PHOTOS Fast N’ Loud’s Aaron Kaufman before the beard

The beards are taking over! As the number of gritty, manly reality show success stories continues to grow, so do the chin brooms of our masculine reality stars. From the snow-repellant goatee of Gold Rush‘s Todd Hoffman, to the majestic facial hair of Duck Dynasty‘s Robertson men, it almost seems as though a show’s ratings are in direct proportion to the length of the hairs on the cast’s chinny-chin-chins. That formula seems to play out for Discovery’s break-out hit Fast N’ Loud, thanks in small part to Richard Rawlings, and thanks in large part to the lengthy hobotastic whiskers of Richard’s fabricating co-star, Aaron Kaufman.

But, as you probably know, it is a rare thing indeed that a young man is born with an enviable batch of facial hair, so wherever there is a hairy-visaged superstar there are also some boyhood (or perhaps even young manhood) bare-chinned photos floating about the interwebs, and Aaron Kaufman is no exception.

Above we see a photo of a beardless Aaron Kaufman with his ex-girlfriend (I believe her name is Lindsay J.). Aaron’s ex dated him for about three-and-a-half years and just after Aaron began to gain some notoriety alongside Richard (and not long before the two broke up), she started a blog called “About That Bearded Guy…” which is, as you might have guessed, all about that bearded guy Aaron Kaufman. The entire blog is just (Lindsay?) answering fan questions about Aaron, and later herself — including questions (and photos) about Aaron’s beard and lack of beard.

Let’s start in the beginning with the beard’s origin story.

Anonymous asked: On some other post you said you were responsible for aaron growing out his beard. how did that happen and why lol

Well, he started growing it out in the winter.. it looked good when it was only an inch 1/2 long and I was enamored with his facial hair. 🙂 When he shaves it grows back so fast it is painful sandpaper and every inch of my skin burned where he kissed me or touched me. I liked how soft it was. It kept getting longer..

He does this thing when he gets really frustrated- he’d shave his head or his beard and show up looking totally different. He liked to change when he had a bad week. He kept talking about shaving it off and I begged him not to. So he kept it..”only because you like it.” He got in trouble with something legally, and decided for whatever reason, he would grow it out until it was over. He started filming the show before that and well…said he can’t shave it. He hates it now. He wants to shave, but I guess he’s got his nuts in a vice.

As far as the age of Aaron’s beard, his ex said back in December of 2012 that it was about 2 1/2 years old at the time, which means it’s now a few months past being three.

And how does he maintain its awesomeness?

Anonymous asked: Sorry to ask a stupid question, but does Aaron do anything in particular to keep his beard looking so good? Does he for example trim his moustache or neck line? Or is it just 100% natural? Thanks in advance.

He trims his mustache when it grows over his lips, and shaves the entire neck to keep “cool.” Other than that, he doesn’t do anything to it.

Aaron’s ex also shares numerous pre-beard photos on the blog and in a Youtube birthday video, including a couple that would seem to suggest that before he became a world-famous fabricator, Aaron was considering a career as a brooding hipster singer/songwriter:

The photos obviously inspired questions from readers such as:

Anonymous asked: Is Aaron good at playing the guitar? And what songs does he play.

Nope. He could play a few chords and start a song or two, but he never dedicated himself to playing.

Well, so much for that potential singer/songwriter career. 😉

Another fan asked if perhaps she had any photos of Aaron from before she met him, and she was happy to oblige with this picture of him (sporting a slightly less full beard) from his senior year in high school:

If you want to find out more about Aaron (and a little bit about Richard), including some of the reasons why they broke up, be sure to check out his ex’s blog. I warn you, she is really seductive, and it’s hard reading through all the posts and seeing the occasional modeling shots she posts of herself (most of which are not SFW and shot by Dallas photographer Phoenix Taylor) without developing a bit of a crush. You have been warned! 🙂

I’ll end things with the video she made for Aaron’s birthday that includes a lot of photos of him and her, including some of the ones included in this post. Here’s how she described it:

Heehee. Just a shout out to A-ron on his b-day- I’m so happy to have been there for half of 27, all of 28..and into your 29th year on this planet. Here’s to many more moons ol’ man!

Song in the video: “Paper Airplane” by Buck 65