2023 Governing Body Update #8 / BEARDS!!!

[LeolaRootStew]

1 hour ago, Tortuga said:

Some industries have a strict facial hair policy because the employees have to wear air respirators. It will be interesting to see how LDC handles beards on a LDC project site when air respirators are required.

they have to shave. heard it from my elders

[Tortuga]

16 minutes ago, LeolaRootStew said:

they have to shave. heard it from my elders

The qualifications to be able to do any job that requires an air respirator requires the person to be fit tested and signed off before they get to the project. Facial hair that interferes with the fit test will void the test. So the brothers that want to do work that requires an air respirator will need to shave the areas that affects the fit test. 

 

Of course, the sisters can be fit tested to wear an air respirator too. 😁

Edited January 10 by Tortuga

[Hope]

29 minutes ago, Tortuga said:

The qualifications to be able to do any job that requires an air respirator requires the person to be fit tested and signed off before they get to the project. Facial hair that interferes with the fit test will void the test. So the brothers that want to do work that requires an air respirator will need to shave the areas that affects the fit test. 

 

Of course, the sisters can be fit tested to wear an air respirator too. 😁

 

I keep a clean, close shave at ALL times! 😉 

[truce]

11 hours ago, truce said:

Expect a new songbook 😁

"My beard is an anchor firm and secure,

I never will shave it in fear..." 🎵

(Song 119ish)

Edited January 11 by truce

[Pjdriver]

One MS I seen last week was growing a beard, almost full and beautiful, I could tell he was excited about it, He said; I’ve been in the truth for over 50 years and always wanted a beard.....then I seen him last night, and he was clean-shaven. 

 

“I said : “what happened? Did your wife make you shave?”  

He said: at his place of work, they told him it was against the rules......Can’t Win!  

[KF7]

2 hours ago, Pjdriver said:

One MS I seen last week was growing a beard, almost full and beautiful, I could tell he was excited about it, He said; I’ve been in the truth for over 50 years and always wanted a beard.....then I seen him last night, and he was clean-shaven. 

 

“I said : “what happened? Did your wife make you shave?”  

He said: at his place of work, they told him it was against the rules......Can’t Win!  

Well he could get a fake beard to wear at meetings.  I mean wigs have never been frowned on.  

[Sepie93]

I'm amazed..
Because in my hall NO brother decided to grow a beard.
There were already a few with a beard, but I really thought that it would be more of a hype.. but no..
So, I've decided to give it a try..
If it's nothing, its easy to get rid of

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-S911B met Tapatalk

[Leonard Match Valid]

Just an expression of love:
 

The sister who said something negative about my beard a few weeks ago...these days she came to talk to me and said that she has nothing against wearing beards with her brothers...just that beards have to be more adjustable and such....

I was happy with the sister's attitude, very happy, although she is still aware that beards need to have a "standard", which is not the case with me 

I've never, ever worn a beard and my beard tends to get straggly... my wife even told me to go to the barber this weekend to get it cut and aligned... of course I'll do that and there's no way I'm going to let it get sloppy and stuff...

But some people still need to understand that beards shouldn't follow a "pattern or style", but rather the person should see what looks best, without offending

A few points: sometimes the person has never worn a beard... or it could be that through constant use of the razor their facial hair gets spiky... it could be that the person has a vitamin deficiency in their body that affects their facial hair or hair (for example, I'm bald, I have very little hair on my head and flaws on my face). 

 

Anyway, we all need to exercise patience 
some to get used to others who wear facial hair, beards
e

others patience to grow a beard and look good, which is my case  
 

[Tortuga]

Shortly after the Update a brother in our congregation told me that even though beards are okay, a goatee is obviously still a sign of rebellion. I recently showed him the images of brother Jackson and didn't say a word about his earlier comment. Some people just need a little time to adjust...

[DancesWithWife]

2 minutes ago, Tortuga said:

Some people just need a little time to adjust

It's part of the direction "we" may not understand at the time, as Brother Lett mentioned. Some of us accept the direction and follow it without question. Others because they have different life experiences, culture are slow to accept new direction, that would be me at times. This is where our use of the fruitage of the spirit needs to be shown. 

[Dark King]

On 12/12/2023 at 7:47 AM, Sofia said:

Brother lett looks ill  poor dear. I hope he´. 

At the annual meeting, it looked like Brother Lett had skin cancer when I had an old workmate who had skin cancer and he looked this way with yellow skin and cuts on his forehead and hand he only lasted a year and a half before the skin cancer took his life.

 

Got to keep Brother Lett in my prayers 

[Sofia]

1 hour ago, Dark King said:

At the annual meeting, it looked like Brother Lett had skin cancer when I had an old workmate who had skin cancer and he looked this way with yellow skin and cuts on his forehead and hand he only lasted a year and a half before the skin cancer took his life.

 

Got to keep Brother Lett in my prayers 

He seems to be taking cortisone... But whatever it is is not my affair. I feel concerned about his welfare and all I can do is to pray.

[Mike047]

We used to have a brother who wore what would be called over here in the UK am pilot's moustache, you know, one where they twiddle the ends and make them stand out (an extreme version of Poirot). Another brother, locally, had the same style as well. They have both 'adapted' their facial hair into a more usual shape.

 

A number of brothers have now decided to try growing beards, one said that as he had a young face, the beard would give him added maturity. He may have a point.

 

 

[LeolaRootStew]

5 hours ago, Tortuga said:

Shortly after the Update a brother in our congregation told me that even though beards are okay, a goatee is obviously still a sign of rebellion. I recently showed him the images of brother Jackson and didn't say a word about his earlier comment. Some people just need a little time to adjust...

 

I will say I was also squeamish about goatees, mainly because I associated them with Tony Stark and the "playboy" attitude. But after seeing Brother Jackson's and some others I see that it can also look dignified.

 

^dignified

Edited January 12 by LeolaRootStew

[Hope]

2 hours ago, LeolaRootStew said:

 

I will say I was also squeamish about goatees, mainly because I associated them with Tony Stark and the "playboy" attitude. But after seeing Brother Jackson's and some others I see that it can also look dignified.

 

^dignified

 

Tony Stark is too fine, I must say. ❤️ I like goatees precisely BECAUSE they look a bit rakish and snazzy.   💋 The groovy thing about beards is that they can often be grown to suit all tastes and moods, personalities and facial structures. 

 

We just have to be careful not to attribute any badness to the choices others make about their dress and grooming. If something is "off", one of the brothers will have a quiet word.  We just need to worry about ourselves, right? 😉 

 

[ChrisW]

38 minutes ago, Hope said:

Tony Stark is too fine

Amen sis.  Lol 😆 

[Broseph]

14 hours ago, KF7 said:

Well he could get a fake beard to wear at meetings.  I mean wigs have never been frowned on.  

Have a selection of fake beards in the back in case a brother comes to give the public talk and hasn’t grown one, wouldn’t want to stumble anyone.

[Tortuga]

I have been growing a beard for over 50 years..

 

But I shave it off several times a week 😁

[SKnight]

1 hour ago, Tortuga said:

I have been growing a beard for over 50 years..

 

But I shave it off several times a week 😁

I’ve seen that, in some instances, men whose beards have grown long have actually used hair-rollers and rolled their beards up and it has came out with beautiful bouncy curls.., I couldn’t find a picture to show though, but I have seen it. I don’t know if that would be acceptable in the congregation 😕

[Leslie.m]

Today was the first service group after everyone came back from summer holidays. It was 30 degrees Celsius out. The beard was… not fun… 

[Mike047]

For a beard with curls, I seem to remember that Edward Teach had a curled his regularly, as old pictures suggest. Edward teach was better known as the famous pirate Blackbeard.

[Pjdriver]

I was recently visiting my worldly brother and his wife. They have known about JWs as long as I have. 

I mentioned how back in the day, we used to avoid growing beards so as not to be viewed with the likes of hippies and bikers etc..... Then I mentioned times have changed, so many now are growing beards.

 

They looked at me like: "Ya,  so what". All the years they have known JWs and many JWs personally, they never even noticed that we didn’t have any beards. And couldn’t have cared less.  

Edited January 13 by Pjdriver

[Pjdriver]

I just realized another benefit to allowing beards.

 

Think of the money and time that will be saved on all the makeup they use in all the dramas and videos we are doing now.   

[Sofia]

10 minutes ago, Pjdriver said:

I just realized another benefit to allowing beards.

 

Think of the money and time that will be saved on all the makeup they use in all the dramas and videos we are doing now.   

Not if you are playing a Roman 

[DancesWithWife]

On 1/10/2024 at 2:51 PM, LeolaRootStew said:

they have to shave. heard it from my elders

It's possible this could be updated too. If you look at the OSHA (Occupational Safety Health Administration) standards here in the United States do allow the use of respirators with a beard. "The OSHA standard does allow beards with the use of respirators that do not rely on a tight facepiece seal between the respirator inlet covering and the underlying skin (i.e., both loose fitting helmets and hoods are acceptable in this regard)...Facial hair is allowed as long as it does not protrude under the respirator seal, or extend far enough to interfere with the device's valve function."

 

We will see, but for now the current direction will be followed. 

Edited January 13 by DancesWithWife
spelling correction