What's the deal with the unshaved look on male models in some ads?

I guess it has been going on for awhile, but I only recently strarted paying attention.

Many ads appealing to the twenty-something set feature models who haven’t shaved for a couple of days. Invariably, they are in the company of beautiful and adoring women.

What is going on here? I assume the ad agencies have done their spadework and concluded that women find this attractive. My personal experience, however, is that women get severe whisker burns anywhere I stick my unshaven face. That can be any number of places, if you know what I mean.

What’s up?

Because it makes men look rugged and I’m willing to bet women will soon be crowding this thread, talking about how they like the look of a hot guy who hasn’t shaved in a day or two.

I prefer clean shaven myself, but I’ve always been a little odd. Never really found the “rugged” look very attractive. But, I’m sure there are many women out there that do.

I seem to remember that I saw this look really start to take off when George Michael adopted it after his first solo album (I think, the one with “Faith” on it).

<---- don’t know about “hot”, but I haven’t shaved in a day or two either, but it’s because I’m lazy on my days off. I don’t think I look good with scruff. Been clean shaven my whole life.

Here I am to crowd the thread with how very , very sexy that look is. I think I like it because it kind of implies that he’s not one of those men that spends hours grooming himself. He’s a manly man. At least that’s why I think I like it.

I believe they’re going for the combo look. Some male models these days are, how shall I phrase it, while not exactly androgynous, are perhaps just this side of it. A bit of stubble still lets that soignee, bored, almost-sneering above-it-all look remain, while letting the viewer know that this IS a man. The best of both worlds, and all the better to shill for whatever product they’ve been outrageously overpaid to front.

Indeed - it butches up the androgyny. Plus, it is attractive - check out the screaming females at the next Lord of the Rings movie, if you will. That dosen’t mean I want my own personal guy to be all whisker-burning at me all the time, but it’s nice to look at.

“I seem to remember that I saw this look really start to take off when George Michael adopted it after his first solo album (I think, the one with “Faith” on it).”

Actually, I think it first started with Don Johnson on Miami Vice in about '84.

In fairness, without all the stubble, Viggo looks like a goober. At least in this guy’s opinion.

I think George was trodding on Don Johnson’s coattails a bit there. After Miami Vice’s big splash in '84, (three years before the release of Faith],) I remember reading that folks were marketing shaving gear that left a uniform amount of stubble. No idea if anyone ever bought it, of course.

I wish there was something sexy about a couple of days’ growth of beard on my face. My patchy scrub just makes me look vaguely ill and possibly deranged.

: preview :

That’ll teach me for answering the phone.

I happen to prefer clean shaven. I supposed it’s because my dad gave me too many whisker rubs when I was a child. By the way, Viggo would look great with anything on his face, especially me!

My grandfather was a Hungarian/Slovak male with a very swarthy complexion and a thick beard. His stubble was ALWAYS there, no matter how much he shaved, and when I was very small I didn’t like to kiss him goodbye because of this.

So he started giving me money. Heheheheh!!! My mom made him stop, though, when I kissed my other grandfather goodbye, I held out my hand and said, “MOney cash!”
(I was probably about three at the oldest!)

That being said, the look can be VERY sexy-witness Noah Wyle, or Ewan McGregor.

<-- Doesn’t work on me. I have a summer beard.

Sommer here, and sommer here, sommer over there. I can’t even grow a proper goatee.

hmph. An Improper Goatee…sounds like a Hardy Boys mystery.

My boyfriend has extremely sensitive skin, and hence a sort of perpetual mild razor burn. It gets much worse if he doesn’t take a day off of shaving every once in a while. I keep telling him that I prefer occasional stubble to having to look at razor burn and imagine how it must feel. I think he’s starting to believe me.

And Viggo sure does look like a goober without facial hair. This is sort of comforting to me, as he is near Qadgop’s age.

Glad to see it’s back in style. :smiley:

I remember watching the promos for that horse movie he did/is doing and he was clean-shaven. Total dork.

They did. One such gizmo was called the Miami Device.

Ahhhh…they’re just copying me, I’ve been doing that for years, basically all of mankind has, clean one week then smooth the next.
My other half hates stubble though, i had a goatee when i met her and now it’s been nagged away to a little patch below my bottom lip (the chin brazilian). Two days growth is about all i can get away with but i look like a ewok by then anyway…so i’m all shaved and slippery most of the time…

Or maybe some of them have just hit puberty and are proud of growing a bit of bumfluff on their chin?

I am not 87! :mad:

What did you mean by that anyway? :confused:

BTW, we’re supposed to be paying your next semester tuition, room and board very soon. :wink:

Dadgop

I said Viggo! Not Aragorn! Viggo! They are clearly different, because ARAGORN would never look like a goober no matter what, while Viggo clearly does sometimes.

And dad, would you prefer it if I DID find find men of your age group attractive in non-orc-slaying circumstances? Because I don’t think all of my professors are married yet… :stuck_out_tongue: