facial hair used to mean a heck of alot when there seemed to be no chance of ever growing any. even now at its slow rate of growth my facial hair comes in slower than, i now recall, the shadow of fur that perpetually found itself on the hormonally-rich face of my best friend in junior high. he also stood a proud six feet in height to my five-foot-three, and became my paradigm of timely puberty. i have, in the thirteen years following graduation of the eighth grade, surpassed him by over one inch in height, yet grooming the lazily growing facial hair remains an arduous task.
thus my long-imagined homage to Pete Voukavich (sp?), remembered by myself not for his baseball stats, but for his stylish 70’s moustashe that really was a furry goatee with a wide strip of chin shaved bare. this style of moustache though most likely not entirely unique to mr. voukavich was in my regard a rugged and desireable style. after growing out my beard, i eased into a normal mouth and chin encompassing goatee and finally shave out the strip in the center to achieve, in my closest estimation, the Pete Voukavich Moustache. i was pleased with the general results and only became more obsessed with the look after some ex-roommates began criticizing some details of my razorwork. “it’s assymmetrical”, “what’s with this whole biker thing?”, and “it reminds me of hulk hogan,” were just a few of the critical comments.
i like it well enough for now, and will see how it evolves with time and growth. the main feature of the Pete Voukavich Moustache (the bare chin strip) has been analyzed as being a tobacco juice gutter, which would allow the chewing baseball player to wipe his chin clean after the occasional dribble of spit, thus being left without a tobacco-stained beard. i have yet to test this theory, but i do not plan on chewing tobacco and the theory stands well enough on its own merits.