The facial hair fashion police

[Magoo]

Well she at least likes the full beard. Many women are not into any facial hair.

[TheSlyBear]

Bullshit.

I'll keep my facial hair any way I damn well like.

[Mike E. P.]

Bullshit.

That's what I really wanted to say!

[mrzed]

When I was getting to know my wife she said several times, "I've never been attracted to men with facial hair." (I had a full beard at the time).  OK. So, we've been married now 30 years and she has never seen me without a full beard! 

Now she said, "Don't you dare shave it off. I won't know who you are."

We laugh about it.

[Baldstu]

Well a goatee has its advanges in many ways my other half has a goatee at times and is sly , i like the look but when I have grown one it goes grey so dont bother

[Beardman]

This is just nonsense, I wouldn't bother reading into it at all, I honestly could only just skim it. At the end of the day it doesn't matter how you wear your facial hair, or don't wear it. If it effects your chance of puling a specific girl (or guy) then they weren't the right person for you in the first place. That's why I always ignore anyone who says I should shave off my beard. There are plenty of girls (albeit in relationships) that love my big beard. One day I'll find a single one... until then I'm happy being me.

Having said that, this is the type of bite the author was looking for lol.

This is also one of the beauties of being withing the metal circle, beards and van dykes/goatees are all part of the "image", long or closely clipped

[Blitzed]

I looked up the author of that article and found out it is a woman. I not trying to be sexist but what does she know about growing facial hair.

Ever wonder where waxing for women started? Not where you think. Most women have a certain amount of fine facial fur, it's an hormonal thing. Some shave it-really bad idea-some bleach it-very popular from 1880 to now-and many go under the wax. To counter this many men may have a beard to their nipples but South of the border they're waxed to the max. The woman is a loon. The tip to that is when a female writer uses as many names as possible to identify herself as woman (hear me roar). Also, and this is speculation, if your first name is "Chris" it does lead to sexual confusion. In these days with women named Whitney or North or Truck, it's easy to see how that might happen. Stil

[VOT]

The writer is an idiot!

[Rusty Shackleford]

I skimmed the article and even found that to be too much of an intellectual waste of my time.  The problem with the article is that it is built on the failed premise that men grew their goatees because they want to be stylish and then simply forgot to shave when the entertainment industry went hardcore metrosexual.  You can almost hear Oseland saying "Silly rubes!  Thankfully they will have a progressive female journalist to tell us how to think!"

I think of my beard as I do my eyebrows: it's just something that's supposed to be there and if it is not then I perceive myself as being incomplete.  Many men prefer goatees over beards because hair on the cheeks can get annoying, they find it hard to maintain, or hair just don't grow there.  For all the years I had a goatee I never did it because I wanted to be stylish, but like most trends that I end up adopting (to some degree) the fact that it IS popular EXPOSES me to something I may never have thought of doing before.  I probably never would have eaten a burrito if it wasn't for the popularity of burrito restaurants.  I'm sure this idea would be far above the understanding of someone like Oseland, but trends actually attract both the mindless who want to be trendy and independent thinkers that just never really thought about something before, were exposed to it, and then wanted to try it for themselves.

I can't' imagine wasting my time jumping from trend to trend just so I could be "cool".  If I did that would mean I would need to be a smooth shaven metrosexual or a guy wearing one of those butchered chinstrap beards or sloppy stubble beards.

If anything, the long-term popularity of goatees only shows that they are no longer a trend but just an established and accepted grooming style no different than wearing a beard, sideburns, mustache, or no facial hair at all.  Unfortunately there will always be Oselands in the world who are consumed by blindly following the trends of others who will always be thoroughly frustrated by those who don't operate the same way.  Our refusal to conform to the same rules that she has conformed to forces her to wonder why we refuse to comply; and it is arrogance on her part that causes her to conclude that the fault lies with us.

[slymyke]

 Our refusal to conform to the same rules that she has conformed to forces her to wonder why we refuse to comply; and it is arrogance on her part that causes her to conclude that the fault lies with us.

Good to see you back, Rusty.   I agree with your comments, and especially liked the last sentence.  In some ways, though, I think we are giving her too much credit for thinking.  I'm starting to wonder if she had to submit an article and didn't have a clue what she was going to write about.  Then while sitting in a coffee house, she noticed some men with different styles of beards and Bam!  Her little bitty brain went into overdrive to create an opinion and come to a conclusion... all in the time it took for her coffee to cool down.  I'm hoping she really didn't spend more time than that, because if she did... she needs to think about a different career.   Oh, who am I kidding... she fits in with the rest of the opinion-based journalism that is fed to the masses as fact.   

[Rusty Shackleford]

Good to see you back, Rusty.   I agree with your comments, and especially liked the last sentence.  In some ways, though, I think we are giving her too much credit for thinking.  I'm starting to wonder if she had to submit an article and didn't have a clue what she was going to write about.  Then while sitting in a coffee house, she noticed some men with different styles of beards and Bam!  Her little bitty brain went into overdrive to create an opinion and come to a conclusion... all in the time it took for her coffee to cool down.  I'm hoping she really didn't spend more time than that, because if she did... she needs to think about a different career.   Oh, who am I kidding... she fits in with the rest of the opinion-based journalism that is fed to the masses as fact.   

If I in any way gave the impression that the author used thought in any form whatsoever during the authoring of her blog then my post completely failed 
And it is funny how I can completely see her sitting around in a coffee house sipping on a latte while coming up with her "brilliant" concept.  I admit that I am reading a lot into her based on skimming a blog that she wrote, but she doesn't come across as being a very thick book.  It just p*sses me off when I read things like that because it was clearly intended to be an insult to guys like me for commiting the crime of actually making a decision without the universal approval of the fashion industry.

[slymyke]

If I in any way gave the impression that the author used thought in any form whatsoever during the authoring of her blog then my post completely failed  

[/quote]


lol.. no, you didn't give that impression.  I was saying that more generally.  That we all are giving her too much credit, when it was probably an after thought and not even something she really cared about.    But, I'm sure she does buy into the whole fashion-police mentality.  I bet she follow every little fashion rule to the most detail.  How boring.   I think to do what every one else is doing shows no creativity as well.   If I wear something, it is because I like the way it looks or feels... I don't care how "not correct" it may be, or especially who made it.

[Razor X]

I don't want to give too much weight to the opinions expressed in the article but it is important to bear in mind that it is not an anti-facial hair rant. The author doesn't have a problem with full beards; for some reason she just doesn't like goatees.  It's kind of an odd position to take when you think about it -- if she doesn't object to a hairy chin, why are hairy cheeks so important?  if it had been an anti-facial hair article I wouldn't have given it a moment's notice, but since it's not, it made me think twice and wonder if she might have had a valid point that I was somehow missing.

I suppose it was inevitable that there was some backlash against the goatee, considering how immensely popular the look was until just a couple of years go.  The good news is that when its popularity waned, people opted for full beards rather than reverting to clean-shaven faces.

[slymyke]

Yeah, she is saying that a goatee is outdated but a beard is "in"... so guys with goatees need to grow a full beard. 

 

I go back and forth between these two beards, but not to fit in... I just want to wear my facial hair how I want to... not how she says I should according to the trend. 

[slybeard]

I never kenw I was in the mainstream of fashion.  I had the goatee/mustache style for over 20 years and within the last two years went to a full beard.  It never crossed my mind that a full beard was becoming the new fashion, I just realized my cheeks had finally filled in enough to pull it off.

So since I have been working on a handlebar, will that be next?