Bearded bliss

It's called No-Shave November. But for Paul Graham, it's been no-shave for 37 years. For Steve Mosley, the no-shave thing has been happening since 1970. Chris Wubbena says it's "no-shave every day," a practice of about eight years.

Randy Farrow (Laura Simon)

Some say No-Shave November started in these parts because this time of year, a guy may spend a lot of time at deer camp, which generally isn't stocked with a razor, hot water and mirror.

Justin Spaeth (Laura Simon)

That was the case with Graham, who in 1978 started his beard as hunting season got underway.

Andy Robert (Laura Simon)

"At first I didn't like how scratchy it was," Graham said, but it eventually softened. When he shaved it off, his wife of 47 years, Sharon, protested, and he started it again, and, now a neat white fringe, it has been with him ever since. After 38 years as an aircraft electrician at McDonnell Douglas, Graham retired and the couple moved from St. Charles, Missouri, to the Burfordville countryside. A Southern Baptist, Graham since 1986 has served as a nursing home and supply pastor.

E.J. Norman (Laura Simon)

Ethan J. Norman, a film student at Southeast Missouri State University, minimized his look with a handlebar mustache after wearing a full beard for about a year. Dusty Unger of Frohna, Missouri, graduated to a full beard and mustache a few months ago, after wearing chin whiskers for about eight years. Unger's friend, Chris Hoehn of Perryville, Missouri, has a Van Dyke of sorts, which he says his fiancee loves.

Patrick Koetting (Laura Simon)

"It's a pain to shave, plus it's just better to look this way," says Hoehn.

Dusty Unger (Laura Simon)

While he's maintained his beard for about eight years, Wubbena says the only thing that's really changed about it, which is a garibaldi style of full beard with a rounded bottom and integrated mustache, is the color.

Steve Mosley (Laura Simon)

"It's just gotten more and more gray," he says, stroking the beard in contemplation. "I couldn't grow anything like this until I was well into my 30s."

Dusty Unger (Laura Simon)

A professor, Wubbena, 41, is head of the sculpture area in the department of art at Southeast Missouri State University.

Michael Smith (Laura Simon)

Mosley, too, says the color is really the only change in his 45 years of bearded bliss. Now retired, Mosley taught social studies and history at Sikeston and Notre Dame Regional high schools.

Stuart Matthews (Laura Simon)

In the run-up to Halloween, Jordan Ford's head was a lively lime green, as he channeled Cosmo to his girlfriend's Wanda -- with her locks a resplendent shade of Pepto-Bismol -- characters of the long-running Nickelodeon cartoon series "The Fairly Oddparents." But with a twist -- rather than hailing from the fictional city of Dimmsdale, this Cosmo and Wanda walked zombielike out of Alexandria, home of "The Walking Dead."

Jordan Ford (Laura Simon)

The day-to-day hair color of Ford's fade is two-tone, his natural red on the sides and black on the top.

John Boyd (Laura Simon)

While the deer-camp theory makes sense in hunting country, the No-Shave November concept has morphed into a more formalized, charitable outreach.

Chris Hoehn (Laura Simon)

A California-based not-for-profit group has embraced the concept by focusing on hair -- which many cancer patients lose -- and encouraging participants to stop shaving and donate money routinely spent on shaving and grooming to organizations helping those battling cancer. Through its website, no-shave.org, the group accepts donations; this year its recipients will be the American Cancer Society, the Prevent Cancer Foundation, Fight Colorectal Cancer and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Chris Wubbena (Laura Simon)

And the Movember Foundation, initiated in 2004 in Australia, began by encouraging fellows to grow mustaches to bring awareness to men's health issues, including prostate and testicular cancer.

Andy Robert (Laura Simon)

Andy Robert (Laura Simon)

Andy Robert (Laura Simon)