I lost a pound off my head

Had you looked at my now-nonexistent beard up close, you'd have seen how wild and scruffy it had been.  Initially wanting only to trim the worst parts of the beard, I went out and bought an electric razor (a rather expensive Philips) with a special beard-trimming head.  Not having used an electric razor in close to thirty years, I went to work and ended up buzzing a chunk of my beard off, which utterly ruined the beard.  Well, there's no going back, thought I.  And so it was that the rest of the beard was ushered off the premises.  My apologies to all the readers who held out hope that I might be settling into a new look.  Further apologies to the good folks who wrote in only a couple days ago to give me beard-care advice, but in the end, I'm glad the damn thing is gone. The beard had been itchy, and I was always conscious of it on my face.  I've been generally clean-shaven for decades, so, a bit like the equally clean-shaven Emeril Lagasse (a search here shows only a single photo of him—ever—with facial hair), I'm simply reverting to my natural, baby-smooth state.  Feels good to have a normal face again.

Who knows?  Maybe I'll grow a beard again during the winter months.  Or maybe I'll wait until next fall to grow a beard while I'm hiking along the east-coast trail.  We'll see.