Baltimore Beards Are Here!

You’ve seen them in the Baltimore Sun and on social media, but now you can get the full story about our Baltimore Beards project.

At the beginning of the year, when we were making plans for 2014, Irene mentioned that it would be fun to do a project with floral beards. We’d seen some photos on Pinterest, but thought it would be fun to put a Baltimore spin on the idea. So, we pulled in our friends from Balance Photography and 9 of the best beards we could find and Baltimore Beards became a reality.

Since we weren’t sure what to expect (how would the material stay in? how long would each beard take? would it be weird to be up close and personal in someone’s beard?) we started with Eric.

Even though he has a short beard, the plant material stayed in pretty good without any extra support. For the heavier flowers, we used eyelash “glue” (it washed out with water).

What would you think if this guy was delivering your wedding flowers?

Once we got the basic technique down, we could really start to get creative.

Our first “round” of beards arrived right on time. Like us, I’m sure they didn’t know what to expect, but they were amazingly willing to go with the flow.

Greg was first. Greg is vegan and a military veteran.  He had an amazingly long beard that lent itself to a long, crazy, trailing design. We accented the design with a beautiful, “black” lily from Hendricks flowers. For the longer beards, we used bobby pins to attach the larger, heavier flowers that wouldn’t stay in on their own.

Stacy had just started interning with us, when we threw her into the deep end!

Not surprising, our photographer, Nathaniel Corn of Balance Photography got in on the fun too. He took a break from shooting to get his beard done by Carling.

Artist, Matt Muirhead was next. Matt’s design didn’t stop at his beard, we also included some natural eyebrow magic.

Our last “beard” of the morning was Paul Masson, lead singer of Baltimore’s Great American Canyon Band.

Obviously, Paul had a great look for our project! Paul’s lovely wife Krystal, (of the Great American Canyon Band and Esther and Harper) also got in on the fun. Now that’s some Baltimore hippie love!

Irene scoped out some great spots for our group shots including this Charles Village alley and pocket park.

The afternoon “beards” were just as much fun as the morning ones.

Jim Hickey’s beard was our most “floral” beard.  Jim, lead singer of the Solicitors, really got into the shoot.

Artist John Podles got a “green” beard. I especially loved the piers japonica down at the bottom of his beard.

Finally, our last “beards” of the day were Adam and Slippy.

Adam, also of the Great American Canyon Band, rocked his floral beard, including a gigantic orange poppy!

Slippy, one of Baltimore’s favorite bartenders, (currently at Dylan’s Oyster Cellar),  had an epic floral beard AND ivy head crown.

We ended the shoot at one of our favorite neighborhood spots: Charles Village Pub.

This was seriously one of the most fun days at LoCoFLo ever! Thanks to everyone who was a part of the shoot!

To see ALL of the Baltimore Beards photos, check out our flickr album.

Happy Summer folks!