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Man style: your thoughts on current beard trend

Aziraphale

Veteran

This might be outside of Angie's usual area of expertise, and not on the YLF fashion radar in general, but has anyone else noticed the increasing trend in very bushy beards? What do you think?

The short beard has been popular for a while now. My honey has one. Kind of. It's a goatee and moustache, but he leaves the sides to grow out a bit (I think he only shaves once a week). It suits him. He looked like a mature rock star. (Incidentally, we both noticed that all the 'grunge heavyweights' of the 1990s have traded their long hair/clean shaven faces for short hair/beard). I have a few (female) friends who are not OK with facial hair (one friend memorably said that it 'feels like kissing a goat') but most of us seem to have partners with at least some form of beard. But I draw the line at the bushy mountain-man beard. NO WAY. What do you think?

What particularly don't get is the incongruity of a well-groomed, smartly-dressed man with copious facial hair. I can sort of get on board with a bushy beard on a man who looks like he lives in the woods, but on a dapper bloke, it doesn't 'go'. Or am I missing something?

General

45 replies

Latest reply was from cindysmith

rae

(website)

Veteran

Eh, I feel like few men pull this off correctly. I agree with you that it looks totally weird on a dapper fellow... like putting Bob Vila in a tight Boss Red Label suit. o_0 I also think many take the grizzled mountain beard too far by ignoring beard maintenance completely - shave that neck, men! Shave the neck! Ugh.

I don't feel attracted to beards myself, but our friend wears one well in a Mountain Creative Recluse kind of way.

Dee

Veteran

I don't mind facial hair, but I'm generally not a fan of the bushy beard either.

Maybe it's the chance for them to do things like this?

Aziraphale

Veteran

Rae -- OK it's not just me then! (Neck hair = NO). I'm good with a short beard though.

Dee -- I actually laughed out loud. Thanks for the image!

I tell you, if I were a guy, I would try everything. Mutton chops, beard, goatee, moustache (probably not the Hitler though). But I don't know if I'd do Christmas ornaments.

Sara L.

Veteran

It's not my favorite look either. I feel like Rae in that many men take growing a beard to mean they don't have to shave at all, when some maintenance is still required.

ElleH

Veteran

It's part of lumbersexual style. Hipster trend.

Anonymous

I like the look of short beards but I like men to look at least clean, if not overly groomed, and the bushy beard, like dreadlocks, does not appeal.
My husband looked so handsome with one, like Clint Eastwood in The Good The Bad and The Ugly, but I have sensitive skin and I got a rash every time he kissed me!

shipskitty

Veteran

Azariphale these discussions reminded me of this 'Have we reached Peak Beard?' article from last year but that was from six months ago so maybe they were slightly early in their prediction of the trend peaking LOL...although admittedly some sources in that article were suggesting it wasn't fully 'mainstream' yet as a trend.

I agree too that not all guys realize/accept that beard-grooming/styling is a thing they need to do the same as they would get their hair cut for the most attractive shape.

Echo

Veteran

I'm not a big fan of the long/bushy beard, though I've seen some guys pull it off well. DH has a beard and has had one... forever. Aside from pictures of him before he was too young to grow one, I've seen him clean shaven ONCE (and as soon as he put the razor down he hated it and began growing it back). He is just very much a beard kind of guy. But like others have mentioned, his is clean, well trimmed, without neck hair and has no ornaments!

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Don't even get me started. But I think the trend is already on the way out where I live. We reached critical beard a year or two ago and the trend is starting to wane, just a little bit. I was starting to feel like I was living in an Avett Brothers or Iron and Wine concert, and I say that even though I like that music. It didn't help that one of my stepsons was really cultivating the mountain man look for a while there.

I'm not a big fan of facial hair, so I'm happy to see the bushy beard trend die a fast death. Well-groomed facial hair is less bothersome to me though.

Desmo April

(website)

Veteran

To each their own but its not my favorite look. It cracks me up to sit in a coffeeshop in the lumbersexual epicenter of Los Angeles and listen to a group of guys discuss the care and feed of their epic beards.

rae

(website)

Veteran

LOL @ the ornaments! And lumbersexual. So apt, April.

After pondering this for the evening, I had to come back and say I would not mind a return of the pointy "devil" beard. I like what it does to the jawline.

gradfashionista

(website)

Veteran

There was an article in the Guardian about mutton chops and side burns. In academia, you're more sheltered from these vicissitudes, but I have noticed mustaches becoming more acceptable. Never been a fan.

Firecracker (Sharan)

Veteran

I'm with Janet--don't get me started, either. Not a fan. I was shocked and sad to see it such a trend on baseball players this past summer, as I would catch glimpses of games on the televisions in a local pub. I don't follow baseball, but I always liked the clean-shaven style of the players in their kind of old-fashioned uniforms (which don't appear to have changed all that much in several decades). I was not a fan of the five o'clock shadow that was so popular for many years either, but I'd gladly trade the bushy beards back for it.

fuzzylogic

Veteran

ElleH: Lumbersexual???? Bwahahaha!!! Awesome!

This is a trend I am willing to roll with! Like hair anywhere else, it's nice to have a change and to experiment!

rachylou

Veteran

Lumbersexual: just immortal. Hahaha!

I don't mind the beards themselves, but it's so embarrassing. The whole man-boy fashion victim aspect. I mean, what a real weirdout when the guy is a genuine carpenter dressed as a tech worker dressed as a carpenter. You just feel like, *Please!! Someone help me here!!*

You get it a lot here in hipsterville.

Elly

Veteran

I live in rural Colorado, so this isn't a new thing to me but it is sort of weird to see it on men who are in the media or not from here. My father is currently rocking the full, semi-bushy beard after years of a goatee and mustache (and people stop him on the street to tell him he looks like santa).

The SO has a beard but has a work policy where it can't hang more than 1/2" below the jawline. He still manages to rock a pretty full, lush beard. However, I know that he always wore facial hair up until the 4 years or so before he knew me. I LOVE the beard -- be he is a very "furry" guy and all if it is soft.

Claudia

Veteran

Not a fan. Personally, I like clean shaven or a bit of five o'clock shadow. Really don't like woolly, bushy unkempt facial hair. And an unshaven neck is totally unappealing.

I have a friend that married a great guy that she met at work. He had a well groomed beard when they met, and kept throughout the years of their marriage. One morning, with no advance notice (or as she would say "warning," LOL), he came downstairs into the kitchen newly clean shaven. It turned out that he had not much of a chin. My friend took one look and told him he better grow it back ASAP --- and never shave it off again!

Joy

Veteran

And then there are the lumbersexual eyebrows.

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Claudia

Veteran

LOL, Joy! So true.

Joy

Veteran

Is there a way to capture photos from Facebook to paste here? My hair stylist posted a picture of a man with extreme eyebrows that I wanted you to see.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Ooh, the eyebrows! At a Luau in Hawaii, we sat near a guy with seriously groomed massive eyebrows! They were like handlebar eyebrows. It was hard to not stare.

Anonymous

It's hard not to make fun of the hipster trends, especially this one, and I sometimes think /hope that women aren't so obvious in their adoption of certain hair/image trends . I think it's quite hilarious. I don't mind it - but cannot stand hair on a man's neck - that just looks lazy and ungroomed to me.

It tends to give the wearer of the big beard a super-intense and unhappy look - have you ever noticed that?

Marilyn

Veteran

My husband had a beard for the first 20 years we were together. He was very attached to it. I was immensely happy when he shaved it off. It took me several weeks to get used to seeing his whole face....he looked so different!
I love a man with a clean shaven face and tidy hair.....don't care how long his hair is as long as it's well groomed.

catgirl

Veteran

My DH looks great with a beard - he's worn one for 22 years. It's a very Alaskan look but he has a long face (like Ben Affleck, whom he slightly resembles) and a neat, close-cropped beard really suits him. At least I think so. Trendy or not, it's distinguished on him. I'm partial to a scruffy guy look too - think Aragorn in Lord of the Rings...

Some of the best lawyers in town here might be mistaken for ZZ Topp. It's really old school gold panner style and more authentic/environmental than hipster. It still cracks me up when environmental normcore gets trendy.

harmonica

Veteran

LOL, Joy!

Not a fan. Very few pull off the look successfully, IMO.

Louise

Veteran

Beards don't bother me, I guess because my Dad has one. I have literally never seen him without it other than in photos from before I was born. It gets trimmed when it starts to look a bit wooly. I find them a bit weird on young men when they start looking long and shaggy! X

Lisa

(website)

Member

The beard trend - UGH! Can't die soon enough for me. And I don't want to feel like I'm exfoliating my skin when I'm kissing someone.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Funny story. My oldest stepson was sporting the mountain man look for a couple of years -- long scraggly hair, long scraggly beard. He's a musician and was definitely embracing some hippie-ish stuff at the time, not that there's anything wrong with that. (We'll ignore the phase when he was cultivating a dreadlock look, I'd rather forget that.)

Well, a couple of years ago, we went on a family vacation to Hawaii. My MIL, BIL, stepsons, niece and nephew, one of their friends, etc. My stepson M had had his mountain man look going on for years at that point. The second morning we all met up for breakfast, and this adorable surfer looking young man comes walking up to our table -- long hair but clean shaven and what a handsome face! We almost didnt recognize him, but of course, it was my stepson, who had decided to get rid of the long scraggly beard while on vacation. But you should have seen the jaws drop -- we had all almost forgotten what his face really looks like, and trust me when I say he is a handsome guy. His grandmother almost cried tears of joy!

Runcarla

Veteran

Well, I'm on team hairy guy! DH is not particularly hairy, and since his beard comes in patchy, he remains clean shaven. I would love it if he had a beard though!

DS #1 is clean shaven and keeps short hair due to his sport (triathlon).

DS #2 has yeti tendencies and came home from his first semester of uni with a beard and has had one ever since. He has occaisionally had to take it off for placements (he's in nursing) but grows it back as soon as he can. He has gone bushier recently, and changed up his hair too (longer on top, short-short sides.). For his birthday just after Christmas, I treated him to a full work-up at a men's barbershop in the Big City-haircut, beard trim, etc.-he loved it!

4 years on, DS #2 is committed to his bearded look and maintains it well! He has a beard brush, beard comb, and uses beard oil to keep it soft! Generally he keeps a modest beard that follows his face shape and isn't overly long or bushy. Son has a long face/jaw, and the beard softens his look.

Pics below are DS#2 with his look the first 2 years of beard, and more recently (and the longest he had just before taking it off for school in September.

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