asian + facial hair = fail

it's 5 days into the new year and an unplanned resolution has started to emerge. not shaving. it started with falling ill on Friday, December 30th after coming home from work. fever and chills set in immediately. once i started to emerge from my drug induced slumber sometime on new years day, i was confronted with a thicker than usual amount of stubble and a choice. continue to trim the roughly 56 (countable) hairs above my lip and on my chin or let them be. i still had Monday off and no immediate obligations. their stay of execution was granted.

after almost a week of research (blogs, eliciting frank opinions of friends, and internet searches of pai mei) I have come to a sad conclusion. Even if my life depended on it, I will not and cannot ever have a full on beard. in fact, a goatee is looking like a long-shot at this point. with some exceptions, most of the asians I know don't have much facial hair and where it does come in usually isn't connected. I can grow sideburns like nobody's business and only have a sparse grouping of follicles above my lip and on my chin. think fu-man chu and where his wisps of hair start. he certainly didn't choose the mustached equivalent of comb-over, that's all he had to work with.

i read online that i shouldn't shave anything for a couple of weeks before trimming. i don't know if i'll be able to commit to such an itchy and unrefined task but for now i'm all in. thoughts/opinions welcome. pictures and updates to come.