I shave about every 3 days or so. I think my face looks a little more, er, chiseled* with a few days growth.
mmm
*and if you saw my face the descriptor ‘chiseled’ would never enter your mind, but you know what I mean
Once a week (on Sunday), whether I need to or not… (The son complains about the ‘old man color’ if I let it grow longer).
Shave every day and you’ll always look keen.
In my office, it’s changed in the 10 years I have worked here. When I started it was absolutely expected that all the (client-facing) male staff would be clean shaven every day. When this started to slip a bit (some people can pull off the stubble/unshaven look, some can’t) it started being enforced, in a couple of cases (after an initial warning) some people were asked to go and buy shaving kit and have a shave in the office if they turned up unshaven. But now I don’t think anyone cares any more. Personally I always feel it is how you act rather than how you look that should make the biggest impression on a client.
No sh–aving cream, Sherlock.
Sorry, that’s not what I meant (although I agree that there’s been a major shift in facial hair fashion. Definitely not disputing that).
I mean: would my facial hair count as a beard if I shaved around the edges every day? If so, maybe people just keep very short beards now?
I had a mustache for the majority of my time in the Marines (long before the recent “veteran beard/operator beard” trend). I caved to leadership/management pressure a couple times early in my career and shaved it off, then decided the 'stache was my silent “Fuck You!” to the sort of assholes who thought a mustache somehow made you less worthy of the title “Marine” than others, and kept it for the rest of my time in. I shaved it off shortly after leaving the Marines for good, which made the wife pretty happy.
Currently, I’m down to trimming with a beard trimmer once a week (I’m living/working in the Middle East, where stubble & beards are normal). When I go home on vacation, though, I shave every day - my wife doesn’t mind the 2-3 day stubble look, but hates the way it feels.
I think there’s been a shift in what’s considered professional, as a rule. People don’t seem to bat an eye at beards, unnatural hair colours or body modifications these days.
For example, when I started my job 10 years ago, the dress code stated tattoos had to be covered. Now the dress code says nothing about them at all.
I work at a huge (2,000+ lawyers) law firm. I’ve noticed this trend, and I’m surprised it’s penetrated even into the legal world.
Law firms tend to be pretty conservative environments. And yet at least half of the male lawyers, or at least half of the younger ones and a surprising number of older lawyers, are walking around looking like bums.
This is only in the last three or four years. As I said above, law firms tend to be pretty conservative. We’re probably a bit behind the times.
Me, I shave every day. Or every weekday, anyway. Sometimes I’ll skip Saturdays. I don’t look good unshaven. I’m in my mid-fifties, and my beard comes in grey and white, while my hair is, surprisingly, pretty much the same color it’s always been. So if I don’t shave for a while, it looks like I dye my hair.
When I started as a lawyer 10 years ago,the rules were men must shave and women must tie long hair. This still holds true for Court, not so much for anything else.
The biggest change has been dress code. We have gone from “suit everyday no exceptions”, to “for Courts and client meeting”. Still women’s dress code is a lot looser then mens. Not uncommon to see women in tights and shirts and flip flops, if they expect not to meet anyone from outside or be in internal meetings. Men cannot wear whatever the equivalent is.
Interesting effect, you can tell what exactly a person is going to be doing that day by the way they are dressed.