SlowMindThinking: Remember that both clean shaven AND stubbly faces are attractive, it just depends on the girl. Also, the stubble thing is totally a trend and soon people will think it is not nearly attractive any more. In the meantime though… Try out the stumble look and see if it works!
I only like stubble on men with nice jaws and dark, thick facial hair, anyway. 
I hope the socially-acceptable stubble trend does not go away anytime soon!
I have this (or a similar model, and it has a setting to trim down to 1mm (or up to 23mm). The 1-3 days growth should be somewhere in that range.
That actually looks like it would work.
For the record, there have been women writing about liking the stubbly look at least since the 80s and Miami Vice. I doubt it is going away soon. It’s just that I’d have thought there’d be more products out there to support it. Personally, I don’t shave on the days I ride my bike to work ( I shower there) so every other day I have 1 days growth. Alas rhubarbin, there’s too much gray in mine now to meet your standards. (Weirdly, the blond in my beard is still there; just the dark hairs have changed.)
I disagree with the theory posed by the OP and I think it’s pretty much equal, it’s just that as far as the work goes, it’s different for either sex. As far as luck goes, either men or women can be born with attractive or unattractive faces, and just as a woman might be particularly endowed or curvy, a man might be short or bald. And, at the same time, I’ve seen both men and women who could look quite good but don’t take care of themselves and so end up looking bad despite favorable genetics.
As far as work goes, the kind of work that’s required is different. For instance, the amount of effort a man has to put into being in shape is generally higher, whereas a woman is generally expected to put more effort into hair, make-up, and style. That is, for a guy to have a good looking physique, whether it’s muscular or thin and lean or whatever, he likely has to spend a decent amount of time and effort with exercise whereas, for the most part, women need only be thin, do a little toning and some cardio. As such, a woman can generally get by with probably half the effort on that end.
On the other end, women are often expected to spend effort with getting made up whereas a guy can often just shave, shower, brush his hair, and be looking his best in 20-30 minutes max. For a woman to look her best, it probably takes at least twice that amount of time.
So, when you average it all out, I’d expect that the total amount of effort for a reasonably attractive member of either sex is roughly the same.
I agree with this statement because it is probably the least shallow answer to the original question, and because I believe there are many other internal aspects of an individual which make them “attractive” or not. Also, everyone has different tastes, both for physical and personality traits. As we have already seen in a number of other posts, no one could agree on just one ideal physical image for either a male or female body type.
Getting back to what I was saying about the internal aspects of individuals, I have experienced that looks are less important to me than personality. I have met lots of individuals who are very pretty and well-dressed, but have terrible personalities and character, which immediately negates all of their physical attraction as well. On the other hand, I have met people who I would not classify as physically attractive, but who were wonderful people and became attractive to me once I knew them.
As far as I’ve ever been able to ascertain, makeup largely covers for all of the things that women do to make themselves uglier, in pursuit of beauty. For example, you shave off your eyebrows – which makes you look horrid first thing in the morning – and then draw them back on again. Or you scrub down and smoothen your skin so much that it is shiny and plasticy – which makes you look horrid first thing in the morning – and so powder has to be applied to bring it back to a naturalistic gloss. It’s like coffee. You don’t drink coffee to wake up. You drink coffee to get to where you would be naturally if your body hadn’t become dependent on coffee.
Makeup, grooming, fashion, etc. can be applied in such a manner as to accentuate the good and hide the bad – as it is meant to. But most people just aren’t that artistic, wealthy, nor idle as to be able to manage it. For most, anything you do much beyond shampoo and soap, probably isn’t accomplishing anything near the amount of money spent on it.
I am a young woman and I apply makeup almost every day in hopes to make myself prettier. The only reason I put on makeup is for confidence. The fact is I don’t feel attractive unless I am wearing makeup and nice clothes. I don’t even dress up specifically to attract the opposite sex because I know for a fact that men do not understand or notice the amount of time I put into preparing and grooming. I put on makeup to convince myself I look good. Typically, I only receive compliments from other women, because they recognize more easily than men the amount of effort I put into my appearance. In about 5 years I will probably look back at myself and wonder why the hell I went through all the trouble of getting my makeup and clothes just right, but for now I continue with my routine because I like how I feel when I am all dressed up.