Home Features Much Ado About The Beard Trend

Much Ado About The Beard Trend

April 27, 2015

How do you love your beard? The beard trend has always been around, throughout the course of history, societal attitudes toward the male beards have varied widely depending on factors such as cultural and religious traditions.In recent times it has become a fashion trend. Some religions have consider a full beard to be essential for all males as part of their principles. Some cultures picture a beard as an emblem of wisdom, strength, sexual prowess and high social status. On a flipside some sect view beards as a trait of poor hygiene. News flash! Beards are in right now, the trend is popular among dapper men. With the invent of instagram we see lots of fine men embracing the trend. They coined the name ‘beard gang’

Why do men like to keep their beards? “Some men out there have beard because their grandfathers and fathers had beards—and that’s the idea of tradition and masculinity for them,” explainsBrett David, creative director of whiskey and beard-themed bar Rochelle’s in New York’s Lower East Side. “Others have a beard because someone told them to grow it.”

A study published in Biology Letters in April 2014 concluded that:

“Attractiveness ratings for styles of facial hair changed in response to their frequency. When beards were rare, hirsute faces were more attractive than when beards were common, and beards achieved intermediate attractiveness in the even treatment. Conversely, when clean-shaven faces were rare, clean-shaven faces and light stubble enjoyed their greatest attractiveness, and beards became less attractive. There was not an inversion of preferences, such as clean-shaven faces becoming more attractive than beards when rare and clean-shaven faces were rated lowest in all treatments. However, the mean attractiveness of a suite of faces is altered by the frequency of beards.”

In the 2005 two filmmakers invited 6 men across America to join them in an expriment. They would stop shaving for six months. No trimming allowed. Each was provided a video camera and weekly interview questions to document his own experience. Throughout the process, the men told stories from their pasts, shared likes and dislikes, and confessed personal fears and aspirations. They laughed and cried, hid and came alive behind their beards. The tireless taping captured bad days and good ones, and it is in this framework that the individual stories stand out and the beards fade into the background. From a son dealing with his father’s descent into Alzheimer’s, to financial and marital struggles, to the birth of a child, THE WINTER OF THE BEARD reveals the trials and tribulations of what it means to drastically alter one’s appearance and otherwise go on living life