee take photos of us for his portfolio. Fixing both our beards took him about one hour.
PHOTOSHOOT ALONG THE RIVER
Running short on time with less than an hour, we had to rush down to the river to get a couple of shots. The photoshoot with Gly was an awesome experience with us both looking so beautiful with our beards. I’m not being arrogant when I say the truth out loud and with it also being confirmed by other people wanting to take photos, starring at us and enjoying the weird styled beards, am I ? The feeling of having done what I had wanted and imagined made me realize how nice the whole experience was. Which was toped off by Gly being so appreciative and thankful that I had gotten him out of his comfort zone. It made me feel completely free and satisfied !
After our shoot we casually walked into the hostel where the employees, our friends and the salsa teachers started laughing; we continued like everything was normal and that nothing unusual had happened. That didn’t last for long, as we were making many more people laugh. This is a moment that I absolutely love – making others happy! Whether you believe it or not, I did the whole class with the flowers in my beard – it was very special.
WE ALL LOVE A MAN WITH FLOWERS IN THEIR BEARDS
I TRAVEL FOREVER’s VIEW & RECOMMENDATION
Well, now you see what can happens when you do something outside of the box. I am very grateful for the experiences and opportunities that traveling offers. A spontaneous day with Gly that started off with a little hesitation ended as something awesome and unforgettable ! Get out of your comfort zone and trust Tobi 😉
#TW