View Single Post
Old 07-31-08, 03:50 AM
  #6  
Rowan
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 16,771
Mentioned: 125 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1454 Post(s)
Liked 85 Times in 40 Posts
Originally Posted by Cyclesafe
I shave and shower every day when possible to avoid the "homeless on a bike" look. I think that a clean cut appearance makes it easier to approach other people for slight favors such as water bottle fills and use of restrooms. You also get into many more spontaneous conversations when there seems to others that there is little chance of being panhandled. Finally, when caught stealth camping, your claim of necessity is more credible when you look more like you actually have the wherewithall to stay at a motel or campground had one been at hand before it got dark. Etc.

Also, I frankly find it a little annoying when people gush about how they couldn't tour or how fit I must be etc etc. I try to look as fresh and unaffected as possible by my journey. The downside, of course, is that some women think that any man will have sex with them if shielded by anonymity and they flirt enough. Not taking a shower would take care of alot of this, but it was recently fashionable (but only now catching on in the sticks) to have a couple of days beard growth, so you might have mixed results here.
Unless you are dressed in filthy, stained dungarees and smell to high heaven from 50 metres, and are pushing a crapped-out bike with plastic bags hanging from the handlebars with all your worldy possessions in them... I think the idea that cycle tourists might be mistaken as panhandlers is somewhat paranoid.

And have you and NilesH been comparing notes on your irresistability to women? Honestly....

I have had beards on and off over my adult life and generally end up disliking them. They might not required quite as much maintenance as daily shaving, but can become annoying. Plus at my age, I would rather go the clean-cut route than the full greybeard look. I looked at photographs of me when I last had one, and it came off that night.

Soooo... I shave at least every two days unless there is an impediment to it. .
Rowan is offline