Just Jamie, with JAMIE DIFFLEY

EVERY man should at one time in his life grow a beard.

It's a rite of passage; like trying a cigarette once, passing alcohol across your lips, or placing a bet on the national. If you can, you really should.

You might get hit by a bus tomorrow. And you might even like it.

This is what I've been doing this past week.

I took the opportunity to spend my week away from work to do something

constructive. While others (people like my dad) would have spent this valuable time getting their life in order, sorting things out -- or even going away -- I have been getting more hirsute.

And it is no coincidence that I chose a week when I am away from the office to become bearded. For, like smoking, drinking and gambling, beards carry a certain amount of unsociable baggage.

Not many people like them and look down on those who wear them. Recently boffins (the kind of boffins that find out fascinating and more often and not useless information) revealed that employers were less likely to take on workers who are of the facial-fuzz variety. They are often overlooked for their clean-shaven colleagues. Especially women, but then again only purveyors of the old-fashioned freak-shows could have any use for a bearded lady.

While I don't agree with this atmosphere of beardism, I do acknowledge its existence. That's why I chose to grow mine in my week off.

I didn't want to look and therefore be branded as scruffy during the early growth stages and put up with calls to have a shave. By being at home, the only thing I have had to resist is the moans by the Long Suffering

Marjorie -- who thinks it,s awful -- and my occasional urges to get rid of it (the itching can drive you mad. Nobody said it was going to be easy).

One of my biggest regrets in life was when I had an enforced three-month lay off from a previous job, after I broken my ankle. This was the perfect opportunity to go back to work some 12 weeks later with what would basically look like a furry cat clinging on to my face. Especially given my former editor's army-like strictness on being clean-shaven.

Beards were not always frowned upon; in ancient times, many considered a beard to be a sign of strength and manhood. It was highly prized and its removal was regarded as the ultimate punishment.

And think of the long list of bearded people who have made a difference to our lives. The best iconic images of Georgie Best were taken during his beard phase and John Lennon made some of his best music with-beard, to name just two. Then there are the historical figures; the Greek thinkers, the fiercest kings, and a certain carpenter from Galilee. If He advocated the beard, surely we all should.

I've fulfilled my goal by growing it, perhaps now I should look for a new incentive.

I've been toying with the idea of never having a shave until Rochdale get promoted. But even I have my limits.