PRAYING FOR A BEARD by Mandla Nkomo

Being a religious reader of the Men’s Health Weekly newsletter, I have realised that most guys have really serious problems, especially when I read the ask us section. I am not sure if my problem is big enough to receive anaudience but what I know is that it is very big for me. I have never really had problems with my self-esteemas I have been somewhere along the middle line where I’mnot content, but not complaining either. However, my problems started with this whole beard craze. I have no facial hair, and honestly speaking, between us guys, the only places with hair are my head, armpitsand just above my crotch. This hasn’t been a problem, because I have been lucky enough to find girls who like smooth guys like me. One day I took a group photo with my friends who all have facial hair, and before I knew it, it had become a meme.People captionedit “when they bring a boy to a men’s party”. It is a simple joke but iwas so affected by it, I literally prayed for a beard. I don’t know how many YouTubevideos I watched on how to grow a beard. I did almost everything you can think of,even to the extent of aggressively asking my doctor for hormone injections (he didn’t budge). It took a little bit of self-appreciationto realise that not having a beard doesn’t make me less of a man, but I don’t want to lie and say it doesn’t affect me anymore. When I think about it deeply, I get upsetand take it out on my fiancé because I feel like she laughs at me secretly even though she is my biggest source of support. I hope reading this will help other guys going through the same problem as me to face their demons and dealwith feelings of inadequacy-Mandla