Beards are here to stay, aren't they?

I think too many guys have facial hair today.

I think men look better clean shaven.

Beards have always been here to stay OP. From clean shaven to beards and everything in between. And this has been the way of men's facial hair for thousands of years.

I don't mind beards, it's the recent trend of pornstaches that gets me.

I can't work out whether guys who have them think they look good, or if they do it to be "funny".

Going all the way back to Washington's time and the French Revolution, Western men were clean-shaven in the 1700s until the mid 1800s.

Then bushy beards were in vogue until the early 1900s.

Then clean-shaven was in until the 1960s.

Facial hair made a comeback in the late '60s through the '80s.

Then clean-shaven was in again in the 90s and 2000s.

Remember when Joaquin Phoenix showed up on Letterman looking like this in 2009 and everyone thought he looked homeless and probably was on drugs!

Turned out it was for a mockumentary, but it's funny how just a few years later (in the early 2010s), bushy beards were back in style.

Even Letterman, who makes fun of his appearance here, now sports a worse bushy beard than this.

Beards are here to stay as long as Hollywood actors feel pressure to stay closeted.

While the outcome can be highly individual, I'm all for the broad trend of beards, facial hair, and mustaches and hope it lasts for many years.

It doesn't hurt either that it's a nice antidote to the immature male faces that look like cookies taken too soon from the oven.

Who is that at OP? He's hot

Anyone who dislikes beards is not required to grow one.

Fashion now changes at a glacial pace nowadays. When American Graffiti came out in 1973 it was a look back at completely different time...eleven years earlier! Imagine a movie coming out today taking place in 2013. What would be different?

R9 no broccoli haircut on young men in 2013.

I’m keeping mine.

James Beard died in 1985.

I’ve been on a beard journey the last year growing out my facial hair for the first time in my 50s now that it doesn’t matter so much for my work. The beard influencers were very useful for me to learn the ins and outs. That’s said, some of the online communities are weirdly obsessive and fetishize facial hair. Go to subreddits for beards, moustaches or bald, and you’ll see. They tell guys with perfect jawlines to cover it up. The only one that gives objective answers about what looks good is r/malegrooming where they’ll give the hard truth about a patchy beard or pervy pornstache.

[quote][R9] no broccoli haircut on young men in 2013.

I remember in the late 2000s/early 2010s, it was the Tintin hairdo.

[quote]I’ve been on a beard journey the last year growing out my facial hair for the first time in my 50s now that it doesn’t matter so much for my work.

Did you switch jobs?

R3, I love, love, love a good porn stache. Porn's Beau Butler grows one that's just amazing.

A simple mustache is to automatically a "porn stash."

Porn stashes must have hairs growing downward on both sides surrounding the mouth.

No, r17.

No, r18

No r17

A pornstache is a mustache that makes the wearer look sleazy, predatory, or cheaply groomed. It can appear in many different forms and styles.

No, R17.

Yes, R20

[quote]Porn stashes must have hairs growing downward on both sides surrounding the mouth.

That's a Fu Manchu

I LOVE facial on a guy. Hair can someone go from meh to hot.

You call it corn, we call it maize.

[quote]I don't mind beards, it's the recent trend of pornstaches that gets me.

Same, and I DO NOT get it. I also don't get that it's somehow STILL a thing. A lot of the guys who wear them are boyish, and more than a few gay ones speak via cascading Prada purses, so is it simply viewed as somehow a way to look more "butch"?

I don't mind neat, trim beards. But the long, bushy "my beard looks just like my pubic hair" look is a bit off putting.

I like bushy beards and pornstaches.

I also love a thick thatch of pubic hair.

For me, I think these are linked.

I hope so. I love 'em.

I can't stand no pussy-faced man.

I recall the latest beard trend starting in 2008 with the outset of the Great Financial Crisis. I assumed it would be relatively short lived (e.g like the Man Bun) but it seems it’s here to stay.

"Beards are here to stay, aren't they?"

As long as Proctor and Gamble keeps jacking up the price of Gillette razors, yes, beards are here to stay.

You guys should be watching MLB. Now is the time for those guys to be growing out their beards.

I have a very pale baby face. I do indeed look like a cookie taken out of the oven too soon R6. Took a flight last weekend and the TSA agent asked me if I was traveling alone. I'm 38. A beard stops those comments but the beard is now full of grey so I look like a drama kid in a bad prop. So, I have to dye the beard which is a pain in the ass and I probably do look like a young queen butching it up but at least I'm never mistaken for a child.

R33, count your blessings!

Everybody looks dirty lately.

Growing a beard in my late twenties made me feel much more confident in my appearance. My chin is my weakest feature -- it's short and throws off the proportions of an otherwise balanced face -- and growing a beard corrected that. I would never want to go back, unless I got a chin implant.

This guy is also a prime example of someone whose face might read as too soft/young without facial hair, but the beard helps him cross over into being a good looking adult man.

Just about every man looks good with scruff, and there are some men, like R36, whose facial features are flattered by a beard. But my personal preference is clean shaven. I love men's faces and I like to see as much of the real estate as I can.

The only types of facial hair I find truly objectionable are the Yosemite Sam beards going down to the clavicle (hideous on everyone) and the handlebar (pure affectation).

I'm clean shaven. My facial hair is sparse. There but not dense. It looks like my beard is having chemo. I would love a beard but it does not flatter me. I also realized the other day my jaw is bigger than my head. I got a buzz cut that's way too close to the bone and I look like an upside down skull.

Being pretty is sooooooo difficult.

It's a played-out trend.

David Letterman's beard is over the top. I don't like it.

A beard never goes out of style.

I've had a beard since I was 28 and am 45 now and can't imagine not having one.

Yes but only if they're photoshopped.

I always assume they're hiding something. Laziness, ugliness and/or herpes.

R33 I dyed my beard for the longest--10 years--and nobody really noticed because I'm a Black, and it's hard to tell unless you know what to look for (e.g. it’s scarily, unnaturally dark and there’s a grayish tint under light). When COVID hit and everything shut down, I said “Fuck it” and took a break from it because I wasn’t going anywhere. I eventually got used to it. I tried to dye it recently and it just seemed…laborious, and it even looked odd to me. Sure, I look older but as a friend told me, “Don’t be embarrassed. You’ve earned it.”

Of course, he’s straight, so he would say some shit like that.

R44 Whenever I shave, I get razor bumps that inevitably turn into cysts. That's why I keep a beard.

Yes, beards are a mainstay in Hollywood. Many careers hinge on sustaining that illusion.

I like a nice beard. What I don't like are those ones that look like the guy is trying to audition for ZZ Top or become a rabbi. Extra busy and I don't like it.

Some guys look their best with a beard. Maybe a 7, 8, or 9.

Clean shaven = 3 or 4.

Yeah, R40, that Gabby Hayes look flatters no one.

I hate facial hair.

Groomed and clean are very nice on many guys. Just back from Midwest and saw many sloppy fatsos with great big sloppy-looking BUSHES on their faces -- obviously too lazy/cheap to trim/groom them, or trying to cover up their fat jowls: it's the male equivalent of fat old women trying to cover their fatness up with drape-y tunic tops. It doesn't fool anyone.

I LOVE facial hair