Female – 49, and my current involvement has a goatee, which is a first for me. I basically don’t care for facial hair.
Yes, I have one of those moustache-goatee-jawline-sideburns types that I keep trimmed as neatly as I can. I grew it on our honeymoon 16 years ago (we camped in southern Quebec, and had no running water). It was the first indication that I was going gray. I started a really cheesey adolescent moustache in high school, and had it until I had to shave completely for a food service job eons ago. No one has said anything to me about it one way or the other, but I know my daughter would disown me if I ever shaved it. Kind of a Kenney Rogers thing, I guess.
Vlad/Igor
I doubt there’d be anything ‘secret’ about her freaking out.
I’ve worn a goatee for the last 10 years or so. Even when I was in HS, and there were rules against facial hair (prep school), I still sort of wore one, and dared professors to say something about it. Of course, the headmaster pulled me aside and said ‘hey, nice goatee,’ and then instructed me to shave it off. go figure.
I like my goatee. I don’t like the hassle of beards so much, but I find a trimmed goatee can make one look very professional without worrying about shaving the most difficult spots on your face. And, as I have always been the youngest in my peer and professional group, it adds a bit of weight to my presence.
My wife has never seen me without it, short of baby pictures. I’m convinced that if I shaved it, after a night of much crying, screaming, and no sex, I’d wake up the next morning with one drawn on me with permanent marker.
Depends on the guy. Some look much better clean-shaven, some look beter with beards, and some are OK either way. I generally don’t care for a mustache alone, or a goatee. And I’m not crazy about the type of beard that creeps up to the guy’s eyeballs (think Billy what-s-his-face selling the Oxy-Clean, or the cokehead guy in Die Hard).
Mr. S has had a full beard for the 16 years I have known him. He shaved it off twice in that period – once shortly after we met, as an experiment, and once to dress as a woman for Halloween. Both times I begged him to grow it back (though the first time I was only a co-worker and had no real clout 
). IMO he looks much better with it because he has a very young face (too young) and a slightly weak chin. Much handsomer with the beard. Lucky for me because he prefers not to shave.
The second time he shaved it, which was a few years ago, I had a hard time looking at him until it grew back because he looked like a stranger to me. On the other hand, a close friend or ours thought he looked better without it, and begged him not to grow it back. I don’t know what she was smoking.
I do prefer that he shower or otherwise wet it down to soften it before any, er, extracurricular activities, especially if he has just trimmed it, because it can get rough on sensitive areas.
I have no idea whether my opinion on beards was influenced by the fact that I liked to get whisker rubs from Grandpa (who had no beard but often was stubbly), well into adulthood. I sure miss him.
I have tried in the past to cultivate facial hair. As it turns out, my grandfather was a full-blooded Cherokee, and one of the traits that’s been passed down to me is the inability to grow face fuzz with any real substance.
I’m dark-complected, and when I let my facial hair come in, I bear a passing resemblance to Boston Rob from Survivor. Just patchy, and terrible. Bleh.
Never liked 'em. Then my husband grew one. It looks great on him because it brings his rather long face into balance. Now I never want him to shave it off.
It’s good that I have learnt to appreciate beards. f my female relatives are any guide, I will probably grow a beard myself in a few decades. Stupid Mediterrean ancestry.
definitely full beard. What’s the point in a partial beard? If a woman wanted it gone, most likely, she’d be gone. Why would I want a relationship with someone that shallow?
Got one - beard and moustache. Had it for about a dozen years - I keep the throat and “upper cheeks” shaved and the beard itself trimmed close. My wife likes it. I had to shave it a few months ago (dry skin was becoming a problem) and she couldn’t look at me until it grew back…felt pretty weird, too. I’ll probably never completely shave it, but I’m not sure what’ll happen when I lose my hair…
I, too, have a full beard and mustache. I grew the mustache first, in my late teens. Then, at age twenty-eight, I decided to grow the full beard. As soon as I did so, everyone I knew threatened me with death if I ever shaved it off. It seems I am one of those men who looks best in a beard. Well, I like it, too, so nobody has a problem (except for those few people who cannot stand facial hair of any sort on anyone at any time for any reason in any context). I keep my beard trimmed rather close, but, oddly enough, I keep my mustache very droopy (well, maybe not oddly enough – my wife says it’s softer that way).
Male here.
I’ve had a goatee on and off again for the past 10 years or so. Nowadays (and for about the past three years) I basically stop shaving in the late summer/early fall and let the beard take over until springtime again. Although I’m thinking about starting that a little early this year, to get a head start on my winter foliage.
I really want to grow a big crazy bushy beard, but for some reason i end up compulsively trimming the random stray hairs once they reach around 3/4" or so - they just start to bug me.
The road manager for one of my bands has a righteous beard - at least 9 inches - we’re considering entering him in the World Beard Championships next time around… 
Female
Most men need a moustache and some need beards. Well-kept goatees are wonderful. Drachillix grew one after we were married, even quit a job where he couldn’t have one to keep it because I found it sooooooooo attractive.
I hated that job anyway—bouncing, at night, on weekends. And the hoochies.
I’m glad he quit. And still has the beard.
I’ve had a moustache since I was 14. I wore a goatee for at least 10 years, then one day got tired of it, and shaved it off. I still have the moustache, though. I’ve only shaved it off once in the 8 years my wife has known me.
I’m 45, and I still can’t grow any hair on my cheeks or throat., beyond where a goatee naturally grows, nor can I grow sideburns. So as much as I dislike shaving, I could never grow a full beard.
I’ve only ever dated one or two guys without facial hair. I love it. My bf is a very hairy fellow, and it really turns me on. 
Ditto for my goatee. It’s “not allowed” to be shaved off, but neither can it be grown into a cool-looking devil point.
S’ok by me. One, I’m used to it; two, it gives me something to twiddle with when I’m bored; and three, it makes shaving a helluvalot easier.
Ah, yes, because that’s always such a good look. :dubious:
I’m male. I hate the idea of a beard on my face. I also hate shaving. When it comes to a choice between the two, I’ll shave.
It just grows back so fast… 
When I win the lottery, there will be electrolysis, I suspect.
Pretend that I wrote everything CandidGamera wrote, before he wrote it. That way, he’s plagiarizing me.
I forgot to mention that I despise shaving; with a beard, I need only shave down my neck, and that only every two or three days. It saves me time on those mornings I don’t shave, as well as much blood loss…
I grew my beard in 1980 for a part in a film and it established a character for me that helped me get more parts. My wife likes me so much with it that when when I got parts (usually stage) where I was expected to be clean shaven, she would keep asking, “How long’s the run?” clearly counting the days until I can have my beard back (or she can have my beard back, I suppose).
I have experimented with all types of beards from full and bushy to neatly trimed just along the jaw line to small goatees. Currently I have a very broad goatee.
TV
Well, I’m clean shaven (Have to be… stupid work.) but I do prefer men with beards. I won’t complain on your behalf, swampy.
At least not about your beard… although you smell bad.
What?
(FTR, I’ve never met swampbear )