# Facial Hair... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 6, 2000, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-hair/9930 "2000-04-06T00:54:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Roland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Roland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-hair/9930/1 "2000-04-06T00:54:00Z")
Here is something that has been bothering me since puberty and I would like to see what the ‘teeming millions’ think. Is it purely genetics that decides whether or not you will have facial hair? Here I am at 23, with normal amounts of body/pubic hair, but not enough facial hair. I can’t grow my sideburns, a mustache, beard, or a goatee. People used to tell me I should consider it a blessing that I wouldn’t have to shave all the time, but I do have to shave every day so I don’t look stupid. It was pretty hard being a senior in high school and having freshmen walking into school with full beards. It’s also pretty embarrassing when someone I am dating asks me to try and grow something. There’s that damn male ego again 😉 Someone once told me that it’s easy to mistake hair roots for “blackhead zits” and you can end up squeezing them out. Any ideas, or actual facts? Am I just doomed to not be able to keep up with current male fashion? Thanks, roland ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-hair/9930/2 "2000-04-06T01:22:00Z")
At 23, you’re nowhere near through with changes. I didn’t even start shaving until I was 22, and a couldn’t muster a decent mustache just a few years later. And I had a hairless chest. I’m in my forties now and I can grow a half-ass beard in four days and a full beard in a week, and I’ve got a hairy enough chest that a woman I worked with once asked be if I was wearing a black undergarment under my white dress shirt (I won’t pass on exactly how she phrased the question). ---
**Author:** ![abderian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@abderian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abderian)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-hair/9930/3 "2000-04-06T01:28:00Z")
Roland, whoever told you that you might accidently “squeeze out” a hair root was out to lunch. The root of a hair goes fairly deep compared to the surface plug of sebum that makes up a blackhead. Further, the hair root is firmly attached (yank one out and you’ll feel exactly how attached), while a comedone is pretty loose in the pore. It’s genes, my dear, and there’s nothing you can do but wait. But hey, many women LOVE that baby-smooth skin! ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-hair/9930/4 "2000-04-06T01:30:00Z")
## “I won’t pass on exactly how she phrased the question” Dang it, beatle. People _always_ do that when they get to really interesting stuff. 😉 Peace, mangeorge * * * Teach your kids to bungee jump. One them might have to cross a bridge someday. ---
**Author:** ![Strainger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strainger/32/244_2.png) [@Strainger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strainger)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-hair/9930/5 "2000-04-06T02:05:00Z")
**Roland** : > [@](#): > > It was pretty hard being a senior in high school and having freshmen walking into school with full beards. _Freshmen???_ What kind of genetic mutant freak freshmen did _you_ go to high school with? ---
**Author:** ![purrplebear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/90ced4/32.png) [@purrplebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purrplebear)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-hair/9930/6 "2000-04-06T02:21:00Z")
Roland, I don’t know if you care, but I like the ‘baby-smooth’ skin look myself. Very sexy and ummmmmuuummmmmm good to cuddle up to. 😉 Don’t worry about it, you’re young, and you have plenty of time to grow a beard or whatever later. * * * You sing in my consciousness like a counterpoint to my life. L.L. That’s my name, not a description. I am neither purple nor a bear. Okay, so I’m purple.\ ---
**Author:** ![Lagged2Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ac8455/32.png) [@Lagged2Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lagged2Death)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-hair/9930/7 "2000-04-06T02:37:00Z")
> [@](#): > > I’ve got a hairy enough chest that a woman I worked with once asked be if I was wearing a black undergarment under my white dress shirt (I won’t pass on exactly how she phrased the question). Was the word “brassiere” involved? ---
**Author:** ![MadPoet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8c91f0/32.png) [@MadPoet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadPoet)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-hair/9930/8 "2000-04-06T02:52:00Z")
I recently tried to grow a van dyke. My hair grows in really weird… I can gro w a moustache, and I can grow a goatee… but they don’t connect. There is a patch on either side that just doesn’t grow. Same with between my “soul patch” and my chin. It’s pretty well bald. I wish I knew why that is, it looks really funny if I don’t trim things right. * * * [http://www.madpoet.com](http://www.madpoet.com) I am human, and I need to be loved Just like anybody else does ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-hair/9930/9 "2000-04-06T12:34:00Z")
\ ***MadPoet:** I recently tried to grow a van dyke. My hair grows in really weird… I can gro w a moustache, and I can grow a goatee… but they don’t connect. \* My facial hair does the same thing. If I let my beard grow fully, there’re two patches right around my dimples that are hairless. Over the years, this area’s shrunk, but it’s still not complete. I figure by the time I’m 50 it might. _sigh_ I just shave my beard real close to my jawline so you can’t tell that I have mange. 🙂 * * * Wrong thinking is punished, right thinking is just as swiftly rewarded. You’ll find it an effective combination. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_Coleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dfb087/32.png) [@Paul\_Coleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_Coleman)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-hair/9930/10 "2000-04-06T13:05:00Z")
What are you worried about? A moustache? Look around, not to many guys are sporting lip fur these days. Okay, maybe if it was the late seventies/early eighties you might indeed be genetically challenged to keep apace of the crowd, but not in recent memory. Moreover, the goatee thing has gotten completely out of hand. More of a statement to not have one than to have one, really. It has become so removed from what it originally was - a little bohemian, beatnik identifier, expressing a refusal to conform. Now it almost says - “This is a lame effort to escape my suburban nightmare existence”. Full beard? Either you can or you can’t, not something to lose sleep over. I’m too tall be be a thoroughbred jockey. Not gonna happen, not gonna worry about it. Besides, last I hear, Kenny Rogers and Barry Gibb just aren’t scoring the babes like they used to… Trust me - enjoy the savings on razors blades and divert your attention to something more substantive - that you can really change, like for example your self-confidence. Seems to me women groove to that most of all. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-hair/9930/11 "2000-04-08T00:31:00Z")
Roland, if you got hair on your head & pubic hair, then thats alright, its all you are genetically suppposed to have at this point. ---
**Author:** ![Shagrath\_Borgir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/46a35a/32.png) [@Shagrath\_Borgir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagrath_Borgir)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-hair/9930/12 "2000-04-08T00:32:00Z")
To quote my dad… > [@](#): > > Thou shalt not cultivate on thy face what grows wild on thy ass… 🙂 * * * “Through twilight, darkness and moonrise My scarlet tears will run As stolen blood and whispered love Of fantasies undone” ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2000, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-hair/9930/13 "2000-04-07T16:46:00Z")
I started shaving when I was a senior in high school. It was an affectation. I didn’t need to shave regularly even while I was in the army, with sergeants judging whether my face was smooth enough. I was twenty three when I got out of the army, and grew a goatee, which was all I could get to grow. I am fifty-three now. Those who were at the last get together in DC will tell you I do have some facial hair. I look about like Santa Claus, only not quite as white-haired. My beard is still heaviest on my chin, but it does grow all over my face. Twenty is only a short time passed puberty. Wait for it. **Tris** ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2000, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-hair/9930/14 "2000-04-07T16:51:00Z")
I started shaving when I was a senior in high school. It was an affectation. I didn’t need to shave regularly even while I was in the army, with sergeants judging whether my face was smooth enough. I was twenty three when I got out of the army, and grew a goatee, which was all I could get to grow. I am fifty-three now. Those who were at the last get together in DC will tell you I do have some facial hair. I look about like Santa Claus, only not quite as white-haired. My beard is still heaviest on my chin, but it does grow all over my face. Twenty is only a short time passed puberty. Wait for it. **Tris** ---
**Author:** ![Vestal\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5e9695/32.png) [@Vestal\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vestal_Blue)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-hair/9930/15 "2000-04-08T05:00:00Z")
Don’t sweat it. I’m a relatively body hairless 40 year old, and I _love_ not having to shave every day. I generally shave every other, but can go 3 days with no problem. I can grow a decent mustache, but that’s it. Oh, and I can attest to Purplebears’ appreciation of a smooth face, as well as my wifes’! * * * VB Some people say that cats are sneaky, evil, and cruel. True, and they have many other fine qualities as well. ---
**Author:** ![Crystalguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dbc845/32.png) [@Crystalguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crystalguy)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-hair/9930/16 "2000-04-08T05:06:00Z")
Roland, if you never develop enough facial hair to grow a beard, you will consider yourself blessed in later years. I hate to shave about as bad as anything I have to do and I am grateful that at sixty I still have a very light beard. But I have held good jobs all my life, made a good living and fathered a beautiful son. Without a beard and without chest hair. I will admit that when I was a teenager and Elvis hit it big, I would have killed for the ability to grow sideburns. * * * Crystalguy ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2000, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-hair/9930/17 "2000-04-07T18:51:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Same with between my “soul patch” and my chin. Soul patch? You mean flavor-saver? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![purrplebear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/90ced4/32.png) [@purrplebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purrplebear)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-hair/9930/18 "2000-04-08T07:41:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Vestal Blue: > \*\* > Oh, and I can attest to Purplebears’ appreciation of a smooth face! > \*\* ## Yep! Yep! Yep! That is so true, I certainly do, _love_ those smooth cheeks to rub up against! Just ask my hubby, though I do have to admit, I have gotten quite used to his mustache. You are more than a human being, you are a human becoming. Og Mandino That’s my name, not a description. I am neither purple nor a bear. Okay, so I’m purple.\ ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-hair/9930/19 "2000-04-08T15:25:00Z")
A few days of beard is an effective back scratcher. People just love it. ---
**Author:** ![purrplebear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/90ced4/32.png) [@purrplebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purrplebear)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facial-hair/9930/20 "2000-04-08T15:34:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by handy: > \*\* > A few days of beard is an effective back scratcher. People just love it.\*\* True. It also makes for a great kid’s belly tickler too! Or, whatever else you may want to tickle. 😉 * * * You are more than a human being, you are a human becoming. Og Mandino That’s my name, not a description. I am neither purple nor a bear. Okay, so I’m purple.\