A Georgia mom was on hand to capture her toddler’s wild reaction to seeing her dad without a beard for the first time in her young life.
Barbershop owner and mom-of-three Courtney took to TikTok, posting under the handle @courtneys_corner1, to share footage showing how her three daughters reacted to her husband’s new look.
“We married nearly three years ago, and began dating about four years ago after many years of friendship,” Courtney, who asked for her last name to be omitted from the story, told Newsweek.
“We have three girls. The older two are from my previous marriage, and he’s their incredible stepdad. Our youngest is our baby together. It’s a full house, full of love and chaos.”
That was on display the day Courtney’s partner decided to do away with his beard. It was a decision that rocked everybody in the house, Courtney included.
“He basically has had some sort of facial hair, since he was able to grow any,” Courtney said. “The last time he completely shaved was 15 years ago, according to him. So even I hadn’t a clue what his chin looked like. For the last five or six years, he’s rocked a full beard, but before that, it was always some version of scruff.”
A beard can play a significant role in how an individual is perceived. This was highlighted in a 2014 study from the journal Psychology. Participants were presented with a series of experimental questions along with two facial photographs, one of a bearded face and another of a non-bearded one.
They were then asked to choose which they perceived to be more trustworthy in the context of the question. Researchers found participants were significantly more likely to choose the bearded faces as trustworthy.
Courtney said her husband’s beard has been important to her kids, in particular their youngest. “They all loved his beard, especially the baby, who was always grabbing at it like it was her security blanket,” she added.
However, the decision to shave it was one of necessity. “He’s a registered nurse, and he had to get a mask fit test done for work,” Courtney said.
The big moment came after the family returned from vacation. “The entire time he was poking at them that he had to shave for work upon returning home,” Courtney said. “The kids didn’t believe he was actually going to do it; they thought he was just teasing them.”
When he did eventually go through with it, Courtney was ready to capture the whole thing on camera. “The kids had never seen his face smooth, not even close. For them, this was a total twist of what’s norm. I’ve seen it short, but never bare face,” she said. “And since our youngest is still so little, I figured her reaction could be funny.”
Courtney originally planned on sending the video to her mother-in-law, but when the kids had a wild reaction to seeing her partner without a beard, she decided to share it online.
Her youngest daughter, in particular, seemed stunned, letting out a scream more suited to seeing something out of a horror movie. The video blew up online, racking up over 437,000 views and counting.
It has been a couple of days since the clip was filmed now, and Courtney is pleased to confirm that the kids have gotten used to dad’s new look—well, nearly.
Courtney said: “The baby still side-eyes him, but she stopped crying quickly, so that’s a win. The middle girl, she’s too sweet to say anything, even if she hates it. The preteen on the other hand … is still a preteen, which means daily roasts sessions until the beard makes a comeback.”
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