Beards : Classic or Dud?

I've vacillated between beard and no beard on and off for about 6 years now; every so often I get bored and shave it off, then let it grow back. I hate shaving, and don't like being clean shaven. And people tell me a beard suits me.

This year I last shaved on New Year's Day, so unless I have a hissy fit in the next five or so weeks, I'll have kept a beard for a whole year, which feels like... something.

Grow one every now and again, the balder I get the more it looks about right I think

pretty much all around dud these days

I don’t trust anyone without a beard.

in the process of growing one now but i am bald so thats ok

Haven't been clean shaven in several years. I grew one of them long beards during the great beard craze of 2014. I did do a very close stubble shave a while back because of a fancy dress party and I didn't like it, although I am curious as to what a clean shave would feel like again. The first thing I noticed when I grew a beard wasn't itching, so much as how peculiar it was to press my lips or kiss my partner's skin and for it to feel hairy

I've had a beard since 2012 and had a notion to go back to clean-shaven, so I did, and it was horrifying. I felt naked, and I looked... idk, gaunt, weird... anyway,never again. Hirsute to the grave.

otm I will only shave when I feel completely OK with myself, so, never

had a beard since 2008 or so. i've shaven it off before and i've also had an absolutely giant beard for a while.

i like the feeling of being clean shaven but i am balding and tend to feel a beard gives some definition.

bald + beard is good

Why? Reality TV personality Jeremy McConnell could have just concentrated on the beard transplant then.

mitbeards xp

My beard, when it’s present, ages me about 5 years...so I try to keep clean

why do you never see bearded octo/nonagenerians

counterpoint: my granny

I’ve never grown a massive beard. I just keep a good, full covering.

I am a neckshaver though, to my shame. My neck coverage is patchy, so I even it up every Monday morning.

Xxp because they're dead

Beard wearer for 4+ years and proud neck shaver, who wants or wants to see a hairy neck?

33 years old. can't grow a beard. probably wouldn't if i could. would like the option to try a mustache though

I dislike beards in general, I'm pretty lazy so I often go a week without shaving but that's my limit. I think I look better clean-shaven tbh.

Agree ,clean shaven ftw

1 day stubble tbh

go a week or so without shaving, then it becomes itchy and irritable and has to go. In the past six months an interesting development has occured - grey and white patches in the chin. It feels ridiculous at 29.

I used to tweezer all the grey out. There’s too much now. Not massively visible from a distance, but even so. Disheartening. I spotted a grey chest hair the other day.

Beards with grey in them are good

otm

What's grey now in mine was ashy ginger in summer in my twenties have always appreciated the tonal shifts tbh

Beards are good

(Some beards are not good)

ilx is having a bald-bashing week for some reason so I will also register my appreciation for the handsome baldies of ilx, with or without beards

Also, a phrase people use that never quite comes off the way it's intended to for me is "beard-stroking", stroking beards is good, beards are to be stroked

Stroke it Noel

Also, a phrase people use that never quite comes off the way it's intended to for me is "beard-stroking",

aka chin-stroking for hipsters, amirite 'sup

My goatee was distracting from my noble mane so I shaved it off. Also every other white male gentrifier in my neighborhood has one so I’m bucking the trend.

Still only breaking out the razor once a week though.

Bearded since 2005, thanks to sunburn at a Tracer Hand softballl party. Dreads since 1998. I don’t really do change.

35 years bearded. Both times I've shaved it have been painful chilly mistakes.

For me, wearing a relatively short beard has been classic because for me shaving every day is beyond dud.

Short beard is a dud look for me and overdone generally, but fuck do i hate shaving so there i am.

beard since about 2003 - was a redhead, now i'm a balding ginger bastard

i'm bald with a large patchy-grey beard and i look better than i ever have tbh

So are there any men on ILX who don't have beards?

Uh, maybe? My face is a field of conflict between incompatible impulses. I don't like shaving, and I don't like having a beard.

The normal state is DonJohnsonian permascruff, which is mostly fine. I probably trim and/or shave every week or 10 days. But there is nuance behind this, and a story. Unfortunately it is a very boring story. Sorry.

My facial hair naturally grows into a goatee shape with ease, while the surrounding territory remains scraggly and sparse at best.

For cultural reasons I cannot do a goatee. Some dudes can manage it, but I just look like the worst barista you had in 1992, or maybe the slightly dim hillbilly in a movie. (The one that Pa sends out to the farm in case the Sheriff comes snoopin' around.)

With careful management, I can get a beard-like shape in a month or so. But every time I do so, it starts itching me almost immediately and irritating my wife's skin. So I get abruptly sick of it and go back to Miami Vice territory.

Pro tip: when you're shaving off a beard, it can be amusing to stop at different stages and give them names. Some of my faves:

- 1970s Motorcyle Cop

- Serial Molester

- World War I Fighter Pilot

- Fascist Dictator

- Substitute Junior-High Gym Teacher

- Civil War Cavalryman

- Free-Jazz Saxophonist

We’re basically in the same boat, but my goatee just looks like I’m going for knausgaard or jesus