Beards are back!

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Don’t blink or you might miss my 15 seconds of being hip and cool, but the Grey Lady’s fashion section informs us that the hottest look today is a full beard:

A bearded Ralph Lauren model. I look just like him, but more handsome, and with brown skin and a turban.

At hipster hangouts and within fashion circles, the bearded revolution that began with raffishly trimmed whiskers a year or more ago has evolved into full-fledged Benjamin Harrisons. At New York Fashion Week last month at least a half-dozen designers turned up with furry faces… [at] the John Bartlett show… more than half the models wore beards: untidy ones that scaled a spectrum from wiry to ratty to shabby to fully bushy. [Link]

Wow. For the last three decades, Americans have seen the beard as anathema. The very word means a person who diverts suspicion from someone in both the contexts of betting and sexual orientation. To grow a beard is seen as dishonest, or at the very least, career suicide:

… [A] study in Australia showed that 92% of women and 79% of men would rather not work with people who have facial hair. It also found that senior managers think beards make men look shifty, unattractive and too old. [Link]

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p>Remember Al Gore? He grew a beard to signal the fact that he was a private person who had left public life, and he shaved it to signify that he was once again a political actor. Unlike in India, the American public doesn’t trust a bearded politician:

The last president to sport a mustache was William Taft, who served from 1909 to 1913, while the last bearded president, Benjamin Harrison, left office in 1893. [Link]

We have female senators and black senators, but we do not have a bearded senator… I believe that we will have a female president and a black president before we have another bearded president. [Link]

<

p>However, hope is on the horizon. For a brief spell, there is a backlash against metrosexual facial conformity and 13 bladed razors. Men who work at lad magazines are growing beards – 11 of the 15 men working at Vice have them – and across NYC whiskers are sprouting where there were none before:

On city streets, too, trends in scruff have reached new levels of unruliness, a backlash, some beard enthusiasts say, against the heightened grooming expectations that were unleashed with the rise of metrosexuality as a cultural trend. Men both straight and gay, it appears, want to feel rough and manly. [Link]

There’s even a bearded rapper! How far will this go? Is it just a soul patch of a trend, or will this go all the way to the ZZ top?

John Allan, the owner of several clublike grooming salons in New York, reports seeing newly bearded customers, but not enough to warrant concerns for the health of his shaving business. “It will be interesting to see over the next six to eight months what mainland America is going to do with it,” Mr. Allan said. “For the past several years we’ve been stripping guys of their body hair. Maybe now it’s time for the pendulum to swing the other way…” [Link]

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p>The beard has even made a cameo in Hollywood: George Clooney, Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Ewan McGregor, and others have all appeared bearded, on screen and off, at least for a brief period of time.

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p>While there are clear limits to this development:

No survey ever conducted about women’s attitudes toward beards, even those not underwritten by the Gillette Company, has indicated that more than 2 or 3 percent of women would describe a full beard as sexy. [Link]

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p>It seems that Sikh models (and Waris) should claim the limelight while they can. As for me, I’ll be sitting here in the bunker, contemplating listing myself in the National Beard Registry, and waiting to be uncool once more,

Related posts: If not Torino, then where?, Police kill notorious dacoit

Updates:

Did you know that historically, beards were associated with sex?

In the 15th century, the beard was worn long. Clergymen in 16th century England were usually clean shaven to indicate their celibacy. When a priest became convinced of the doctrines of the Protestant Reformation he would often signal this by allowing his beard to grow, showing that he rejected the tradition of the church and perhaps also its stance on clerical celibacy. The longer the beard, the more striking the statement. Sixteenth century beards were therefore suffered to grow to an amazing length, (see the portraits of Bishop Gardiner and Thomas Cranmer). [Link]

56 thoughts on “Beards are back!”

  1. Beards are back!

    hot damn!!!!… i’m ahead of the curve for once.. Hay-low ladies!!!!

  4. bless the neighborhood i live in – it’s defined by immigrants from the 70’s – 80’s from old europe – but i had a hair cut the other day and the lady actually helped groom the beard – try that with one of your dainty tootsy rolls in the salon – “ewww! that’s so gross!”. then again, beards are quite normal in canada – especially the maritimes… and frankly extra hair traps heat, which is good in winter.

  5. If that man put on a turban, would he be good enough for pattie kaur

    Of course not – that’s an itty bitty beard. A real sardarni needs a long flowing beard on her man.

  6. Damn PJF, you beat me to a comment involving Pattie Kaur. Indeed dhavaak I just went skiing and decided a beard was in order. Course I was only there a few days…ah who am I kidding it was long stubble. Thought it’d keep in the heat like you said, but it just got icicles growing off it.

  8. It also found that senior managers think beards make men look shifty, unattractive and too old.

    yea… another reason to tell the world to cock up and become the boss commodity.

    Men both straight and gay, it appears, want to feel rough and manly.

    ahh… there’s a difference between manliness and masculinity … the two are often confused… and i believe it is the latter trait that you wanted to amplify… just ask newell

  10. “If that man put on a turban, would he be good enough for pattie kaur”

    Ahh yes… the eternal question. If I were to venture a guess, I’d say, HELL YEAH, and on her behalf a “WOWEE WOWEE HOT DAMN!”

  11. Dhaavak:

    ahh… there’s a difference between manliness and masculinity … the two are often confused… and i believe it is the latter trait that you wanted to amplify… just ask newell

    I’m just quoting the writer here, don’t blame me 🙂

  12. I’d never heard of Matisyahu till my trip to the US, I’ve got his album now and I quite like it.

    Surely ZZ Top have to be involved Sonia?

  13. Indeed dhavaak I just went skiing and decided a beard was in order.

    what a way to de-lurk George! I’m the biggest fan. Will you sign my chest. i’ll shave it just for you.
    -breathless in toronto-

  16. I’m not following.

    to quote sonia – is that you in the picture?
    it’s the george michael look – sorry bad joke – i’ve been on the phone since 7:30 today… needed to lighten up a bit.!

  17. Ah ok. George Michael. I can live with that. He’s not a bad looking chap. And some guy once came onto cracked onto flirted with me in a public loo, so rather appropriate. Shame you didn’t mean Clooney. Good thing you didn’t mean George.

  18. Maybe BB is trying to emulate Hrithik and John Abraham’s be-stubbled look.

    Or maybe it’s a homage to Anil Kapoor, circa his “Ram Lakhan” days…..

    Anyway: Cool, beards are stylish. Frankly, being clean-shaven as a guy feels like a pretty unnatural state to be in (the female equivalent would be women permanently wearing some kind of girdle to flatten their chests), and before everyone jumps on me, let me state that I’m clean-shaven at present too…..Although, since I have short hair, growing either a trimmed or a long beard (the former’s something I’ve been considering for many years) would make me personally look even more like a jihadi terrorist…..Great, facial hair is trendy again and it’s at the worst possible time for those of us who are already frequently mistaken for a Pakistani or someone from the Middle East (yes even by other Indians)…..

    Would having long hair too mitigate the confusion of possible mistaken identity ? Hmmm…..unless you’re wearing a turban as well, in the corporate world you could only get away with that if it becomes common and fashionable too…..

  20. “George” was the most camp and blatantly gay children’s TV character in British television history. It was amazing that the programme makers managed to get away with it, although those were much less politically-correct times.

  23. i always liked my men with at least a little bit of scruff; very manly and sexy;)

  25. where the hell have i been?

    If that man put on a turban, would he be good enough for pattie kaur

    he’s ‘ok’, but the ennis fuzz and pagdi is more my style. or waris. or monty, or rabbi, or navtej..or…wow…i didn’t realise the list i had growing… You know what would be really cool? A duet with Matisyahu and Rabbi Shergill. That would be hot.

    mmmmmmm…do i hear the fire alarms goin’? wooohhoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! mmm…inferno!

    Of course not – that’s an itty bitty beard. A real sardarni needs a long flowing beard on her man.

    SERIOUSLY! and the guy’s hair needs brushing. hmm….maybe waris should hand over his kuri to the model. besides, blonde’s not my colour.

    Damn PJF, you beat me to a comment involving Pattie Kaur.

    lmao….wow..i wonder if i should sorta feel honoured…..oh, well, too busy trying to figger our bonsy’s almost peach fuz..not bad…but not quite an ennis ( who i bet pennies to beer bottles looks better than the model.)

    mmmmm…ZZtop…..now you’re talkin’…

    and of course, i love the magic beard…

    now, what was this thread about again? hehhehee

  26. Ahh yes… the eternal question. If I were to venture a guess, I’d say, HELL YEAH, and on her behalf a “WOWEE WOWEE HOT DAMN!”

    that’s a not bad…cute…wow, but not quite a navtej though…….or a monty….which is a ‘i have to go wash all the drool off the walls….’ 😉

    Anyway: Cool, beards are stylish. and functional. they can be used for…this is a family site, so i’m just going to say they have their proper place at proper times.

    now, speaking of georges…sexy stubble and all out wooooooaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhness…

  28. Did you know that historically, beards were associated with sex?

    whyyy…ggggggeeeeeeeeeeeee, is..that…sooo? would have never thunk it….mrs. innocent here…but beards are also great for back massages, and other fun things.

    No survey ever conducted about womenÂ’s attitudes toward beards, even those not underwritten by the Gillette Company, has indicated that more than 2 or 3 percent of women would describe a full beard as sexy.

    they wouldnt sell their razors if they let out the truth. that and just for men hair dye. there is nothing wrong with grey beards either. now, beatniks (think peter and paul from peter paul and mary) kinda stubble is hot.

  30. study in Australia showed that 92% of women and 79% of men would rather not work with people who have facial hair. It also found that senior managers think beards make men look shifty, unattractive and too old.

    what do they know? too old? woooahhhhhh…illusion. no such thing really exists. i worked with a bloke who had considerable facial hair, and i must say, i was quite glad for it. but then again…i’m me.

    we badly need the following:

    bearded, muzzie senators/president/ and for crying out loud, a singh president for once. with face fuzz and the pugh. i’ll have to work on it.

    i never got ‘ metrosexual’. however, now sems the perfect time to head up to NY. woohoo…i’m comin soon, don’t hsave till i’ve been there! few more weeks!

    George Clooney, Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Ewan McGregor….well, i’ll take monty, ennis, and crew…and sean connery.

    and note to sikh models – screw the muscles….keep the turbans and fuzz…and hit the runways by the masses, you are crucially required. and ennis is being recruted. mmmm…the beard registry…

    i can tell vaisakhi is around the corner…and spring is in the air….

  33. ahh… there’s a difference between manliness and masculinity … the two are often confused… and i believe it is the latter trait that you wanted to amplify… just ask newell

    What is this difference? Which one is supposed to be the gender role and which one is supposed to be the qualitative measure of proper sexuality? I couldn’t tell from the book review.

  34. Dear Shruti,
    as a general disclaimer my knowledge of the book comes from excerpts and book reviews. That being said, there has been a fair bit written on the book in the recent past for me to get a general idea of the content. You are correct in that masculinity is a physical attribute – such as facial hair, or a deep voice. Manliness however, as described in the book, is more abstract and is described as variously described as fortitude or as ‘courage under fire’. IIt is also not a trait that the author believes is restricted to any one gender. That “manliness” contains “man” may be an unfortunate tangent to some, but to use this word in contrast with “masculinity” is a clever ploy to stimulate thinking, as it did for me.
    That being said, there are some of Newell’s more controversial thoughts in which he dabbles in the ‘role of the man’ etc. That is another thread and I won’t delve into that here.
    Regards.

  35. While I was living in Bangkok a few years back, a very good friend (3rd gen Sikh Indian-Thai) was a real estate agent. On a visit to a very upscale residential property (the price at that time was a little over $1 million)she was told that the building owners do not allow Indians because, 1)Indian food smells “bad” and 2) when the Indian males use the swimming pool, the hair from their beards dirties the pool!!

    I swear I am not making this up!!!

    So beards, I guess, are certainly not cool at this is that part of Big Mango.

  37. 1)Indian food smells “bad” and 2) when the Indian males use the swimming pool, the hair from their beards dirties the pool!!

    mmmm that’s when bad is good, and i wanna get in that pool!

  38. hehehehehe when I saw this article I thought of Pattie

    I’m glad facial hair is making a comeback. I’ve always had a preference for a man who has the capacity to grow a beard. I like men to look manly (or masculine). Truth be told, I feel kinda sorry for guys who have to struggle to get some stubble.

    The metrosexual thing was getting out of control. There has to be a happy medium.

    However, I have yet to come to grips with the Derek Zoolander thing

  40. “We have female senators and black senators, but we do not have a bearded senator”

    Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey, who was until very recently a senator from that state. Does he count?

  41. Just a couple of hours ago I watched the Today show on NBC. They had an whole segment on the comeback of the mustache. They had a bunch of young men who are growing mustache’s cause they think it’s cool. They even had a picture of what Matt Lauer, Katie Couric and Al Roker would like with a mustache. Also they even showed some of the greatest mustache people of all time like Billy Dee Williams, Hulk Hogan and the best mustache ever Rollie Fingers[He was one of the best baseball pitchers of the 70’s}

  43. not as dramatic as Sonia’s beard

    Phew. I thought you took a picture of me and drew a beard on it for everyone to see.

  44. Corzine is the only governor in the United States who has a beard. [Link]

    He may have been the only bearded senator for a while.

  45. I didn’t catch a man of color in the NYTimes article being given as an example of a sex symbol. Given we pull off beards well, and given the fact a beard on a brown man produces fear in some….it would have been nice if us men of color would have been acknwoldged for rocking this look particularly well

  46. i’m not really opposed to hedonism, i just think it is really silly for men to go to spas and sit around in a towel looking at each others’s droopy selves – that being said, there is something to be said to have one’s face wrapped in a hot towel before a good shave… but now that i’m off the razor – I have A SUDDEN FLASH OF INSPIRATION – (plus I’m dog tired and need some entertainment) – how about a… A SPA FOR BEARDED MEN … where they get their face wrapped in a hot towel, then get some basic grooming, you know… get the old rug trimmed… and a face massage… How about that?!!!! any takers..?

  47. my work takes me across the border a fair bit – i have a few burrs in my saddle sometimes – but am the model borderhopper – but… this last week… read on.
    “so why are you going to washington”
    “I am doing XYZ”. So far so good.
    “Hmm.. your picture here doesnt have a beard. Why did you grow a beard?”
    “uh what!”, I was caught totally off guard.
    “Well you heard me”.
    “I dont understand.” -silence-
    “You dont have to go to the US today if you dont answer”
    “I dont understand. I just grew it. No real reason”
    “Did you have an epiphany”
    “What!”, this isnt real.
    “you didnt have a religious conversion did you”
    “um. No, does it matter”
    “hmm”, scribbles something on a board and asks me to go to their office.

    The folks inside are actually much nicer, and seem genuinely apologetic. Still, I dont know if this was deliberate or not, in order to ‘disrupt my plan’, they let me off about 2 minutes before my flight departure.
    I missed my flight.


    My point is that there’s always this mean, meager, officious asshole in every system that corrupts the system but I will not let this guy piss me off. This is what I did in my trip to DC, and I want YOU to get your duffs off the chair and do something like this.

    This is what I did.

    I ran.
    Every day in my trip, I ran
    up and down the Lincoln Memorial
    along the potomac
    up to the washington monument
    past the white house
    through the roosevelt memorial
    by the tidal basin
    in my bearded glory.

    And you know what I heard…
    “duuude”, “way to go”, “run forrest run”…
    Not a cuss. Lots of nods, smiles and waves. things are still A-OK!! … it’s still the same country fundamentally

    This is my pledge, my fight. I am not shaving now.

    What I want you to do this summer
    Let it grow out for at least one long weekend…
    And go for a run, chest out and head up by the capitol, in pairs if possible – let me know if you need a pacer.


    so when your kids ask you how you fought the war on terror, you can tell them you were on the frontlines.

  48. so when your kids ask you how you fought the war on terror, you can tell them you were on the frontlines.

    Ok, I’m not sure about THAT, but I’ll probably be in DC in mid-May. If this is serious I’m down (assuming I get into the country with a beard ;).

  49. so when your kids ask you how you fought the war on terror, you can tell them you were on the frontlines.
    Ok, I’m not sure about THAT, but I’ll probably be in DC in mid-May. If this is serious I’m down (assuming I get into the country with a beard ;).

    it is a fight against terror of course- a fight against the attempt to fill goblins in my head – not taking it sitting down. so whether in ottawa or dc or london or minneapolis or toronto – grow a full, lush beard – groomed, not scruffy – and trot out ye, into the masses.

  50. ok, well…

            my dad has a beard, my mum hates it, my sister hates it and I hate it...
        but my dad disagrees and wants to keep it...

        has ANYONE got ANY comments or advie they'd like to share?