All About BEARDS for Thirty Years: 1996 to 2026. Featured beard image.
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All About BEARDS For Thirty Years

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Promoting beards worldwide since January 1996

January 17, 1996: Thirty years ago today, from within the 95123 ZIP Code in San José, California, All About BEARDS was uploaded to make its debut on the worldwide web.

Since then, it’s been all of the following and more:

  • thirty years of advocating for beards
  • thirty years of raising awareness, acceptance, and appreciation of beards
  • thirty years of striving to reduce and eliminate anti-beard bias
  • thirty years of pressing for men to have the freedom to grow their beards as they please
  • thirty years of educating people about beards in general and the best way to grow a beard as well as how to style and groom a beard
  • thirty years of serving as a multi-faceted resource for all things beard-related
  • thirty years of encouraging and inspiring men to grow their beards

We all have made massive progress for the bearded cause during the past thirty years. Today’s prevalence and acceptance of beards could barely have been imagined back in January of 1996. However, more progress is still needed. The mission continues.

Last week I had two water heaters replaced on Wednesday, and three split heating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems replaced on Friday. Multiple crews came out to do this big job. In the frenzy of activity, I couldn’t even count how many were here. I would guess that there were easily fifteen or more. And ALL of them had BEARDS of one form or another, with the majority being robust full beards. I would say that this is what winning looks like for the ongoing campaign for beards. There’s no way that this would have been the case back in January 1996.

In today’s post for commemorating the Thirtieth Anniversary of All About BEARDS, I will share a quick look back to a couple of earlier times in the site’s history. Following that, I’ll share several photos along with brief memories about some of the All About BEARDS photo shoots in various locations.

All About BEARDS in earlier days

All About BEARDS: 1998 homepage screenshot.
1998 screen capture of the All About BEARDS home page: This is the earliest screenshot that I currently have. Click on image to view larger.

The screenshot above is the earliest one that I currently have. The “last updated” date shows October 20, 1998. Note that the styling of the site’s name was originally all in lowercase: “all about beards”. The original homepage from the January 1996 launch looked much the same as this, just a little less “polished”. And, yes, the site really was made with IBM’s OS/2 Warp!

The showcased beard selected for the homepage is itself a screen grab of the magnificently bearded actor Ed Harris in the film Alamo Bay. The film serves as a non-stop showcase for this amazing dense, full beard with a high natural cheek line and a low, all-natural neck line. In other words, it is a big, all-natural beard, which is a sight rarely seen still today.

All About BEARDS: homepage screenshot on eleventh anniversary: 2007/01/17.
2007 screen capture of the All About BEARDS home page. Click on image to view larger.

The screenshot above is from January 17, 2007, the site’s eleventh anniversary. It shows the site’s second main design, which made its debut in January of 2005 when the site moved to its new home at the beards.org domain.

Selected beard photo shoot memories

The official beards.org photo shoots have been one of the most enjoyable and rewarding experiences of running All About BEARDS. Here, let’s look back at samples from a handful of the photo shoots along with some associated memories.

Jason

All About BEARDS for Thirty Years, memory: Jason. Beard image 1.
Jason: subject for the fifth ever official All About BEARDS photo shoot. Click on image to view larger.

The first official All About BEARDS photo shoot was in January 2007 at the south end of San José’s Guadalupe River Park. In May of 2007, an area in the mid-section of the same park was the setting for All About BEARDS’ fifth official photo shoot, featuring Jason. This section of the park is adjacent to the Target store and shopping center on Coleman Avenue.

One day while dining at the Red Brick Pizza location (long gone now) in that same shopping center, I noticed Jason seated at an outdoor table right by the front window of the restaurant. I debated whether or not to approach him about doing a photo shoot for the website. I did not want to interrupt his meal. When I saw him get up to leave, I went outside to catch up with him. I told him about the website, asked him to consider doing a beard photo shoot for the site, and gave him the contact info.

Photo shoot location: Guadalupe River Park, San José, California

All About BEARDS for Thirty Years, memory: Jason. Beard image 2.
Jason: subject for the fifth ever official All About BEARDS photo shoot. Click on image to view larger.

David

All About BEARDS for Thirty Years, memory: David. Beard image 1.
A favorite image from David’s beards.org photo shoot. Click on image to view larger.

David has been a longtime friend of All About BEARDS. When his frequent travels brought him near San José in November, 2007, we met up to do an official photo shoot.

Photo shoot location: Along the bay shore south of San Francisco International Airport in Burlingame, California.

All About BEARDS for Thirty Years, memory: David. Beard image 2.
David poses for a photo along the shore of the bay south of San Francisco International Airport in Burlingame, California. Click on image to view larger./

Sean

All About BEARDS for Thirty Years, memory: Sean. Beard image 1.
Sean and his powerful beard are seen here in his photo shoot at the University of Oklahoma. Click on image to view larger.

Sean has an outstanding beard and he was a fantastic subject for a beard photo shoot. He was all-in on the project with great enthusiasm. This was one of the best photo shoots ever. Sean took care of all the logistics and other details necessary to make this photo shoot possible.

As I recall, one of Sean’s friends had submitted his own beard photos for the Beards of the World Gallery. Then that friend recommended to Sean that he submit photos as well. This led to setting up Sean’s official beards.org photo shoot on the campus of the University of Oklahoma.

Photo shoot location: University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma.

All About BEARDS for Thirty Years, memory: Sean. Beard image 2.
Sean wearing an appropriate cap for his beard photo shoot on the campus of the University of Oklahoma. Click on image to view larger.
All About BEARDS for Thirty Years, memory: Sean. Beard image 3.
The cool shape of Sean’s strong beard as seen from the side. Click on image to view larger.

Richard

All About BEARDS for Thirty Years, memory: Richard. Beard image 1.
One of Richard’s photos from his first All About BEARDS photo shoot. Click on image to view larger.

Richard submitted some beard photos for the Beards of the World Gallery which also led to his participation in an official beard photo shoot. We agreed to meet up at Lands End, near the famous Cliff House restaurant (now defunct, but planned to eventually reopen) in San Francisco for the photo shoot. This is a great area for photography. It has been the setting for multiple beards.org photo shoots.

Richard has a great, strong beard. Also,he was great to work with on both this and one other photo shoot. Richard’s second photo shoot took place at the Martinez, California Amtrak Station and waterfront park. That location had the added bonus of trains coming through.

Photo shoot location: Lands End, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, San Francisco, California

All About BEARDS for Thirty Years, memory: Richard. Beard image 2.
Richard poses in front of the Cliff House while it was still open. Click on image to view larger.
All About BEARDS for Thirty Years, memory: Richard. Beard image 3.
Richard peers through a hole, caused by a shell hit during WWII, in a war-damaged bridge wing of the USS San Francisco. This is at the USS San Francisco Memorial at Lands End in San Francisco, California. Click on image to view larger.

Barry

All About BEARDS for Thirty Years, memory: Barry. Beard image 1.
Barry is seen here with the short and compact version of his great full beard during this All About BEARDS photo shoot. Click on image to view larger.

These are from one of three photo shoots with Barry. He has an excellent beard that he keeps in great shape. Barry is another beard photo shoot subject recruited from his Beards of the World Gallery photo submission. His first photo shoot featured his much bigger and longer beard along with long hair! During Christmas season, Barry performs as Santa Claus for numerous gigs. That year, he was going all-out for the natural long beard and long hair for Santa.

In addition to his beard-growing prowess, Barry has a great “radio announcer voice”. He has done a lot of voice-over work and much, much more. He’s also appeared in numerous television commercials, beard included!

Barry is really awesome to work with on photo shoots. This particular photo shoot took place during a casual hike along a popular park trail.

Photo shoot location: Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

All About BEARDS for Thirty Years, memory: Barry. Beard image 2.
Barry stands tall along the trail at Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area. Click on image to view larger.
All About BEARDS for Thirty Years, memory: Barry. Beard image 3.
Another look at Barry with his fine example of a compact, classic full beard. Click on image to view larger.

A couple of favorite images from past photo shoots

I’ll close this out with two photos that stand out as favorites among those that I’ve taken during the All About BEARDS photo shoots.

Vicente

All About BEARDS for Thirty Years, memory: Vicente. Beard image 1.
Beard at night: Vicente! Click on image to view larger.

I really like how the night shots with Vicente outside the stadium turned out. Vicente takes on a striking, different appearance. We took a few like this with him in this exact spot. I wish that we had taken more!

Photo shoot location: AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas

Scott

All About BEARDS for Thirty Years, memory: Scott. Beard image 1.
Beard and bridge spans: Scott. Click on image to view larger.

I’ve been a lifelong fan of bridges. So, I really like this shot of Scott below the twin spans of the Wabasha Street Bridge in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota. It looks kind of inspirational to me.

This bridge crosses the Mississippi River. About mid-span, there is an elaborate set of staircases and walkways providing pedestrian access between the bridge deck and the Raspberry Island Park below. This shot was taken below the bridge level but still above the ground level of the island. The small island is roughly in the middle of the Mississippi River.

Photo shoot location: Wabasha Street Bridge, Saint Paul, Minnesota

All About BEARDS gratitude

On this Thirtieth Anniversary of All About BEARDS, I’d like to thank:

  • all the beard growers around the world for growing your beards
  • all the beard growers, beard fans, and everyone else who has been a friend to the site

Extra special thanks go to all who have contributed their photos, their thoughts, their knowledge, and their friendship over the years. I cannot name everyone here in this already-too-long post. But know that you are remembered and are appreciated. Stay tuned for more Thirtieth Anniversary content to come. May God bless you all.

I’ll turn the mike over to Scott for nine seconds of final words to conclude this post:

Steven
2026/01/17

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