Men’s facial hair has had a very interesting past. Doing some quick research among the interwebs reveals that beards have been celebrated, hated, used as a means of both protest and supposed wisdom. Beards have been outlawed, ordered, used in combat and worn by everyone from slaves to kings. Throughout history we have seen some awesome beards worn by a variety of different men from different eras. Here are some of our favorites:
General Ambrose Everett Burnside
Walt Whitman
Secretary Stanton of the Lincoln Presidency
Wolf River Bob
In recent years, the beard has seen a resurgence of popularity. More celebraties are seen rocking awesome facial hair men all over the country are reclaiming the manliness that mother nature blessed them with.
While watching the Oscars this year, you may have seen Sir Bradley Cooper proudly displaying his magnificent mustache. If not, enjoy…
And of course, who doesn’t love the classic Hulk Hogan look:
Here at Modern Vintage Man, we are proud of our facial hair and have both been sporting some style of beard or mustache for quite some time. We decided it would be great for us to team up and share our experiences with facial hair and perhaps spur on other men to embrace the facial hair God has given them. Of course there are some men who, due to genetics, are basically unable to grow facial hair. If you fall into this category, may we direct you to some interesting products for you.
Tim:
You could say that I was a “late bloomer” in the facial hair realm. My father has always been able to rock an awesome beard, but alas, throughout high school I found myself completely unable to grow any sort of facial hair of note. I couldn’t even attempt to grow anything as it simply wasn’t there. I don’t know if this is definitely true or not, but it is interesting to note that the majority of men on my mother’s side of the family are clean shaven and perhaps those genes are what was keeping me from being able to grow any facial hair.
Come my junior year of college, some whisker stubble began to appear on my chin and neck. This lead me to grow my first real facial hair: a “chin strap.” This became a staple of style for me and as my facial hair began to come in more and more, it eventually grew to the full beard which I have now been sporting for about 2 years.
It is surprising how many compliments I get on my beard. I choose to keep it fairly closely trimmed and as clean cut as I can. My wife likes it so much that she has actually forbade me from shaving down to anything less than a goatee, but I find the beard to be the best bet. Other than just helping me look incredibly dashing, my beard also helps cover my “Jay Leno” esque chin that actually lead me to acquiring the nickname “Jay” in high school. I love my beard and see no reason to part with it.
Matt:
I too was a “late bloomer” in the beard category. My little brother was rocking facial hair before I was. I didn’t mind because I had no desire to have any facial hair, if anything shaving was a giant hassle. Luckily, I only had to shave once a week or every other week until college. I started dating my wife when I was 18 and she couldn’t stand facial hair. This was an obvious win-win.
With the amount of time between shaving decreasing and the mount of hair on my face increasing, I felt more compelled to do something with it, but my wife wasn’t having it and I was in a job where I couldn’t get past the awkward “Is he growing a beard or did he forget to shave” phase. I found the perfect way around it with the “vacation beard.”
After a particular busy “vacation beard” I thought it would be humorous if, instead of shaving it all off, I formed it into a goatee just to tease my wife. Thinking I was one step away from last comic standing, I called my wife into the bathroom to check it out. Her response is something the lives on in my household: “Oh…I really like it.” I, being one who never fails to capitalize on a moment, left it and haven’t lost it ever since. I am afraid if I took it off now that my kids wouldn’t be able to recognize me, I would look like I was 15, and people would stop calling me sir.
Why would I want that.
Now what about you? What stories do you have that flow from that magnificent ‘face-carpet’ you are sporting?
