Nothing says “Pompous Ass” like a man who is constantly fussing with his facial hair–touching, preening, smoothing, combing… Just shave it already!
Depends on the man. Mr. S has had a (generally neatly trimmed) beard the entire time I’ve known him (15 years), except for twice when he shaved it off and grew it back right away. We have a friend with a ZZ Top-style beard whose wife has never seen his face. They both look fine to me.
Other men look terrible with beards, either because they don’t take care of them or because they REALLY look better without. (Noah Wyle comes to mind.) Why cover up a nicely chiseled face with hair?
I don’t like goatees – for some reason they say “thug” to me. I also don’t much care for the half-assed stubble look – either grow a beard or don’t.
Tip for the ladies: If your man’s beard is too rough on, er, sensitive areas, have him shower first to soften it.
Favorite beard quote: Early in Carl Sagan’s novel Contact, the protagonist as a young girl finds her father shaving in the bathroom late one night. When she asks him why he’s shaving now, when no one will know he’s stubbly, he says, “Your mother will know.” The following line goes something like, “She understood this statement only incompletely at the time. Her parents had been in love.” 
I like them. A well-trimmed goatee can make me just… melt.
I like my goatee and I like other guys’ as well. I don’t care for huge bushy beards but I like a short one. I also have a fondness for the stubble look, as long as it’s not scraggly. I don’t like moustaches, though.
Just FYI - I can do remarkable things with my beard to nipples.
I need to add that I always think of a goatee with a mustache. So if a goatee technically doesn’t include a mustache, the thing that makes me melt is a combination of the two.
Ok, a question for the girls… what do you think of the “5 o clock shadow” on guys? (basically the short stubble after a day or two of not shaving)
Just interested 
I’ve posted this in several threads around here. My husband hasn’t shaved since 1967. His is long and white and soft, kinda like Santa. His hair is long, too. He definitely has a Unibomber thing going on. But that’s how he’s happy. People generally don’t put us together as a couple. I’m a girly-girl.
I hate 5 O’Clock Shadow. It fucking HURTS! I like a beard to be at least a week’s outgrowth. Maybe more.
While I don’t necessarily mind the look of the 5 o’clock shadow, I can’t kiss that face.
And seriously I know beards do get softer, I’ve dated men with long, well-established beards. And I got the rash on my face from kissing them to prove it.
In Contrary’s world – no kissing hairy faces works the best.
My first serious boyfriend had a full beard. As did my 3rd serious boyfriend. As did my husband. He’s got smooth cheeks now, with the facial hair confined to the area around his mouth. He shaved down to just a mustache once but I think he looks lots better with a fuzzy face - it suits him.
I can’t stand the stubbly 5 o’clook shadow look. It’s unkempt.
Does anyone know of a site that has photo examples of different kinds of facial hair? I’d like to be more precise than saying “a sea-captain beard” or “a civil war general beard” or other inexact descriptions. I’ve found sites with pics, but they aren’t labeled.
I don’t like them one bit. I think they are just kind of yucky…
SOME people look o-kay with a goatee, but I just think a beard or even just a mustache is gross.
Especially these young boys who grow those gross looking patches on their chin. YUCK! SHAVE IT! SHAVE IT! SHAVE IT!
If my husband tried to grow one (and trust me, he won’t. He thinks they are kind of gross too) I’d shave him in his sleep.
A goatee is ok, big chops are seriously sexy, but absolutely no full beards or moustaches! I hate them, can you tell? My father has had one his whole life and I can’t romantically kiss a guy who has one.
Guess what my husband decided to grow? I hate kissing him now. 
I believe that this combination is called a Van Dyke, but am too busy to look for a cite.
No, a Van Dyke is pointy.
I don’t like full beards, but I do enjoy the goatee-moustache combination. I like that an awful lot, actually.
I don’t like other weird facial hair permutations like fu manchu mustaches, muttonchops, or skinny, pointy sideburns.
I really love goatees/moustaches.
My girlfriend likes my goatee (which comes with moustache). I’d like to find a definitive list of names for these things already, it’s confusing. A Van Dyke, to my understanding, is the Satan-looking one and actually points off the face. You can find a picture in some dictionaries. Can somebody explain a Fu Manchu?
My general opinion is that a beard that goes off the face - my goatee, much to my chagrin, used to do this - is a very, very dangerous proposition that nobody can pull off properly. Doing weird things with shapes is even worse. :smack:
I’m engaged to a guy with a beard/moustache set, so I’m guessin’ I like them all right ;).
I like some facial hair on a guy, or evidence of such. A five o’clock shadow can be seriously smokin’, especially on darker-haired guys. Totally smooth faces are too young-looking for me. I feel like I might as well be hooking up with a kid.