Illinois reporter shaves 'budget beard' grown during impasse

[No Vested Interest]

1. I've never understood the supposed power of letting one's beard grow as a protest measure.

Why should anyone take meaning from hair growth, which is going to occur anyway?
Is it the lack of cutting or maintenance which supposedly has meaning and may even change minds regarding whatever issue is being challenged?
Should you or I care about someone else's beard length?
Would anyone beyond the bearded one's immediate family be affected ?
Should women protest by letting underarm hair grow?

Now, going on a fast from food is another matter, though that also can become quite foolish.
Unless there is a truly important cause, as in the Irish prisoners, some of whom fasted unto death, in protest of British rule in Northern Ireland.