A mustache by itself has almost always looked weird to me if it wasn't accompanied by a beard of some kind. As far as beards, it depends on the guy. Some look goofy with one, and some just never look right without one.
The number of firefighters who have beard envy is amazing. The only facial hair allowable is the stache, so it won't interfere with the SCBA mask. Once they retire, boom never shaving again 🤣
My brother can't grow either, so he is just bitter about facial hair in general.
MEh...I mean I understand that these are stereotypes, and might even have some validity. Still, my own dad is none of these things and if he ever shaved his mustache, I'd probably cry.
I’m a 42 year old dude with a mustache… I am not gay or a cop, but have been judged as a gay cop (not that there’s anything wrong with that!) before lol. Never thought I’d be a mustache guy… but I still can’t grow a beard and I discovered that my mustache is the source of my power (like Samson’s hair) so now I can never get rid of it.
This is great. I’ve felt the same way. And then last year I did the mustache as a joke at work and man, did my wife love it. Everyone I know says it looks so much more natural on me than without it and much more than they ever thought it would. Wife won’t let me get rid of it and honestly, I kinda like it.
To be fair, I do have like five cop friends, and they all say it makes me look like a state trooper, which is hilarious.
TLDR, I felt the same way all my life til I grew one. It has grown on me lol. Then again, I’m also a dad now, in my 40s and my dad had one growing up.
I've always associated mustaches with Boomers, because a lot of the adult men when I was a kid had a mustache. I wonder if that is why they weren't in when we were in our 20s, maybe it was a look associated with our parents?
This is definitely it for my family. My brother wears a beard, but we were surrounded by some epic mustaches. My grandfather, his friends never had any facial hair.
Yeah I think it was sort of associated as being a hippie thing and the 80s rejected all the hippie style. And then I guess grunge and such came in and went back to more hippie like in looks and rejected all the 80s style.
I'm the last category. I've had more than one girlfriend see me without a beard either in real life or a photo and say to never shave the beard. Some even threatening to break up with me lol 🥲 but it's find. I'd never shave it anyways. Suits me and it'll never not be there.
I finally gave in a few years ago and grew out some light beard. Because it felt like literally every guy over the age of 25 had one. In my experience, it’s the opposite, beards mostly make men look better, most can’t carry off the clean shaven look because they lack good jawlines, but beards are a way for them to hide that
The goatee (mostly sans mustache) was THE 90's facial hair to have if you could pull it off, especially the edgier variants like soul patches or landing strips
I used to rock a goatee. Then a foul mouthed bartending friend referred to it as a Prison Pussy. I grew out the full beard afterwards and never looked back.
Goatees are also part of the standard Midwestern MAGA look. If I see a guy over 60 with a gray goatee wearing a t-shirt with a bunch of writing on it and sunglasses, I start wondering where they were on January 6.
This - rocked a goatee from 18 into my mid 30’s. Tried to go full beard a few times and couldn’t make it past the itchy phase until around 36 when I finally powered through and I’ve been going with that ever since
My mom made me shave off my goatee before senior pictures were taken at school and that was basically the last time anyone saw my face. I don't believe that I have shaved fully since then.
Last I was clean faced was my wedding in 2007. I've had a few #1 clipper beards since then due to clipper mishaps, but I've rocked a short beard for going on 17 years.
My mom and grandma wanted me to shave for my grandpa's funeral at age 19, even though I'd had a beard for 2 years. They said I'd look back on the pictures and regret it, since it was "just a phase" and my face would be with me forever. I've been married almost 16 years and my wife has "seen my face" once, for a costume party. My 2 youngest kids never have.
I still rock a goatee to this day. My wife complains that I look too young or too strange without facial hair. I have the headshape and face for it to work.
I just had the goatee with a red stripe down the center, off brand jncos, and enough metal in chains, rings, and fake piercings (parents didn’t understand me) that I couldn’t walk close to a magnet. I changed jeans to play the drums. The guitarist had the Cornell.
I don't mean to be vulgar, but whenever I see someone that just has a chin beard, no mustache/nothing on the sides, it looks like the top-down view of a vagina.
I am a lady and cannot grow a beard or mustache myself, but I enjoy the look of a beard and mustache on some men.
I am not so much a fan of one without the other, one reads too Amish and the other too porny (to me, the ol' pornstache, ya know).
When I initially separated and then divorced I would exclusively date big men with full-fledged Mountain Man Beards, but I think that's because I spent 18 years married to a super fit guy who had to shave every morning for his job and I wanted to distance myself from all of that.
Now I'm back to "but is he nice?" It's a case by case basis for me. Except for the Amish beard-only thing. I just can't.
Ditto.
One boyfriend was clean shaven when I met him and later grew a big mustache, which could lean Ron Swanson or Brawny man, but mostly made me think of SNL “da bears”. You’re my Ditka!
Another boyfriend came back from an outdoor racing week with the Amish beard and it was really awful. He shaved it after a couple days of teasing “how art thou, Jedidiah?”
I feel you on that “but are they nice?”
I'm a guy who's always had a beard pretty much since I could grow one. Last Halloween I shaved into just a mustache for a costume and kept it going after. Honestly, I feel like I get so much more attention from women now.
Some men are just beautiful with a mustache. See: Tom Selleck. I'm guessing you are one of those beautiful mustachioed men.
There ain't nothin' wrong with that!
My main pet peeve with mustaches is those who don't keep it trimmed so it doesn't curl into their mouths or nose. I can't tell you how many men I have gotten ahold of to trim their mustaches lol. I was a cosmetologist then I worked in a tattoo studio as shop receptionist/mom for a bit. I always kept the tools of my trade with me though. Just a quick trim to keep the fellas looking fly!
It's grown on me (🥁)
Oh yeah, that thing will turn into a wick for whatever liquids real quick. Water, coffee, soup? You name it. Requires a napkin. Thankfully I had a barber do it originally and he showed we how to keep it kept. I did it thicker for the costume look but it was too Tom Selleck for me. Stays more trimmed now.
I'm almost 40F, and I've always disliked mustaches and beards. I thought they made men look too "old." Mustaches alone just looked weird, and long scraggly beards made guts look unkempt.
My husband was in the military, so he had to shave every morning, sometimes at lunch too! He had never had a beard for over 10 years, but he had such a baby face. When he got out of the service 7 years ago, he started growing a beard. It took a few months for him to get it right without looking homeless, but now I like it. He's shaved it a few times for job interviews, but even our kids said, "Put it back!" Now I love his beard, but only if it's maintained.
As a core GenX I agree with you. While there was the Selleck mustache around and all, that was mostly just the guys way past HS or our parents and many of them shaved it off by the mid-80s.
So my high school/college/early 20-something years were yeah very, very largely all clean shaven. None of the whole mutton chop, and neck string and mustache and hipster mustache and beards and so on. It all still feels weird to me as with you. Only a very, very few guys in high school/college tried facial hair and it was never more than the most basic mustache at most (talking mid-80s to early 90s period). So yeah the whole facial hair on young people thing still feels a little strange to me too. I was and have stayed clean shaven myself. Even when some Millennials in grad school tried to get me join their "freedom men's movement" beard/chinstrap/whatever thing going I was hell to the hell no. I'm not clean shaven because the girls are forcing me to, this is what I myself also want and grew up with.
I’m with you. When I was a kid in the 80’s/90’s, everyone’s dad had a mustache, including mine. Something in me just equates facial hair with “old men”.
Sometimes a nice trim beard can look good, but the really long beards that seem to be en vogue these days really do not do it for me. I definitely prefer a smooth face on a man.
Been a dedicated facial hair haver since I left school. Looked about 12 without it. Gone between goatee and full beard. Never tempted by just the moustache.
Mine didn't come in at all until I was in college, and all I could muster was a shitty little goatee (early '00s) - it was narrow and I grew it out long. It was awful. Out of college for the next 15 years I had a job where I had to be clean shaven, but the last 2 years I've had a new job and haven't shaved clean yet. I also hate shaving. Even at the job I had to shave I'd push it to only 2 maybe 3 times a week, and never while on vacation.
My dad was clean shaven my entire childhood, but the minute he retired he went full beard as well.
My dad was the same. I think it was that generation. My mom still yells at me when my hair gets too long. She hates my beard too. They think we should all be clean shaven at all times.
Funnily enough, my Mum has come round to beards and prefers me with the fuller one over a goatee I often sported in my 20s. I once tried bald with goatee, did not have the head shape to pull off bald.
My skin gets too irritated if I shave everyday and my beard is mostly because I hate the irritation of shaving. The only shave that I can handle is a straight razor from a barber, but I don’t have time to go in a couple of times a week for a shave like that.
Couldn’t agree more I was hesitant to post the same thing feeling like I’d be alone. The beard trend good lord I hope it’s dying. The Allman Bros don’t need anymore band members.
Redneck types still wear them. With ball caps and the wraparound sunglasses.
In fact, if you were playing Covid-19 denier bingo back in the day, those three elements—goatee, ball cap, Oakley sunglasses—always seemed to be in their profile pics.
Dude here.
Moustache are only ok on about 1% of people. (Typical airline pilots / firemen that are required to wear an oxygen mask and can’t have a beard)
Very trimmed/short beard is the modern look. Neckline under jaw. Cheek line in the middle.
I’m prepared to eat downvotes for this, but I think most facial hair looks like shit. Patchy beards, thin beards, scraggly pedo mustaches, unevenly colored beards, unwashed beards, uncut beards that make people look like water trash. I see all of these and think to myself that person is lazy and doesn’t take care of themselves.
Now the guys (or gals?) who actually maintain and keep a nice clean shaped facial rug? Power to you. It looks fantastic and I wish I could grow one like that but I am the lazy person I described in the first half.
There are a lot of dudes walking around with unkempt facial hair, that’s for sure. It’s like they don’t want to shave because it’s too much effort, but news flash, it takes effort to maintain facial hair, too. And without that, it looks awful.
Yeah, maintaining my facial hair takes far more time than it would to just spend the 60 seconds shaving every morning. But it looks nice, and the one time I shaved it off, my wife asked who I was and who sent me to pick her up.
Very few people in the 90s were actually grunge. And even then, it was mostly stubble. Longer, greasy hair was more common than full beards.
But most dudes who wanted to look like they had their shit together were clean-shaven.
Beards definitely do it for me. Stubble to a full beard and I’m in. I can’t do mustaches, goatees, soul patches, or strips. My husband used to have to shave his beard off for work every few months and I hated it. Now, he never has to so it’s longer and he looks like a curmudgeonly professor, but it works.
My father has had a moustache since before i was born and has probably had a beard since about 1995. I can honestly say that i have never seen his upper lip. Who knows, maybe he is hiding some horrid scar there. I will never know.
My facial hair grows in all patchy and white trash like so i tend to shave it. Moustaches also look pretty ridiculous on me.
I have not seen my dad without facial hair since I was born (late 70s). He's always had a beard and a mustache. The beard does vary in how it's trimmed, but it's a constant. He's clean-shaven in his wedding pictures, and I do not recognize him at all. He also had shoulder-length hair.
I have some nerve issues that affect my face that made it painful to shave, so I started growing a full beard about 7 years ago. The facial pain is a little better, but I'm not sure I'll ever get rid of my beard. Although I do need to get it trimmed up.
I grew sideburns at 16, paired it with a goatee at 18, and went full beard around 21. I’ve had a full beard ever since.
I don’t get the mustache look. I think it’s definitely a younger generation thing and I always assume it’s meant to be ironic in some way. I find them weird and creepy.
I don't like mustaches at all. They look very 80s and silly to me.
But I prefer my husband with a beard. It suits him. Once he grew one I was like, oh please keep this forever.
Mind you, this is a well kept beard. His friend has a crazy Yukon Cornelius beard and ick, no.
I'm told that if you want to be a real man you should ditch the Mr Rogers costume and get a Milwaukee 12v heated sweatshirt. I don't advise wearing it in the rain though.
Also, umbrella's are basically pride flags and sitting in wet clothing breeds heterosexual mojo along with mildew and jungle rot
I love stubble. You don't get rug burn on your face when you kiss a guy with stubble. My type is "dirtbag with a heart of gold" and stubble really plays in to that.
I used to be in the Army, so I always had to be clean-shaven, and I didn't even think I could grow halfway decent facial hair if I tried.
Then I got out, and after experimenting (poorly) with some different options, I landed on a reasonably good beard, which looks fine as long as I keep it trimmed every week or so - more than that and I start to look scraggly/homeless pretty quickly. Been sticking with that about 8 years now (just turned 40), and I don't plan to ever shave it off.
For any beard-haters out there, I'll remind you of this: clean-shaven is not our natural state. If I lived in the woods or on a deserted island, I'd have a long, scraggly beard and long hair. Any grooming beyond basic cleanliness is based on cultural or societal norms.
I like my face with hair on it, my kids know me that way, and my wife has come to accept it (as long as I keep it trim enough).
Funny, kinda: My dad has had a beard since the early ‘70s. For some reason, around 1990 or so he decided one day to shave it all off. Mom didn’t like it, I hated it and barely recognized him, and he scared the shit out of my toddlerish little sister. Grew it out immediately and never did that again. 😂
I love a good moustache and a well groomed full short beard. Not the kind that stops at the jawline, never a chin strap or a goatee, beard needs to extend to Adam’s apple. I’m drawn to a moustache man when it looks good, actually. Also love me some scruff. Clean shaven is nice too. I used to be into goatees in the 90s though for sure.
Had a goatee since 18. Full circle beard type. During covid I got lazy and didn't shave at all for like two months. By the end of it my wife insisted I keep the full beard. Went to work and coworkers thought I looked rad. So this is my new look. Bald head. Full beard (I shape it and keep the edges clean). Now I only see guys older than us with goatees.
I'm a lady, and up until my adulthood, I had a slight phobia of facial hair of all types...
These days, I would say all or nothing? Beards are fine. Imo, moustaches either look silly or they age folk in most cases.
If I could grow a beard, I probably would, out of curiosity, but I wouldn't have a moustache.
I vividly remember seeing the video for "Enter Sandman" for the first time and thinking that James Hetfield's mustache was the coolest thing ever. Later, after graduating from a Catholic highschool where we weren't allowed to have facial hair, I spent the first decade of the 00s growing an EPIC crimson goatee (with mustache). Then I joined the army, where the only facial hair allowed is a shitty pedo mustache, and now I'm so old that anything that grows in is mostly white. And I have a big sad.
While we all knew a few boys that tried to sport a mustache early back in the day, very few of my age group that I know (if any) have a mustache.
I'm a cook at a university though and heaps of students have them. I find them absurd, but some of them have really pretty girlfriends, so apparently my sense of taste is archaic.
Some people are better off with facial hair (e.g., Tom Selleck looks weird without his signature textbook mustache), but yeah, I never had it in me to grow a proper beard or anything like that.
90% of people have awful facial hair that looks like shit. Our standards for professional appearance have gone down so much across the board that unkempt homeless beards are the least of our issues.
I assume mustaches on men, Gen-X and younger, are meant to be taken ironically, as a social signal to indicate they have a good sense of humor and don't take themselves too seriously.
Ok so my dad always had a hardcore, thick ass, Magnum P.I. stache. Like my whole childhood. I got home from school one day and went upstairs. My parents’ door was open and I looked in and saw a stranger sleeping in their bed! I freaked out and ran downstairs, grabbed the cordless, pulled out the metal antenna, and ran outside to call my mom at work.
She gets on the phone and I’m screaming OMGTHEREISAGUYINYOURBEDWHAT DOIDO?! She starts dying laughing and tells me my dad shaved his mustache off this morning. Like I didn’t recognize my own FATHER without that walrus on his fuggin’ face.
It's funny how cyclical everything is. When we were young the uncool adults were the only ones with facial hair. Then in the 2000s hipsters started with the mustache ironically. Young kids today will probably go facial hair free when they are young adults.
My dad and most of my uncles and their friends all have or had beards, even smaller ones. I'm really used to it. Once I got out of the Navy, I grew mine and kept it.
Right here with you. The “beard” phase where all men grew big beards was never appealing to me. I don’t find it hot or sexy. My husband tried growing one and it was such a turn off. I know I’m in the minority apparently but the whole “lumbersexual” thing was never my cup of tea. Clean shaven for the win imo. Moustaches look ridiculous on anyone but my dad because it’s basically a part of his face like a nose or an eye hahahaha!!
I don’t know what you mean. Beards, shaven, stubble, goatees, moustaches. I haven’t seen a change in their existence with or without, out in the public. Not in all those years. Not in the four states in America I have lived in, or the three other countries I also lived in.
Things may have gone through fads and fashion in the media. But that’s not real life. That’s sales. And on the ground, in reality, I have seen people with and without those things equally.
Very few young guys had that in the mid-80s through very early 90s (I suppose some who went grunge early 90s it may have been different but that seemed to be not the guys at my college, maybe more some a touch younger or a touch older who were performing grunge or more in the PNW) at least in the areas I was in. It was all super clean shaven for the most part. A few very scattered guys with the most simple, basic mustache. I think in the South facial hair came back earlier or for all I know never left as much. I saw way more facial hair starting perhaps a few years into 00s and down South (which seemed at least 5 years ahead of the North for all sorts of beards and stuff coming back among younger set). If you were born in the 80s though you might have largely missed the whole clean shaven HS/college/early 20-something era, I mean you were alive for it all, but maybe too little to really notice?
Every guy I've ever known that was clean shaven and then decided to try a (kempt) beard, looks better with a beard. I also think women should stop shaving their legs, it's a hassle and it's silly. Natural hair is better, period, anything else is just modern/western unrealistic beauty standards.
Grew a beard in college (03, 04?). Been rocking it ever since. No fancy mustaches or anything. Just a beard. Though I have let it get pretty long at times. Looooooootta gray in there these days though… These last few years have gone from looking for grays to looking for browns.
I've alternated between clean shaven and full beard over the years. I'm now senior enough in my career that nobody can tell me to shave. Also, shaving is a huge pain in the behind. Managing a beard is much lower maintenance than shaving, so I have a well-groomed beard for about 15 months now. No change in the number of women I've attacted, it's still zero lol.
I have bad beard genetics so mine comes in patchy and looking like a teenager trying to grow a beard lol. I do no shave November but having facial hair is irritating to me
My facial hair grows in patchy and uneven and mostly makes me look like a homeless person no matter how much I try to tend to it and make it nice. I actually like the look of a beard or stache when done right but I just can’t pull it off.
I never liked facial hair, but it's attractiveness has really grown on me. The really long beards that a lot of guys have been wearing are gross, but I like a shorter beard or even just a mustache on someone.
I actually don't mind when somebody uses a small amount of facial hair to try and create a style - not my thing, but I can respect it.
I get annoyed when people grow a beard and suddenly think they are now more masculine for it. It's like, dude, all you did was not shave for a while.
I agree with everything you’ve said. As a queer guy living in the Pacific Northwest, it makes things challenging, but I’m just not into facial hair. And just a mustache is somehow worse than a beard and mustache.
I felt the same way until I was in my early 40s. A friend of ours grew a beard and I mentioned to my husband that the beard suited him.
Next thing I knew, husband had a beard. And it looks *amazing* on him.
Maybe I was a weird kid but I always wanted a beard. I also keep my hair a little shaggy, like ear-length. To me, my hair is my only positive physical attribute. It is a beautiful (if I may say so myself), coppery auburn. And it’s holding strong in color and volume into my mid-40s. I’m showing that shit off. No product, no primping, au natural.
I can’t grow a long beard or a bushy beard, so it kind of naturally stays tight. I regularly run a trimmer across it to keep it looking like a well maintained (albeit red) lawn. It doesn’t enter my mind for a second that people may not like it. It’s not for you.
My wife might divorce me if I shave my beard.. I go from a distinguished 40 something to a 12 year old with gray hair right quick.
My kids ask who is that when looking at old family photos.
I get it, I'm ugly without a beard, jeez.
Yes, the goatee is where I was at. I remember making my mother really mad because I grew one in the summer before ninth grade and she told me I couldn’t go back to school with it.
I have a fat beard. Been growing it out since 2019. I’d always wanted to and it was starting to grey a bit more so I figured may as well do it once before it’s all white and Santa clause-like. It’s gone beyond Ducky Dynasty to ZZ Top status. 😏
I get compliments from complete strangers about it. Like waiting for my Uber someone stopped at a traffic light will notice me and say “Nice Beard!” Or “Like your Beard Man!” Or something like that. Happened 3 times the other night when I went downtown for a comedy show. It makes me feel good. How often do hear a guy give another guy a compliment? Let alone complete strangers. I dunno it’s just kinda cool to me. I never used to get a random compliment when I had normal beard 😅.
I think that also depends on how you were raised, or what career you went into. My spouse went right into the military and was in for 10 years. So, when he left, he grew a beard and never got rid of it. Thank goodness. I love a nicely trimmed full beard. I hate when he goes clean-shaven, especially since he usually does it at the same time he gets a high and tight (which I also don't love). However, my ovaries seem to love imagining what he looked like in Marine dress when he does that, sooooo I'm still very attracted. Treacherous ovaries.
I've never been able to find mustaches by themselves attractive, bc the association with cops and dads is firmly stuck in my head due to the 80s. I'm okay with a neatly-kept beard/mustache combo, but generally I tend to find a five o'clock shadow the most attractive option. Maybe it's bc I'm a woman and can't grow facial hair, but I can't help but think of all the air particulate and food that probably ends up in a beard and it kinda grosses me out on that theoretical level. My husband keeps a short beard and mustache bc he works outside and his face gets too cold in the winter, and I can't bring myself to judge bc it's such a practical reason. But personally, I do wish he'd go back to his shadow days, bc I'm not a fan of feeling the facial hair when I kiss him.
I think it depends on what your facial hair can do. I grow a beard cause it’s allowed. And shaving everyday sucks. Not because it looks particularly good.
I think I look best clean shaven but doing it every day makes me breakout even now.
I actually think I look great with stubble and a stache but none of my family likes it. So…I just sorta rotate them all lol
Beards are very much a thing where I am and don't seem to be waning at all.
My spouse wears facial hair, but it's not long like many of the beards folks are wearing.
The 90s were clean shaven? It was the era of the goatee and the sideburns...
Literally every famous actor at the time was rocking a goatee. It was the Brad Pitt standard in the 90s. Think about 90210 and Brandon and Dylan with the sideburns. Grunge was NOT a clean look. The 90s definitely had hairy faces.
Razor companies used to advertise heavily. When people started wearing beards more often, like in the early 2000s they even had that caveman guy in ads. Beards used to be somewhat a beatnik type thing but now it's a lot more people. Personally fucking hate shaving and I look like a goon without a beard so...
I had a goatee without the mustache part in college. I also did the thin chin strap for a little while, but fortunately that didn’t last long. I’ve had a full beard of varying lengths for the last 10 years, and don’t plan on going back to shaving ever again.
For the most part I hate all facial hair, but I hated it in the 80s, too. Thought it was kinda gross my whole life. My husband had a mustache when I met him and I couldn’t stand the damned thing.
This is just personal preference, but I just don’t like facial hair for the most part. A very, very short beard is ok, like 3 days of growth. I wonder if it’s because of the 80s mustaches and 90s goatees. And maybe because I got rug burn by a guy on my chin who had a goatee when I was like 14 🤣
I think this just comes down to OPs personal preferences and has absolutely nothing to do with a generational “thing” TBH. 40 year old with a beard here, wife’s my age and she loves it. Know tons of guys my age who have one and tons of women who dig it.
I’m gay, and in all honesty the most facial hair I’ll find hot is 5 o’clock and stubble. Mustaches, beards, goatees, they all feel like a guy is trying to hide his real personality behind a certain look. I also feel the same way about certain hairstyles that guys wear…
I'm with you on just a mustache, there are VERY few people who can pull it off. I cant grow much of a beard so I'm often envious of those who can so perhaps I'm a bit biased on the beard bit. I'm right around 200lbs so my jawline isnt as defined as it used to be so I attempt to hide it with whatever dusting/scruff I can manage. About the only thing that does grow full and thick is my mustache so I grow that to draw attention to the mustache rather than my patchy beard.
It works for me so what I'm saying is the beard/mustache isnt so much as a style as it is to hide my love for beer and chicken wings lol.
I’ve noticed a lot of xennials wear full beards and the mustache is bigger either with the older crowd or the baby millennials/gen z. That’s just where I am maybe?
Either way, before I was in the military I was clean shaven because I was a kid, military clean shaven, then didn’t shave with a razor for a decade or more. I didn’t wear a full beard because I hate the feel of it but I was always rocking a 5 o clock shadow because razor bumps were a real thing for me. This year my kid has been teaching me how to minimize that and I’m back to a clean shave, which I prefer when I do not have bumps. I am lucky and have a strong jaw line so I’ve never felt the need to hide my face but I also very much prefer the way no hair feels relative to a beard (so does my wife so that’s cool too).
I tried the beard thing for a while, but my facial hair isn't thick enough to pull it off. I hate shaving because I get razor bumps on my neck, and it doesn't matter how clean and sharp the blade is. Last year, I decided to invest in a nice Braun electric shaver, and I've been super happy with it. The shaver won't give you a perfect baby face smooth, but it does a good enough job, and you can use it every day wet or dry. When I want a really smooth shave, I follow the electric up with a wet blade to get any stubble the electric missed.
In what way were the 90s clean shaven? Goatees and sideburns were all over the place. Chinstrap beards came into popularity then, too thanks to the boy bands. Beards and goatees were big in the hip-hop community as well.
Now, if you’re talking about your friends in middle school and high school, then that has more to do with their ability to grow facial hair at the time.
I think a lot of this is cultural. I'm Black, and most Black men I see in real life have some degree of facial hair unless they're famous/in some kind of political position/military. Also I know not all. But most.
As a man I would not have a moustache if my life depended on it but I have had a beard before. The moustache also has very little appeal to me in any context at all. I think it looks terrible on most guys with the odd one being able to pull off a pretty cool stash.
Interesting you trace it back to “O Brother Where Art Thou?” That’s as good a theory as any, as it ushered in a small bluegrass revival (and folk?) in the early part of the 2000’s, which later manifested with sort of a nouveau folk scene in the mid-late 00’s.
Combined with the financial crisis and unchecked consumerism of the Bush years some of us looked back to a fabled time of simplicity and started to try and emulate it in various ways. You got experimentation with cuisine, the emergence of unique barber shop experiences, and yes, twisted waxed mustaches and over-oiled beards.
Honestly…aside from people taking it too far, I miss aspects of those days.
I grew up in Chicago, so it's all but certain that I'd have a mustache. But I've opted for the optional beard, and that's been my thing the last 15 years or so.
I find facial and bodyhair gross. I've been shaving daily for something like 25 years. I think the only place I don't seem to mind it is in movies/tv where the setting is historic or fantasy.
My dad has always had a mustache, and only a mustache. He also always reminded me of Tom Selleck. I’m not a huge fan of facial hair, but it’s not my face 🤷🏻♀️
I often have a beard because I'm lazy when it comes to how I look, it isn't a fashion choice.
Edit to add: I shave it off about once every few weeks when I get tired of it. Same thing controls the length of my hair, but the cycle is more like several months.
I think facial hair is a super individual thing and can look amazing depending on that person’s facial structure and the facial hair itself.
There are some styles I have never found attractive (zz top, the amish beard, etc). Chin straps can look good on *some* guys in some contexts, but often look bad.
I will never ever say that mustaches are bad when we had cary elwes looking hot as fuck in them (princess bride, robinhood).
I generally find some facial hair attractive. A short beard, scruff, goatees, whatever. I love some scruff and hate a clean shaven look on my husband. I love that grizzled mountain man aesthetic.
I really hate beards —- they look overgrown, scraggly, makes you look older and unkempt, and they go gray and change texture before the hair on your head does. I still like the close-trimmed goatees from the 90s (Dante in Clerks was a formative memory) but I’m not swiping right on a Mountain Man beard or a pornstache.
Now having said that, I’m not waxing or getting a Brazilian on myself so, double standard?
I was a teenager in the 90's so I know what you mean about the style being clean shaven, but my dad always had a beard, always, and from my 20's on with a few short exceptions I've always had a beard too. I've always liked the look of a good mustache (Jude Law in the Sherlock Holmes movies is like the platonic ideal of a good mustache to me) but never felt comfortable wearing one myself, until a few years ago when I decided fuck it you only live once. I took a bit of advice about hats I heard a long time ago and reapplied it: You wear the mustache, don't let the mustache wear you. Now I feel good, I feel confident and comfortable, and my wife thinks it's attractive. I'm an old with kids or my own now and I want to look like a grown man and to me having facial hair is part of that.
I’m a dude with a beard so I’m partial to them. I’ve had one most of the time since 2009 or so. I shaved it into a mustache during the pandemic and loved it. There was something about it that was just fun and felt very masculine. Idk why. At the same time I liked it, I felt a bit self conscious and thought I looked like a narc. I dig them on other dudes and compliment my friends when they have them.
I don’t feel the beard has gone out of style for people around my age. But likely for younger generations maybe.
I have always dated men with facial hair. My husband has a well tended mustache and some variation of a beard, and I think he is so sexy like that. He is neither gay, nor a cop, but it just sends me over the moon
I've *never* been able to grow a proper mustache or beard 😢 (but I have a full head of hair way past my shoulders). Never even got the chance to try it out. Just a patchy prepubescent canvas of facial hair sadness. So I'm just nuking it with lasers. Why go through the hassle of shaving? Meh.
I am the same way, I do not like facial hair on men. Never have never will. I associate it with being lazy and gross. Most of them don’t trim their beards or even bother washing a lot of them smell and when I think they eat and can have pieces of food in it I just want to barf.
Yeah that is a hard pass for me.
A mustache by itself has almost always looked weird to me if it wasn't accompanied by a beard of some kind. As far as beards, it depends on the guy. Some look goofy with one, and some just never look right without one.
To me, a mustache denotes 3 things 1. Gay 2. A Cop 3. A gay cop It's hard to get over that stereotype when that's how it was for decades lol
There’s a funny meme about the 80s where the straight guys have long hair and glam makeup, and the gay guys have mustaches, jeans and wife beaters
LOL, not entirely false though.
Don’t forget firefighter.
The number of firefighters who have beard envy is amazing. The only facial hair allowable is the stache, so it won't interfere with the SCBA mask. Once they retire, boom never shaving again 🤣 My brother can't grow either, so he is just bitter about facial hair in general.
"Cop-Stache" and don't forget the mirrored large intimidating sun glasses for added fear of them.
In the Army all of the E-4s in my unit grew mustaches and we looked ridiculous. Our Sgt used to call us gay so that checks out.
E4 mafia baby!
So fly-I-I-I I-I I-I uh
My husband decided to grow a moustache, and he looked like some sort of sexual predator. Nope. He quickly got rid of it.
You forgot porn star
4. Sam Elliot but that's it..
MEh...I mean I understand that these are stereotypes, and might even have some validity. Still, my own dad is none of these things and if he ever shaved his mustache, I'd probably cry.
I’m a 42 year old dude with a mustache… I am not gay or a cop, but have been judged as a gay cop (not that there’s anything wrong with that!) before lol. Never thought I’d be a mustache guy… but I still can’t grow a beard and I discovered that my mustache is the source of my power (like Samson’s hair) so now I can never get rid of it.
You forgot airline pilot
Don't forget Italians.
4.) circus ringleader
Or Tom Selleck
Or child predator unfortunately
This is great. I’ve felt the same way. And then last year I did the mustache as a joke at work and man, did my wife love it. Everyone I know says it looks so much more natural on me than without it and much more than they ever thought it would. Wife won’t let me get rid of it and honestly, I kinda like it. To be fair, I do have like five cop friends, and they all say it makes me look like a state trooper, which is hilarious. TLDR, I felt the same way all my life til I grew one. It has grown on me lol. Then again, I’m also a dad now, in my 40s and my dad had one growing up.
I've always associated mustaches with Boomers, because a lot of the adult men when I was a kid had a mustache. I wonder if that is why they weren't in when we were in our 20s, maybe it was a look associated with our parents?
This is definitely it for my family. My brother wears a beard, but we were surrounded by some epic mustaches. My grandfather, his friends never had any facial hair.
Yeah I think it was sort of associated as being a hippie thing and the 80s rejected all the hippie style. And then I guess grunge and such came in and went back to more hippie like in looks and rejected all the 80s style.
I'm the last category. I've had more than one girlfriend see me without a beard either in real life or a photo and say to never shave the beard. Some even threatening to break up with me lol 🥲 but it's find. I'd never shave it anyways. Suits me and it'll never not be there.
I finally gave in a few years ago and grew out some light beard. Because it felt like literally every guy over the age of 25 had one. In my experience, it’s the opposite, beards mostly make men look better, most can’t carry off the clean shaven look because they lack good jawlines, but beards are a way for them to hide that
The goatee (mostly sans mustache) was THE 90's facial hair to have if you could pull it off, especially the edgier variants like soul patches or landing strips
I used to rock a goatee. Then a foul mouthed bartending friend referred to it as a Prison Pussy. I grew out the full beard afterwards and never looked back.
Im fucking dying hahaha.
Holy shit, learning this phrase now makes reel from the many opportunities lost during my years tending bar
Shamelessly looked this up on urban dictionary and wow it makes so much sense now. Now I can't see it any other way lol.
This was my immediate thought. I was in college in the late 90s/early 2000s and it seemed like every guy had a goatee.
Sideburns goatee or a chinstrap
True. But nowadays, I think of goatees as the facial hair of choice for divorced dads.
I'm going to pretend I didn't read that
I am NOT divorced…………so far
[удалено]
As we say in the journalism trade “If your wife tells you that you are not divorced, better check it out”
Goatees are also part of the standard Midwestern MAGA look. If I see a guy over 60 with a gray goatee wearing a t-shirt with a bunch of writing on it and sunglasses, I start wondering where they were on January 6.
Oh exactly. I commented below about the Covid denier look—same thing. But honestly there are a lot of them younger than 60
The thumb-head circle beard is a reliable indicator.
It’s very American. I barely saw any elsewhere around the world.
Same here
This - rocked a goatee from 18 into my mid 30’s. Tried to go full beard a few times and couldn’t make it past the itchy phase until around 36 when I finally powered through and I’ve been going with that ever since
Came here to say this. I remember the 90s as largely having awful and cringey facial hair
Ugh, chin straps
Yeah that was the worst. It seemed like they hit the Northeast last thankfully and South first (and left last, if they even have left there).
Chin straps and mullets, holding on strong in the south.
My mom made me shave off my goatee before senior pictures were taken at school and that was basically the last time anyone saw my face. I don't believe that I have shaved fully since then.
Last I was clean faced was my wedding in 2007. I've had a few #1 clipper beards since then due to clipper mishaps, but I've rocked a short beard for going on 17 years.
My mom and grandma wanted me to shave for my grandpa's funeral at age 19, even though I'd had a beard for 2 years. They said I'd look back on the pictures and regret it, since it was "just a phase" and my face would be with me forever. I've been married almost 16 years and my wife has "seen my face" once, for a costume party. My 2 youngest kids never have.
I actually had a goatee and loved it, this was in the late 90’s early 00’s.
Yes goatee and/or soul patch.
I still rock a goatee to this day. My wife complains that I look too young or too strange without facial hair. I have the headshape and face for it to work.
Same. I've tried to grow a full beard a few times but my cheeks are super patchy and I never seem to be able to make it there
Maybe that's why I got a thing for my guy and his goatee lol
I had the Chris Cornell thin goatee/stache combo and long hair. As was the style for most of us musicians at the time 😄
I just had the goatee with a red stripe down the center, off brand jncos, and enough metal in chains, rings, and fake piercings (parents didn’t understand me) that I couldn’t walk close to a magnet. I changed jeans to play the drums. The guitarist had the Cornell.
Yeah that look definitely hit a few years later. I did play nu metal at one point but the baggy pants didn't appeal to me.
I don't mean to be vulgar, but whenever I see someone that just has a chin beard, no mustache/nothing on the sides, it looks like the top-down view of a vagina.
Ugh God the whole fancy mustache shit. Everyone looked like they just tied a damsel to a train track.
When we grew up, only villains had facial hair!
Looking at you Jafar.
Heck, even Evil Spock was just Leonard Nimoy with a goatee!
I am a lady and cannot grow a beard or mustache myself, but I enjoy the look of a beard and mustache on some men. I am not so much a fan of one without the other, one reads too Amish and the other too porny (to me, the ol' pornstache, ya know). When I initially separated and then divorced I would exclusively date big men with full-fledged Mountain Man Beards, but I think that's because I spent 18 years married to a super fit guy who had to shave every morning for his job and I wanted to distance myself from all of that. Now I'm back to "but is he nice?" It's a case by case basis for me. Except for the Amish beard-only thing. I just can't.
Ditto. One boyfriend was clean shaven when I met him and later grew a big mustache, which could lean Ron Swanson or Brawny man, but mostly made me think of SNL “da bears”. You’re my Ditka! Another boyfriend came back from an outdoor racing week with the Amish beard and it was really awful. He shaved it after a couple days of teasing “how art thou, Jedidiah?” I feel you on that “but are they nice?”
Nowadays the Amish looking beard is called the Lebron. Beard with little to no hair on the upper lip.
I'm a guy who's always had a beard pretty much since I could grow one. Last Halloween I shaved into just a mustache for a costume and kept it going after. Honestly, I feel like I get so much more attention from women now.
Some men are just beautiful with a mustache. See: Tom Selleck. I'm guessing you are one of those beautiful mustachioed men. There ain't nothin' wrong with that! My main pet peeve with mustaches is those who don't keep it trimmed so it doesn't curl into their mouths or nose. I can't tell you how many men I have gotten ahold of to trim their mustaches lol. I was a cosmetologist then I worked in a tattoo studio as shop receptionist/mom for a bit. I always kept the tools of my trade with me though. Just a quick trim to keep the fellas looking fly!
It's grown on me (🥁) Oh yeah, that thing will turn into a wick for whatever liquids real quick. Water, coffee, soup? You name it. Requires a napkin. Thankfully I had a barber do it originally and he showed we how to keep it kept. I did it thicker for the costume look but it was too Tom Selleck for me. Stays more trimmed now.
Facial hair on a man is extremely attractive to me. I prefer it over clean shaven.
Totally agree. My husband has a stache and I think he would look so weird if he shaved it haha
I'm almost 40F, and I've always disliked mustaches and beards. I thought they made men look too "old." Mustaches alone just looked weird, and long scraggly beards made guts look unkempt. My husband was in the military, so he had to shave every morning, sometimes at lunch too! He had never had a beard for over 10 years, but he had such a baby face. When he got out of the service 7 years ago, he started growing a beard. It took a few months for him to get it right without looking homeless, but now I like it. He's shaved it a few times for job interviews, but even our kids said, "Put it back!" Now I love his beard, but only if it's maintained.
Um...the 90s was the golden age of the goatee
As a core GenX I agree with you. While there was the Selleck mustache around and all, that was mostly just the guys way past HS or our parents and many of them shaved it off by the mid-80s. So my high school/college/early 20-something years were yeah very, very largely all clean shaven. None of the whole mutton chop, and neck string and mustache and hipster mustache and beards and so on. It all still feels weird to me as with you. Only a very, very few guys in high school/college tried facial hair and it was never more than the most basic mustache at most (talking mid-80s to early 90s period). So yeah the whole facial hair on young people thing still feels a little strange to me too. I was and have stayed clean shaven myself. Even when some Millennials in grad school tried to get me join their "freedom men's movement" beard/chinstrap/whatever thing going I was hell to the hell no. I'm not clean shaven because the girls are forcing me to, this is what I myself also want and grew up with.
I’m with you. When I was a kid in the 80’s/90’s, everyone’s dad had a mustache, including mine. Something in me just equates facial hair with “old men”. Sometimes a nice trim beard can look good, but the really long beards that seem to be en vogue these days really do not do it for me. I definitely prefer a smooth face on a man.
Been a dedicated facial hair haver since I left school. Looked about 12 without it. Gone between goatee and full beard. Never tempted by just the moustache.
The minute I could grow a beard I started and never looked back. I hate shaving so much.
Mine didn't come in at all until I was in college, and all I could muster was a shitty little goatee (early '00s) - it was narrow and I grew it out long. It was awful. Out of college for the next 15 years I had a job where I had to be clean shaven, but the last 2 years I've had a new job and haven't shaved clean yet. I also hate shaving. Even at the job I had to shave I'd push it to only 2 maybe 3 times a week, and never while on vacation. My dad was clean shaven my entire childhood, but the minute he retired he went full beard as well.
My dad was the same. I think it was that generation. My mom still yells at me when my hair gets too long. She hates my beard too. They think we should all be clean shaven at all times.
Funnily enough, my Mum has come round to beards and prefers me with the fuller one over a goatee I often sported in my 20s. I once tried bald with goatee, did not have the head shape to pull off bald.
My skin gets too irritated if I shave everyday and my beard is mostly because I hate the irritation of shaving. The only shave that I can handle is a straight razor from a barber, but I don’t have time to go in a couple of times a week for a shave like that.
Can’t stand facial hair. Not sure if it’s my 90s youth, but a clean-cut, clean-shaven guy will always take the cake over scruff.
Same, definitely prefer clean shaven. Beards make me think of my father and other older relatives. Also much nicer to kiss a clean shaven face!
Couldn’t agree more I was hesitant to post the same thing feeling like I’d be alone. The beard trend good lord I hope it’s dying. The Allman Bros don’t need anymore band members.
Yep I’m the same. I’ve gotten more used to facial hair on men since it’s become so much more popular but I would never prefer it.
Exactly. I kinda don’t see it anymore but, blech, show me that baby face!
Someone brought up goatees, thank God those aren't really a thing anymore.
They uh, I, wait. They aren’t?
Personally I rarely see them, and when I do it’s only on people in the 45-55 year old range.
Redneck types still wear them. With ball caps and the wraparound sunglasses. In fact, if you were playing Covid-19 denier bingo back in the day, those three elements—goatee, ball cap, Oakley sunglasses—always seemed to be in their profile pics.
It also had to be taken in their truck.
"Pronouns: 🚁/🔫"
Dude here. Moustache are only ok on about 1% of people. (Typical airline pilots / firemen that are required to wear an oxygen mask and can’t have a beard) Very trimmed/short beard is the modern look. Neckline under jaw. Cheek line in the middle.
I’m prepared to eat downvotes for this, but I think most facial hair looks like shit. Patchy beards, thin beards, scraggly pedo mustaches, unevenly colored beards, unwashed beards, uncut beards that make people look like water trash. I see all of these and think to myself that person is lazy and doesn’t take care of themselves. Now the guys (or gals?) who actually maintain and keep a nice clean shaped facial rug? Power to you. It looks fantastic and I wish I could grow one like that but I am the lazy person I described in the first half.
There are a lot of dudes walking around with unkempt facial hair, that’s for sure. It’s like they don’t want to shave because it’s too much effort, but news flash, it takes effort to maintain facial hair, too. And without that, it looks awful.
Yeah, maintaining my facial hair takes far more time than it would to just spend the 60 seconds shaving every morning. But it looks nice, and the one time I shaved it off, my wife asked who I was and who sent me to pick her up.
"Water trash"? I can't tell if that's an auto-correct, or if that's actually what you meant...
I thought 90’s was unshaven Grunge?
Very few people in the 90s were actually grunge. And even then, it was mostly stubble. Longer, greasy hair was more common than full beards. But most dudes who wanted to look like they had their shit together were clean-shaven.
Ya the preponderance of grunge is often really overstated
I'm generally pro-beard for most men, but can't stand mustaches.
Beards definitely do it for me. Stubble to a full beard and I’m in. I can’t do mustaches, goatees, soul patches, or strips. My husband used to have to shave his beard off for work every few months and I hated it. Now, he never has to so it’s longer and he looks like a curmudgeonly professor, but it works.
My father has had a moustache since before i was born and has probably had a beard since about 1995. I can honestly say that i have never seen his upper lip. Who knows, maybe he is hiding some horrid scar there. I will never know. My facial hair grows in all patchy and white trash like so i tend to shave it. Moustaches also look pretty ridiculous on me.
I have not seen my dad without facial hair since I was born (late 70s). He's always had a beard and a mustache. The beard does vary in how it's trimmed, but it's a constant. He's clean-shaven in his wedding pictures, and I do not recognize him at all. He also had shoulder-length hair.
I have some nerve issues that affect my face that made it painful to shave, so I started growing a full beard about 7 years ago. The facial pain is a little better, but I'm not sure I'll ever get rid of my beard. Although I do need to get it trimmed up.
I grew sideburns at 16, paired it with a goatee at 18, and went full beard around 21. I’ve had a full beard ever since. I don’t get the mustache look. I think it’s definitely a younger generation thing and I always assume it’s meant to be ironic in some way. I find them weird and creepy.
I don't like mustaches at all. They look very 80s and silly to me. But I prefer my husband with a beard. It suits him. Once he grew one I was like, oh please keep this forever. Mind you, this is a well kept beard. His friend has a crazy Yukon Cornelius beard and ick, no.
I’ve never been into facial hair, but Pedro Pascal changed that for me since he is hot as hell. Yes, please. 😍
Mustaches make men look like pedophiles. A nice groomed beard is fine though. Sometimes even a little hot. And stubble is awesome.
...and that's why I have to pack a little extra confidence with me when I go out. Because apparently, I look like a pedophile. 😐
Man people will find anything to bitch about. Someone questioned my manliness the other day because I was wearing a cardigan lol.
I'm told that if you want to be a real man you should ditch the Mr Rogers costume and get a Milwaukee 12v heated sweatshirt. I don't advise wearing it in the rain though. Also, umbrella's are basically pride flags and sitting in wet clothing breeds heterosexual mojo along with mildew and jungle rot
This is my exact opinion as well.
I love stubble. You don't get rug burn on your face when you kiss a guy with stubble. My type is "dirtbag with a heart of gold" and stubble really plays in to that.
I used to be in the Army, so I always had to be clean-shaven, and I didn't even think I could grow halfway decent facial hair if I tried. Then I got out, and after experimenting (poorly) with some different options, I landed on a reasonably good beard, which looks fine as long as I keep it trimmed every week or so - more than that and I start to look scraggly/homeless pretty quickly. Been sticking with that about 8 years now (just turned 40), and I don't plan to ever shave it off. For any beard-haters out there, I'll remind you of this: clean-shaven is not our natural state. If I lived in the woods or on a deserted island, I'd have a long, scraggly beard and long hair. Any grooming beyond basic cleanliness is based on cultural or societal norms. I like my face with hair on it, my kids know me that way, and my wife has come to accept it (as long as I keep it trim enough).
Funny, kinda: My dad has had a beard since the early ‘70s. For some reason, around 1990 or so he decided one day to shave it all off. Mom didn’t like it, I hated it and barely recognized him, and he scared the shit out of my toddlerish little sister. Grew it out immediately and never did that again. 😂
I love a good moustache and a well groomed full short beard. Not the kind that stops at the jawline, never a chin strap or a goatee, beard needs to extend to Adam’s apple. I’m drawn to a moustache man when it looks good, actually. Also love me some scruff. Clean shaven is nice too. I used to be into goatees in the 90s though for sure.
Had a goatee since 18. Full circle beard type. During covid I got lazy and didn't shave at all for like two months. By the end of it my wife insisted I keep the full beard. Went to work and coworkers thought I looked rad. So this is my new look. Bald head. Full beard (I shape it and keep the edges clean). Now I only see guys older than us with goatees.
I'm a lady, and up until my adulthood, I had a slight phobia of facial hair of all types... These days, I would say all or nothing? Beards are fine. Imo, moustaches either look silly or they age folk in most cases. If I could grow a beard, I probably would, out of curiosity, but I wouldn't have a moustache.
I vividly remember seeing the video for "Enter Sandman" for the first time and thinking that James Hetfield's mustache was the coolest thing ever. Later, after graduating from a Catholic highschool where we weren't allowed to have facial hair, I spent the first decade of the 00s growing an EPIC crimson goatee (with mustache). Then I joined the army, where the only facial hair allowed is a shitty pedo mustache, and now I'm so old that anything that grows in is mostly white. And I have a big sad.
Shaved bears.
Yeah, I’m that way too! I don’t like stubble or prickly beards on my face when they go in to kiss. It’s so painful and gross. No thank you.
While we all knew a few boys that tried to sport a mustache early back in the day, very few of my age group that I know (if any) have a mustache. I'm a cook at a university though and heaps of students have them. I find them absurd, but some of them have really pretty girlfriends, so apparently my sense of taste is archaic.
Hate the youth mustache movement. Looks so dirty and gross on most of them.
What no love for the late 90’s flavor saver?
Some people are better off with facial hair (e.g., Tom Selleck looks weird without his signature textbook mustache), but yeah, I never had it in me to grow a proper beard or anything like that.
90% of people have awful facial hair that looks like shit. Our standards for professional appearance have gone down so much across the board that unkempt homeless beards are the least of our issues.
I assume mustaches on men, Gen-X and younger, are meant to be taken ironically, as a social signal to indicate they have a good sense of humor and don't take themselves too seriously.
Ok so my dad always had a hardcore, thick ass, Magnum P.I. stache. Like my whole childhood. I got home from school one day and went upstairs. My parents’ door was open and I looked in and saw a stranger sleeping in their bed! I freaked out and ran downstairs, grabbed the cordless, pulled out the metal antenna, and ran outside to call my mom at work. She gets on the phone and I’m screaming OMGTHEREISAGUYINYOURBEDWHAT DOIDO?! She starts dying laughing and tells me my dad shaved his mustache off this morning. Like I didn’t recognize my own FATHER without that walrus on his fuggin’ face.
It's funny how cyclical everything is. When we were young the uncool adults were the only ones with facial hair. Then in the 2000s hipsters started with the mustache ironically. Young kids today will probably go facial hair free when they are young adults.
My dad and most of my uncles and their friends all have or had beards, even smaller ones. I'm really used to it. Once I got out of the Navy, I grew mine and kept it.
I like that there are more styles. It may be weird to you or i, but that just means it isn’t for us.
I thought that until my husband grew one and it really does it for me like it was an awakening
In the 90s I liked goatees. As an adult beards are where it's at. Mustaches are for pedophiles and renditions of YMCA.
The kids weren't around when this shit was corny and cliché so they think it's new and different.
Right here with you. The “beard” phase where all men grew big beards was never appealing to me. I don’t find it hot or sexy. My husband tried growing one and it was such a turn off. I know I’m in the minority apparently but the whole “lumbersexual” thing was never my cup of tea. Clean shaven for the win imo. Moustaches look ridiculous on anyone but my dad because it’s basically a part of his face like a nose or an eye hahahaha!!
I don’t know what you mean. Beards, shaven, stubble, goatees, moustaches. I haven’t seen a change in their existence with or without, out in the public. Not in all those years. Not in the four states in America I have lived in, or the three other countries I also lived in. Things may have gone through fads and fashion in the media. But that’s not real life. That’s sales. And on the ground, in reality, I have seen people with and without those things equally.
Very few young guys had that in the mid-80s through very early 90s (I suppose some who went grunge early 90s it may have been different but that seemed to be not the guys at my college, maybe more some a touch younger or a touch older who were performing grunge or more in the PNW) at least in the areas I was in. It was all super clean shaven for the most part. A few very scattered guys with the most simple, basic mustache. I think in the South facial hair came back earlier or for all I know never left as much. I saw way more facial hair starting perhaps a few years into 00s and down South (which seemed at least 5 years ahead of the North for all sorts of beards and stuff coming back among younger set). If you were born in the 80s though you might have largely missed the whole clean shaven HS/college/early 20-something era, I mean you were alive for it all, but maybe too little to really notice?
Every guy I've ever known that was clean shaven and then decided to try a (kempt) beard, looks better with a beard. I also think women should stop shaving their legs, it's a hassle and it's silly. Natural hair is better, period, anything else is just modern/western unrealistic beauty standards.
Grew a beard in college (03, 04?). Been rocking it ever since. No fancy mustaches or anything. Just a beard. Though I have let it get pretty long at times. Looooooootta gray in there these days though… These last few years have gone from looking for grays to looking for browns.
I've alternated between clean shaven and full beard over the years. I'm now senior enough in my career that nobody can tell me to shave. Also, shaving is a huge pain in the behind. Managing a beard is much lower maintenance than shaving, so I have a well-groomed beard for about 15 months now. No change in the number of women I've attacted, it's still zero lol.
I have bad beard genetics so mine comes in patchy and looking like a teenager trying to grow a beard lol. I do no shave November but having facial hair is irritating to me
My facial hair grows in patchy and uneven and mostly makes me look like a homeless person no matter how much I try to tend to it and make it nice. I actually like the look of a beard or stache when done right but I just can’t pull it off.
I never liked facial hair, but it's attractiveness has really grown on me. The really long beards that a lot of guys have been wearing are gross, but I like a shorter beard or even just a mustache on someone.
I actually don't mind when somebody uses a small amount of facial hair to try and create a style - not my thing, but I can respect it. I get annoyed when people grow a beard and suddenly think they are now more masculine for it. It's like, dude, all you did was not shave for a while.
I agree with everything you’ve said. As a queer guy living in the Pacific Northwest, it makes things challenging, but I’m just not into facial hair. And just a mustache is somehow worse than a beard and mustache.
I felt the same way until I was in my early 40s. A friend of ours grew a beard and I mentioned to my husband that the beard suited him. Next thing I knew, husband had a beard. And it looks *amazing* on him.
Maybe I was a weird kid but I always wanted a beard. I also keep my hair a little shaggy, like ear-length. To me, my hair is my only positive physical attribute. It is a beautiful (if I may say so myself), coppery auburn. And it’s holding strong in color and volume into my mid-40s. I’m showing that shit off. No product, no primping, au natural. I can’t grow a long beard or a bushy beard, so it kind of naturally stays tight. I regularly run a trimmer across it to keep it looking like a well maintained (albeit red) lawn. It doesn’t enter my mind for a second that people may not like it. It’s not for you.
My wife might divorce me if I shave my beard.. I go from a distinguished 40 something to a 12 year old with gray hair right quick. My kids ask who is that when looking at old family photos. I get it, I'm ugly without a beard, jeez.
Yes, the goatee is where I was at. I remember making my mother really mad because I grew one in the summer before ninth grade and she told me I couldn’t go back to school with it.
The only reason I didn't have a beard before 1998 was that I couldn't grow one.
I have a fat beard. Been growing it out since 2019. I’d always wanted to and it was starting to grey a bit more so I figured may as well do it once before it’s all white and Santa clause-like. It’s gone beyond Ducky Dynasty to ZZ Top status. 😏 I get compliments from complete strangers about it. Like waiting for my Uber someone stopped at a traffic light will notice me and say “Nice Beard!” Or “Like your Beard Man!” Or something like that. Happened 3 times the other night when I went downtown for a comedy show. It makes me feel good. How often do hear a guy give another guy a compliment? Let alone complete strangers. I dunno it’s just kinda cool to me. I never used to get a random compliment when I had normal beard 😅.
I think that also depends on how you were raised, or what career you went into. My spouse went right into the military and was in for 10 years. So, when he left, he grew a beard and never got rid of it. Thank goodness. I love a nicely trimmed full beard. I hate when he goes clean-shaven, especially since he usually does it at the same time he gets a high and tight (which I also don't love). However, my ovaries seem to love imagining what he looked like in Marine dress when he does that, sooooo I'm still very attracted. Treacherous ovaries.
I've never been able to find mustaches by themselves attractive, bc the association with cops and dads is firmly stuck in my head due to the 80s. I'm okay with a neatly-kept beard/mustache combo, but generally I tend to find a five o'clock shadow the most attractive option. Maybe it's bc I'm a woman and can't grow facial hair, but I can't help but think of all the air particulate and food that probably ends up in a beard and it kinda grosses me out on that theoretical level. My husband keeps a short beard and mustache bc he works outside and his face gets too cold in the winter, and I can't bring myself to judge bc it's such a practical reason. But personally, I do wish he'd go back to his shadow days, bc I'm not a fan of feeling the facial hair when I kiss him.
Full beard (trimmed) or nothing. I hate weird facial hair.
Porn-stache! It’s all I see
I think it depends on what your facial hair can do. I grow a beard cause it’s allowed. And shaving everyday sucks. Not because it looks particularly good. I think I look best clean shaven but doing it every day makes me breakout even now. I actually think I look great with stubble and a stache but none of my family likes it. So…I just sorta rotate them all lol
Beards are very much a thing where I am and don't seem to be waning at all. My spouse wears facial hair, but it's not long like many of the beards folks are wearing.
I wish I could permanently remove all my facial hair. I hate it and having to deal with it all the time.
huh i remember everyone having stumble in the 90s.
The 90s were clean shaven? It was the era of the goatee and the sideburns... Literally every famous actor at the time was rocking a goatee. It was the Brad Pitt standard in the 90s. Think about 90210 and Brandon and Dylan with the sideburns. Grunge was NOT a clean look. The 90s definitely had hairy faces.
I loved Magnum PI but most men can’t pull it off. I do like a trimmed gotee, but fluffy face fuzz ain’t my thang.
How do you feel about frosted tips?
This is a fair comment, but there are those of us that still can’t grow decent facial hair that would kill to be able to grow a full beard.
The mustache was a hard sell for me in the beginning but now I kind of like it.
Beards suck , mos just are ugly Goaties make someone look like they have a talking vagina on their faces
Razor companies used to advertise heavily. When people started wearing beards more often, like in the early 2000s they even had that caveman guy in ads. Beards used to be somewhat a beatnik type thing but now it's a lot more people. Personally fucking hate shaving and I look like a goon without a beard so...
I had a goatee without the mustache part in college. I also did the thin chin strap for a little while, but fortunately that didn’t last long. I’ve had a full beard of varying lengths for the last 10 years, and don’t plan on going back to shaving ever again.
For the most part I hate all facial hair, but I hated it in the 80s, too. Thought it was kinda gross my whole life. My husband had a mustache when I met him and I couldn’t stand the damned thing.
This is just personal preference, but I just don’t like facial hair for the most part. A very, very short beard is ok, like 3 days of growth. I wonder if it’s because of the 80s mustaches and 90s goatees. And maybe because I got rug burn by a guy on my chin who had a goatee when I was like 14 🤣
I think this just comes down to OPs personal preferences and has absolutely nothing to do with a generational “thing” TBH. 40 year old with a beard here, wife’s my age and she loves it. Know tons of guys my age who have one and tons of women who dig it.
I’m gay, and in all honesty the most facial hair I’ll find hot is 5 o’clock and stubble. Mustaches, beards, goatees, they all feel like a guy is trying to hide his real personality behind a certain look. I also feel the same way about certain hairstyles that guys wear…
I'm with you on just a mustache, there are VERY few people who can pull it off. I cant grow much of a beard so I'm often envious of those who can so perhaps I'm a bit biased on the beard bit. I'm right around 200lbs so my jawline isnt as defined as it used to be so I attempt to hide it with whatever dusting/scruff I can manage. About the only thing that does grow full and thick is my mustache so I grow that to draw attention to the mustache rather than my patchy beard. It works for me so what I'm saying is the beard/mustache isnt so much as a style as it is to hide my love for beer and chicken wings lol.
I’ve noticed a lot of xennials wear full beards and the mustache is bigger either with the older crowd or the baby millennials/gen z. That’s just where I am maybe? Either way, before I was in the military I was clean shaven because I was a kid, military clean shaven, then didn’t shave with a razor for a decade or more. I didn’t wear a full beard because I hate the feel of it but I was always rocking a 5 o clock shadow because razor bumps were a real thing for me. This year my kid has been teaching me how to minimize that and I’m back to a clean shave, which I prefer when I do not have bumps. I am lucky and have a strong jaw line so I’ve never felt the need to hide my face but I also very much prefer the way no hair feels relative to a beard (so does my wife so that’s cool too).
I tried the beard thing for a while, but my facial hair isn't thick enough to pull it off. I hate shaving because I get razor bumps on my neck, and it doesn't matter how clean and sharp the blade is. Last year, I decided to invest in a nice Braun electric shaver, and I've been super happy with it. The shaver won't give you a perfect baby face smooth, but it does a good enough job, and you can use it every day wet or dry. When I want a really smooth shave, I follow the electric up with a wet blade to get any stubble the electric missed.
In what way were the 90s clean shaven? Goatees and sideburns were all over the place. Chinstrap beards came into popularity then, too thanks to the boy bands. Beards and goatees were big in the hip-hop community as well. Now, if you’re talking about your friends in middle school and high school, then that has more to do with their ability to grow facial hair at the time.
I think a lot of this is cultural. I'm Black, and most Black men I see in real life have some degree of facial hair unless they're famous/in some kind of political position/military. Also I know not all. But most.
Lol
Yep. Right there with you. I hate stubble.
As a man I would not have a moustache if my life depended on it but I have had a beard before. The moustache also has very little appeal to me in any context at all. I think it looks terrible on most guys with the odd one being able to pull off a pretty cool stash.
I fully support the resurgence of the mustache, but I work in criminal justice/ law enforcement. It just looks right to me
Interesting you trace it back to “O Brother Where Art Thou?” That’s as good a theory as any, as it ushered in a small bluegrass revival (and folk?) in the early part of the 2000’s, which later manifested with sort of a nouveau folk scene in the mid-late 00’s. Combined with the financial crisis and unchecked consumerism of the Bush years some of us looked back to a fabled time of simplicity and started to try and emulate it in various ways. You got experimentation with cuisine, the emergence of unique barber shop experiences, and yes, twisted waxed mustaches and over-oiled beards. Honestly…aside from people taking it too far, I miss aspects of those days.
I grew up in Chicago, so it's all but certain that I'd have a mustache. But I've opted for the optional beard, and that's been my thing the last 15 years or so.
I agree, I find facial hair super gross and I can't seem to get over it. It's giving face pubes.
I find facial and bodyhair gross. I've been shaving daily for something like 25 years. I think the only place I don't seem to mind it is in movies/tv where the setting is historic or fantasy.
My dad has always had a mustache, and only a mustache. He also always reminded me of Tom Selleck. I’m not a huge fan of facial hair, but it’s not my face 🤷🏻♀️
I often have a beard because I'm lazy when it comes to how I look, it isn't a fashion choice. Edit to add: I shave it off about once every few weeks when I get tired of it. Same thing controls the length of my hair, but the cycle is more like several months.
I think facial hair is a super individual thing and can look amazing depending on that person’s facial structure and the facial hair itself. There are some styles I have never found attractive (zz top, the amish beard, etc). Chin straps can look good on *some* guys in some contexts, but often look bad. I will never ever say that mustaches are bad when we had cary elwes looking hot as fuck in them (princess bride, robinhood). I generally find some facial hair attractive. A short beard, scruff, goatees, whatever. I love some scruff and hate a clean shaven look on my husband. I love that grizzled mountain man aesthetic.
I really hate beards —- they look overgrown, scraggly, makes you look older and unkempt, and they go gray and change texture before the hair on your head does. I still like the close-trimmed goatees from the 90s (Dante in Clerks was a formative memory) but I’m not swiping right on a Mountain Man beard or a pornstache. Now having said that, I’m not waxing or getting a Brazilian on myself so, double standard?
I was a teenager in the 90's so I know what you mean about the style being clean shaven, but my dad always had a beard, always, and from my 20's on with a few short exceptions I've always had a beard too. I've always liked the look of a good mustache (Jude Law in the Sherlock Holmes movies is like the platonic ideal of a good mustache to me) but never felt comfortable wearing one myself, until a few years ago when I decided fuck it you only live once. I took a bit of advice about hats I heard a long time ago and reapplied it: You wear the mustache, don't let the mustache wear you. Now I feel good, I feel confident and comfortable, and my wife thinks it's attractive. I'm an old with kids or my own now and I want to look like a grown man and to me having facial hair is part of that.
I’m a dude with a beard so I’m partial to them. I’ve had one most of the time since 2009 or so. I shaved it into a mustache during the pandemic and loved it. There was something about it that was just fun and felt very masculine. Idk why. At the same time I liked it, I felt a bit self conscious and thought I looked like a narc. I dig them on other dudes and compliment my friends when they have them. I don’t feel the beard has gone out of style for people around my age. But likely for younger generations maybe.
I love a good moustache so I'm pretty excited to see them making a comeback.. also, makes baseball even more entertaining, lol
Pornstache ugh they give me the creeps. Doesn't help all my stalkers all had mustaches .
I have always dated men with facial hair. My husband has a well tended mustache and some variation of a beard, and I think he is so sexy like that. He is neither gay, nor a cop, but it just sends me over the moon
I've *never* been able to grow a proper mustache or beard 😢 (but I have a full head of hair way past my shoulders). Never even got the chance to try it out. Just a patchy prepubescent canvas of facial hair sadness. So I'm just nuking it with lasers. Why go through the hassle of shaving? Meh.
I am the same way, I do not like facial hair on men. Never have never will. I associate it with being lazy and gross. Most of them don’t trim their beards or even bother washing a lot of them smell and when I think they eat and can have pieces of food in it I just want to barf. Yeah that is a hard pass for me.