Beards

Paul McCartney looked good with a beard:

I wonder if the results would be significantly different if this survey were taken during a period when facial hair wasn't fashionable/usual?

Grew a beard in the past 4/5 years. Cant see myself ever not having any form of facial hair now.

Have had a short beard for the last few years (going a bit gray now though!), and can't imagine shaving it fully. I close shave my neck every second day, as I dislike hair on that area (gets quite itchy), but use an electric shaver set to a "3" on the facial hair every week or so. It's more of a styled 'designer' stubble I suppose. As people have said here, I think it brings definition to the face by highlighting the jawline - and there's some evolutionary traits at play here which makes one more attractive to women when you do this.

My wife likes it and can't imagine me clean-shaven or worse, with a big wiry rug on my face. Grooming is essential.

Here's the actual study, which as one would expect, is considerably more nuanced than the article implies;

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jeb.12958

It doesn't say that "women don't like clean shaven faces and love bearded ones". As a whole, on average, women will rate a stubbly/bearded face about 25% more attractive than a clean shaven one.

So, sorry lads. Just because you're waving your bellybutton tickler beside a clean-shaven Brad Pitt, doesn't mean the ladies are going to choose you over him.

Worth noting that you need to tweak the facial hair to the face type. They manipulated the faces to appear more stereotypically masculine and feminine and found that the unmanipulated faces were in general more attractive than those which are exceptionally masculine or feminine.

But if you are in possession of such a face, you can improve your look by choosing the facial hair to match. If you have a feminine face (often called baby-faced, or mistaken for a teenager when you shave), then you can benefit the most with heavy stubble or a beard. If you have a very masculine face; strong jawline, etc, then a beard is not for you, go with light-to-heavy stubble.

Apparently on average everyone comes off better with heavy stubble. So it's always worth a look.

Remember though that these are general trends, averages. Just because this says that a certain look is on average more attractive, doesn't mean that it will work for YOU. Give various looks a go, and go with what you think makes you look best. I look best with about 3-4 days growth, about 2/3mm of hair. Beyond that and into heavy growth I just look like I have bad personal hygiene.

completedit wrote: »

It's because he has a soft shapeless 12 year old boys face without it. What an average guy, how the hell was he a teen hearthrob? :O His appeal has aged about as well as Frankenstein.

Are you kidding??





Those eyes are amazing. He was also incredibly charming and charismatic, not to mention a pretty good singer and songwriter.

Sure, that puppy-dog look would be unappealing to some, but in the mid 60s, there was no bigger heart throb. You have to remember that this was 50 - 55 years ago as well, so what makes a "heart throb" now is a little different to then. Look up 70s heart throbs and you'll see what I mean.

Anyway back to beards. Beards are manly.

Road-Hog wrote: »

Each to their own but there a beard has to be one of the most uncomfortable/irritating things imaginable......

If that starts happening to mine, it gets trimmed shorter. That solves that problem. A beard doesn't have to be all-or-nothing, but an electric trim every 10-14 days or so is a lot less work than shaving daily.

mickuhaha wrote: »

And dominant men can get more mating opportunities by intimidating rivals to stand aside.

Beards even help in chess games? Interesting.

I find the common perception that beards are a trend or a fad very amusing. It's not like it's an edgy haircut. It is literally just letting your facial hair grow naturally. And of course it needs to be maintained and shaped and cleaned if you want it to be attractive, you wouldn't let your head hair go wild and free.

At what point in history did being clean shaven transition to being the norm?

Hammer89 wrote: »

It's official, sort of.

Every single woman from a study pool of 8,500 said that they preferred men with facial hair, which is remarkable when you think about it.

The womens were shown pictures of men who were clean shaven, then five days without shaving, then 10 days without shaving, and then four weeks without shaving. According to the study, men with 'heavy stubble' were deemed the most attractive, followed then by men with full beards.

What do the womens of Boards think?

It's just fashion. If the poll was done 10 years ago when nobody had a beard the result would have been the other way around.

Greyfox wrote: »

New gf doesn't like beards.. goodbye having a beard for me

thats a great way to start a relationship. she will be wearing the trousers in that relationship anyway.

Useful.Idiot wrote: »

At what point in history did being clean shaven transition to being the norm?

After WW1 when men came home from living in their own sh1t getting eaten alive by rats under constant shelling from the Germans

They had enough of looking and feeling like tramps so the Beards went immediately