In that ackward hair stage

I've decided to grow my hair back out and grow the goatee. There are some before and after pictures of me with long hair and a goatee and me with short hair and clean shaved over on the left in the FlickR badge. The problem is that in between stage, my hair grows straight out until it gets long enough. I've been hiding under a ball cap for the last two weeks.
Sent wirelessly via BlackBerry from T-Mobile.