Sounds like a hairy situation. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

Greg Piper of the College Fix reports.

BYU Beard Ban Inspires Aficionados To Fake Skin Conditions, Debate ‘Apartness’

I’ve had a beard in some form since I was 16. Another student dared me to grow one, so I did, and never looked back. Sort of.

Movember hadn’t yet made mustaches cool, and the Beastie Boys’ music video for “Sabotage” did more to create nostalgia for ’70s cop shows than their ‘staches, so I wore a mustache-free beard without realizing it made me look Amish.

Not that full-beard owners in those days didn’t face plenty of ridicule too. (Remember Beavis and Butt-head gluing their own hair to their faces in a pathetic bid to pick up chicks?)

I experimented with goatees and Van Dykes in college before settling for a full but neatly trimmed beard after graduation. As an intern on Capitol Hill, I experienced the no-beard rule common in Republican offices (Democrats have much more latitude) and went au naturel for a few (painful) months before realizing that Hill life wasn’t for me.

Interviewing for my first job in journalism, still clean-shaven from the internship, I noticed nearly every man in the office had a beard. It was a good omen, and I’ve rocked the Chuck Norris look for the past nine years as a journalist.

Does This Sound Like Getting a Doctor’s Note for Weed?

With no parents to bother you about shaving and lots of experimentation in every other way, college is the ideal time to try out different facial hair configurations. And boy, do college men go hog wild with their whiskers…

…unless you’re a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

The Brigham Young University Universe published a fun little story earlier this month about Mormon college men getting creative to circumvent the BYU beard ban. They can get a waiver, known as a “beard card,” if they can show they have a skin condition that makes it painful to shave.