Beards

I have some scars from wrecks. Not huge but large enough for a razor to catch. Usually it would draw blood when shaving. So I used to use pieces of tissue to help stop it. But somewhere along in time there came along hepatitis and aids and other such and I could tell people in a store where I might be getting coffee or such seemed bothered about the sight. So I just got out of the habit of shaving. I do cut it back real short about 4 or 5 times a year. But I was 33 yo already at that time. Haven't used a razor for a full shave since probably 1990.

 

And also - lazy!

 

Agreed.
...

Was forced to shave every day for 10 solid years in the Army, so it's also a little residual rebellion. Never razor shave - always power shave it when it gets to 1/4 inch or so.

I have brown hair, brown / gray moustache - beard is gray. Go figure !

 

Lazy, I'd need to shave 3 times per day (the latest beard's down to my belly button), my skin's way too sensitive for that. Used to be something of a standing joke at one of my old local pubs "Hey, I see you had a shave this morning/before you left base", when I walked in wearing quarter of an inch of growth.

 

Interesting! Probably not a one answer fits kind of question but comes down to personal preference.
Sometimes it is a cultural thing. Maybe a need if you are living in a very cold frigid climate and are outside a lot.
Other than that it mystifies me but I assume women wearing makeup and changing their hair color mystifies men also.

 

You got that right !!

 

When I was 30. I looked too young to drink. Wearing a full beard allowed me to buy alcohol. People might still ask for my ID, but wth a beard they could believe my ID. Otherwise they did not believe my ID.

I wore a full beard during most of my Naval career. At our wedding I was in a dress uniform wearing a beard. When I retired after 20 years of Active Duty service I wore a full beard.

I started wearing a beard when I was in my mid-20s, and I have worn a beard most of my life since then. There were a few times when the command where I was stationed required me to shave. But mostly the Navy allowed beards. I retired in 2001, and I have wore a full beard ever since.

Last month our youngest son graduated from an Army school. The graduation ceremony included pinning a medal on his uniform. Since I am a retired servicemember, I was invited to attend the ceremony and to pin the medal on him. So I trimmed my beard and I wore my dress uniform. To conform to US Navy regs I had to remove a foot and a half from my beard. But it was well worth it. Now I am allowing it to grow out to full length again.

I live in a region where most men, of all ages, wear beards. It is not unusual here. Though when I travel, I do notice that I stand out a lot in some states. Like maybe only bikers wear beards in some areas. About 5 years ago, I flew out to California for my parents' funerals, driving a rental car I stopped to refuel and the female gas station attendant asked me to come home with her for dinner. The only thing I could attribute it to was my beard.

Maybe twice a year, when I am in public a female will approach me and ask if she can touch my beard. I sell farm produce at Farmer's Markets, one year I had a lady customer who liked to run her fingers through my beard as she purred.

Last year I was meeting my wife at a steak house. I got there early and had to wait. As I was waiting the restaurant hostess asked to feel my beard. She said that she was attracted by it. I squeezed her butt and she seemed to be responsive to the gesture.

I do not get into town very often so my general exposure to young females is low. I think that if I were in the city every day, it would not surprise me if I was approached by females weekly due to my beard. We live very rural, so I do not even see any single females on most days.

 

I seem to remember an old European or Italian tradition of a man wearing a beard while mourning the loss of a loved one.

 

I've had a mustache since I was barely 15 . . . except for basic training (it was just easier to lop it off) . . . and added a goatee some years ago at my wife's request. She'd been after me for years to grow one and I finally just gave up, lol. I could grow a full beard easily . . . just never really wanted one. I like the goatee, though! Gives me less to shave every day . . . I guess TimW is on to something!

She's never said it makes me look older, but I have heard many people do feel that way. As long as she's happy, I'm happy

 

I started having a beard when I was 22. I kept getting asked for ID when I was drinking in pubs ever since I was 18 and quite often was not believed. The embarrassing event that caused me to grow a beard was being ejected with my 21 year old girlfriend from The Esplanade Hotel in St Kilda by the bouncers because they didn't believe it was "my" driver's licence (no photo ID in the 1970's) and it couldn't possibly be my new car but they still let some people we knew to be underage stay drinking as they were more credible at 16 than me and my girlfriend at 22. My best friend although a year younger than me started shaving when he was 13 and at 16 looked like he was 21. Me on the other hand with only minor bum fluff to the face at 18 still looked like I was in junior high school and not working full time as an electrician.

I used to shave my beard off every New Year's eve to let my face see the sunshine for a few weeks before it grows back. Now I use number 1 clippers every 6 weeks and it is a bit longer than stubble.
If I let it grow long now it makes me look like Santa Claus........ho ho bloody ho ho....

 

Indeed... I'll have you know I was wearing flannel shirts before hipsters were invented lol

Grey beard hmmmm... methinks that would be cool and look at that.... a new nickname Greybeard

 

[QUOTE="DavidGP, post: 1969921, ]
@joffa - hey nowt wrong with flannel, mmmmm you should sue the hipsters copyright infringement[/QUOTE]
If I was in the USA maybe......... they are the champions of copyright and patent litigation lolol

 

Hey Laura is this you off to the library?

http://www.vplate.ru/images/article/orig/2016/02/plate-rubashka-v-kletku-41.jpg

 

Beards on young men are now the height of fashion in the UK. They often go hand in hand with a certain type of fashion - narrow trousers, often jeans or camo type, a few inches off the ankles wearing boots, sometimes Doc Martens or other 'fashionable' type footwear. It is particularly popular among young white middle class males in 'gentrified' neighbourhoods, especially in cities here in the UK. They are commonly referred to as 'Hipsters'. They frequently patronise 'trendy' bars and restaurants paying over the odds for 'craft ale' and 'meals' made from foods shipped in from some attractive sounding country village.

 

I grew a goatee last summer. Kinda like it, so still have it. Just trim it all along with some clippers.

Lazy, yep, that too. Stubble on the parts I shave don't show as much as if I shave my entire face and don't shave for a few days.

 

lazy... yes! its funny, having a beard never entered my consciousness until my girlfriend ( at that time back in 1981 ) wanted me to grow a beard. i didn't see why not, if she wants a beard, i'll grow one. after a couple of days, i had some sort of cosmic revelation in that i realized i never have to shave again. so, 35 years later, i still have my beard, and it will be with me for the rest of my life!

 

To make up for lost time. Uhhh, what I mean is ... wayyy back when I was attending Electronics school after graduating from high school, at 17 years old, I was the youngest one in the class with most being a bunch of Veterans going there just to get the GI Bill benefits. Either way, they ALL had beards and / or mustaches. And me? Uhhh, I couldn't grow either yet. DOH! And they let me know it. Oh, not in a mean way, but yeah, they would razz me about not being able to grow a beard or mustache.

So, a couple of years later when I then COULD grow that stuff ... BAMM! I let that sucker GROW Wild! In hindsight, some years later when I came back to my senses, I realized just how friggin' ugly that mess was. How UGLY was it? Well, one time when coming back across the border from Mexico, with my ugly mess of a beard and some mirrored sunglasses, I must admit I looked like terrorist. Needless to say, the Customs Agent made me pull my van to the side to give it a more thorough inspection.

But, now since around 1987 or thereabouts, I now maintain a clean shaven face. Cuz you're right, Laura. If I let that beard grow right now, I'd definitely quickly catch up to my age and then some.