Since I have few responsabilities this week, I have been recklessly growing facial hair. I am not sure whether I will keep it though, since beards all too often signal “disgruntled loner” when they are not done right.
Anyway, does anyone have any examples of men who look more distinguished, or just plain damn handsome in beards than they do beardless?
I swear this isn’t some odd fetish I have…honest. I just wondered what direction I should aim at to avoid the hermit woodsman look.
Keep it trimmed… to avoid the hermit look you definately need to trim it and keep it neat. My roomie at various times has a goatee and is clean shaven… he looks good both ways but only because it isn’t all scraggly and messy looking.
Trim that puppy indeed. You don’t need to get anal about wearing every hair on your face the exact same length, measured in microns, but just plain look in the mirror once in a while.
As for m’self, the oddest problem I run into are “fly aways.” Sometimes you’ll see the odd hair or two that wing out sideways. Get yourself a little mustache trimmer type of device, and nail those fly aways before they get out of hand. They look sloppy, and will on occasion try and climb up your nose, irritating you to no end.
A mildly tonue-in-cheek tangent:
If you do grow a decently think beard and/or moustache, and wear it for more than a couple months (past the time where you’ve grown it just how you want it, that is) think long and hard before shaving it all off. If you’ve got very young children, or, let’s say, nieces and nephews that you’re especially close to, warn 'em before it comes off.
I’ve seen children break down and cry at daddy’s “new face.” Growing it is something they can get used to over time. When you just turn up with a bald face one morning, the shock value can run high. 
[sub]Who’s that guy that sounds just like Uncle Jimmy? What did he do with my Uncle Jimmmmyyyyyyy?[/sub]
Check out photos of Jonathan Frakes during the 3rd through the 6th seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. He went from Anson Williams Lookalike to Rather Cool and Distinguished Due in one fell swoop.
Look at Rembrandt paintings for ideas, also. (I’m entirely serious. Dutch guys then looked mega-smooth.)
Ha! Skeezix is so right…I shaved off my goatee for a month this last summer, the same goatee I have had since my son was born (he is now three). When I came out of the bathroom, he, having just woken up, came running up, all smiles, to give his daddy a good morning hug…and seeing my goatee-less face, literally skidded to a halt, screamed, and ran back to his room crying.
I was crying, too, but from laughter.
When he finally accepted that I was still me, he became obsessed with my regrowing a beard. He did NOT like his daddy without a beard.
So sayeth Woeg, the re-bearded.
My husband hasn’t shaved since 1967. He’s got a Unibomber/Gandolf/ Santa Claus thing going on. I’m used to it. We don’t have much occasion to go out to fancy schmancy places, but when we do, he ties his hair back and puts on a suit and he looks, well…eccentric. I know many people that think he looks like an old hippie, but ya know what?? He is!
De Niro in The Deer Hunter. Rowf!!!
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Sorta a hijack I guess - but my dad has had a mustache all my life. A few years ago, when I was in high school, he shaved it off. I seriously could not look him in the face when I was talking to him after that - he looked so silly! He grew it back almost immediately - he looks distinguished with it, baby-faced without.
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Susan
I can’t stand it when men who usually have facial hair shave it off. I remember a guy I dated shaved his beard/moustache and it really creeped me out. Really, I almost exclusively date guys with facial hair. Something about a smooth face on a guy is a turnoff.
Ok, Sean Connery has such a hot beard. I would do that old fogey in a New York minute.
My dad’s beard rules. Hw has had one since the early seventies, and I cannot remember him without it. It was bushy for a wgile, then full and Amish-looking for a while. Now he’s got the Connery thing going- dark beard going silver, trimmed very well and shaped. It’s so cool.
Ray Liotta’s goatee in Narc is just plain awful. It’s so bushy and full that it looks like a hamster dies on his chin.
My sweetie has a wide face, and his beard helps give it a “slimmer” look. He keeps it trimmed very close to the skin. He’s beginning to get a “salt & pepper” look which I find very sexy.
I’ve always liked guys with mustache and/or beard (my first husband looks like Yosemite Sam :eek: ) but I also know gals who hate 'em.
Ask your barber or some friend-girls what style would look best on you. I vote : go for it !!
James Brolin always looks very handsome when he wears a beard. And I generally don’t like beards on men.
I like a sort of long goatee with a little soul patch up top. Definitely trim it up into a nice shape. And watch for those little stray hairs that pop up on your cheeks sometimes - the little strays. Ick.
I personally prefer guys to be clean-shaven. If not that, then my second choice is a guy with a goatee. However, do not just have stuble. That stuff is scratchy!
Very good point, monica. If you’re wearing a crumb catcher, remember that not only is it hair, just like the stuff on your head (well, for a majority of guys, anyway), but it is also the hair that’s gonna come into the most close contact with your SO.
[sub]Actually, it’s usually only got the second most contact, but most fellas don’t have scratchy pubic hair, so…[/sub]
Think shampoo. Think conditioner. Really think conditioner, and your SO will appreciate it.
Don’t get nuts about this, just remember every now and then while in the shower to run a handfull of suds from the top of your head across your face, and rub it in a bit.
[sub]If you’re the parental type, this also prevents endless yucks at your expense about “Daddy’s Scratchy Kisses.” Little smart-aleck.[/sub]
If you grow the full face-o-hair, I’d say shave the sideburn part and go for a goat or maybe something a bit more extensive. The full beard is generally a bit too Grizzly Adams, unless you’re a logger.
He’s never looked cooler.
Just read a psychic’s prediction that this would be the year of moustaches and facial hair. (She also predicted that Pamela Anderson would die in a car crash, so let’s wait and see how this turns out.)
I have had a moustache since I could grow one, and now have a goatee trimmed very, very short.
The trick is soap and water every day, and a good “trimmer” electic shaver that keeps it neat and the same length.
I had a friend who also had a full, well trimmed beard for almost 20 years and shaved it off…his wife almost divorced him, his friends barely recognized him and he grew it back within a couple of weeks.
I personally think facial hair is something some guys can get away with, and other’s can’t. The only thing that shocks me is that I see 14 year olds with two day growths that amaze me. I swear, when I was in high school, MAYBE two guys could have grown a moustache if they tried. What the hell has happened?
Has puberty started hitting at 10?!
My sister hasn’t checked in yet, so I’ll just say that her husband has had a beard for as long as I’ve known him, which is more than 25 years, I guess, and I don’t think I want to see him clean-shaven.
There’s a guy at church I’ve known I guess all my life, and I don’t think he’d look right without a beard, either (Zoe’s husband, SparrowHawk).
I’ll be attending the NY MegaFest with a two-week old goatee, so we’ll see what the wimminz think of The Dave-Guy with facial hair. Heh.
I’ll second everything that Skeezix said, but if the flyaways are only going up your nose then you’re ahead of the game.