I haven’t done the facial hair thing too many times in my life. In fact, going back to the late 1980s, 99% of the time the only facial hair I’ve had has been sideburns (which I’ve not shaved off once in 20+ years). I’ve tried the “goatee” (or actually, the “circle beard”) thing a few times over the last 20 years, but it never lasted long. Maybe a few months at the most. I remember the first time I grew a circle beard… I was working at CompUSA in Kansas City, and a girl I worked with there told me I looked like Satan. I thought that was pretty rad, but I shaved it off anyway. Then about a year ago I grew a beard but shaved it off after only a little more than a month (I was trying to do the March Mustache Madness thing but failed miserably).

So this year, I thought I’d give it another go, and I was determined to not give in and shave it all off. I stopped shaving the second week of November and by Thanksgiving I had a pretty good, short beard going. By Christmas it had filled in even better. Then, in mid-January, I got a bit tired of the full beard look (and feel) and started thinking about how I wanted to trim it, but still retain some sort of beard. Watching a video on YouTube of my old TV horror host hero Ghoulardi (played by Ernie Anderson) was all I needed. That was it! A Van Dyck (also spelled “Van Dyke”)! Before I get into that, I want to try and clear the air on some common mistakes when it comes to beards. The following is a goatee:

Goatee

When you have a goatee that is connected to a mustache, it’s actually a “circle beard.” Some will even call this style a Van Dyck, but most beard experts will tell you that a true Van Dyck features a goatee that is disconnected from the mustache. Once they’re connected, it’s a circle beard (since it forms a circle around the mouth). A Van Dyck, then, is basically a goatee with a mustache. Got it? So now that we know what a Van Dyck is, let’s look at a few famous ones throughout history:

Buffalo Bill Cody and Sir Anthony Van Dyck

By the way, Anthony Van Dyck, a 17th-century Flemish painter (pictured above), is credited with popularizing this style of beard way back in the 17th century. Hence the name.

My inspiration:

Ernie "Ghoulardi" Anderson and Ed "Big Daddy" Roth

Some more famous Van Dycks:

Colonel Sanders and Viggo Mortensen

Heath Ledger

Johnny Depp

So, yeah, you probably see Van Dycks around more often than you realize, but definitely not as often as the goatee or circle beard. In fact, I was surprised to see a couple of my Facebook friends sporting Van Dycks recently:

Dave and Larry

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for (drum roll, please)… a couple shots of me with my new Van Dyck:

Kopper's Van Dyck (Feb. 2009)

By the way, speaking of the Mustache Madness thing, it’s happening again this year, and I do hope to make it to the party at The Royale on Saturday, April 4. You should, too. RSVP here.