A New York designer gets creative with his own facial hair by making it into a unique, never-seen-before font containing the entire set of 26 alphabet characters.

It took two patient years for Mike Allen, who works for a Big Apple branding agency, to complete each letter from A to Z, as well as a full stop and a comma, on his face. After sculpting each letter, he would shave it off and wait two weeks before moving onto the next character.

So what inspired him to do this? The designer took on the challenge to grow his mustache after a dare from his friends. "I've been amused by the huge beard trend in the last couple years and by interesting and irregular facial hairstyles," he said. "The idea for Alphabeard came from a joking conversation among friends until I started thinking of it as a real design problem."

"I quickly sketched the ways I could make letterforms with the limitations of beard growth, including the bald patches, the gap around the mouth and amateur grooming skills. I wanted to have a consistent photograph for each letter, so I decided that profile shots and other angles were off limits," he continued. "The first letter I tried was the upper-case A. I found it so amusing, I had to try another on my next shave. A few weeks later, I carved in stages the O, C, and L from a single beard. Each time I shaved, I'd have to wait a few weeks before I could shave the next one."

"Some people have given me way too much credit for the time and dedication it took to complete it, but really it just added a few minutes to my regular shaving routine," Allen added. "I would occasionally ask my six-year-old son if he could recognize the letter I had created, or ask my wife if she'd like me to wear that letter for the day."

The creative project started back in 2011 and ended at the end of 2013 when he finally crafted the last letter, the elusive K.

"With some regret I must say I did not walk around in public wearing the Alphabeard letter," said Allen.