should i grow a beard?

Shave it. Shave it all

i felt your advice waves enter my mind before you even projected them, and carried out the task

i think you have to go past the point you would feel comfortable with elsewhere on your face, until everything you need bearded is bearded

then trim the rest to suit

and never shave it again

that's how to do it

then other men will know that you are a patient man who can be relied upon when things are really important (e.g. growing beards)

So is growing a beard really a painstakingly slow process for some men?

i had completely forgotten about my abandoned factory/bustling courtyard dilemma until this thread, unlike the hair that hypothetically would grow near my upperjaws, popped up

it is a very uneven process for me. I could have a very full midwestern goatee very quickly, but everything else is pretty sparse.

Mine seems to have reached a peak where it won't grow much further. It's okay though.

Just keep trying guys.

i tried growing a beard a while ago and got the same factory floor problem. i can grow a pretty legit mustache, though, but it makes me look like I'm trying out a Sgt. Peppers costume for Halloween. i've just resigned myself to no facial hair at all.

Don't think I can shave again in case this happens:

http://www.webburgr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/shave-beard-001.jpg

(with thanks to pfunkboy)

You know, there may be a point in your life where looking younger, one might even say "boyish," will be feature not bug.

haha, it's the next day after shaving though - it takes your face a while to recover and until then you get this weird puffy top lip and your face looks like a marshmallow.

So glad my current bf can't grow a not-laughable beard and I will never have to have this conversation with him.

this arbitrary thing about my body gives me points in the man club scam, yaaaay

i am never growing a beard

you should grow a beard

Grow a beard.

Stop hiding behind that beard, it alternately mutes and distorts your facial expressions

existential beard problems.

why does the beard exist? what is the purpose of the beard? can one truly be fulfilled by achieving the perfect beard?

that cartoon is v accurate to my experience, was surprising to shave for the first time in eight years and be faced with the me of eight years ago.

shaved mine this morning (not because of this thread)

People with beards should be put to death

yeah that cartoon way otm. just cut mine off for the first time in a couple years cuz i'm in a play and it took me from like 35 to 18. (i am neither of these ages.)

I've grown mine into a corner, it's become too thick that I don't know how to extend length without it getting out of control. I guess the trick is to trim the sides and let it grow off thin jawline?

yeah i never mastered the late stage.

(it is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine a change to my beard)

yea having a well-kept, maintained, long beard is a challenge. i find it easier to just keep a very short beard that is trimmed to stubble once a month or so. mine is super-thick, dark and curly and it gets unruly pretty fast.

thank god i stopped shaving a few years ago, my life improved dramatically. shaving was fucking miserable, especially w/ the beard my genes gave me. my skin is so much healthier now.

the lengths i went to try to get a smooth, comfortable, and irritation-free shave were painstaking, and i would never even call even the best shaves i had "comfortable"

Shaving is the worst. It's a never ending battle.

plus the money i spent on expensive, garbage razors from gillette. i bought a fancy german double-edge razor that you use with actual razor blades but i never managed to master it enough to get a good shave.

i don't even shape my beard any more, just trim it down with a 1/8 inch guard on hair clippers once a month. looks better and i am much happier.

I lose control and shave mine off once a year, and each year I say "I'll not doing that again!" because of how weird I think my face looks without it. I'd love to do a big Rick Rubin/Santa Claus thing when I'm an old man, but I'll have to overcome the hurdle of compulsively keeping it trimmed up.

I'll not *be

seems like shaping a neckline or a cheek line and keeping that maintained is as much work as shaving

haha by "compulsively keeping it trimmed up" I don't mean a whole lot daily maintenance. More like you with the clippers, except maybe once every two weeks instead of once a month.

clippers are the only thing i touch when bearded too. even when i want to shape a lil i just remove the guard and scrape the hair off with the clipper, which i'm not even positive you're supposed to do. actual shaving is such a fuckin production, or at least it would be if i were any good at choosing long-term happiness and painlessness over short-term convenience. when i was a kid my dad told me that shaving cream was a manufactured need (disguising as anticapitalism what in retrospect was probably just "men's grooming products are evil" or possibly "comfort is evil") and that all i had to do was take a hot shower first, and i was in my 20s before i was finally sure that while this may not have been bullshit for his face it was for mine.

not that i remember to buy shaving cream, now.

my trimming method is to every month or so hack away with scissors until it looks okay / doesn't get any shorter. variable results.

the fuckin production that is actual shaving is definitely one of my biggest reasons for being bearded, i have to treat the razor like sandpaper on the particularly gnarled piece of wood that is my face to be actually clean-shaven. or maybe i just don't know how to shave.

I came down with beard dandruff last week for my first time ever in beard ownership. That was an unpleasant surprise. Selsun Blue took care of it just fine, but it came to prominence on a day when I was wearing a black shirt.

My beard is mostly a way to avoid the perpetual chore of shaving, which I despise. That, and it compensates somewhat for the barrenness on the top of my head.

It comes and goes depending on the atmosphere/your skin/whether or not the day ends in a "y". One of the only perks of shaving off the whole beard is that you're finally able to scrub your face directly without whisker interference and it feels WONDERFUL.

a strong breeze is much improved too, unless this feeling is just novelty.

Does it take anyone else like half an hour to 45 mins to shave? It's always been like this. Granted, a lot of that is bathroom cleanup time. Shit goes everywhere.

I will be bearded most of my life.

oh yea, it was always a 45-minute affair. when i did shave i would still only do it twice a week, (say monday & thursday to cover the work week) because 1) i couldn't reasonably commit 45 minutes every morning and 2)my face would be ripped apart and 3) it would never give the facial hair a chance to grow out of my skin. curlier beards are much more prone to ingrown hairs and the more i shaved the more i would get them. i'm so happy not to have to deal with that. i still have my razor in my closet for some reason but i can reasonably say i will never use it again.

It's the summertime, it's too damn hot out even wo a beard.

Seen my dad once w/o a beard and it was WEIRD

brimstead, my dad shaved off his beard when i was about 8 years old. i freaked out and refused to talk to him for about two days.

Somehow my facial hair started coming in much better than it used to, which I thought wasn't supposed to happen. Maybe it's an age thing. Anyway I've wanted to grow one all my life, so it's finally time. I feel a little late to the beard party at this point since it seems like every fucking guy under 40 has had a beard at some point in the last decade, but my plan is just to grow a nice, full but short beard that sticks with the profile of my face rather than adding much mass to it. Kind of psyched for it.

Yeah. It's a nice look. And it minimizes shaving, too!

So recommend be some kind of beard oil/conditioner/softener that isn't ridiculously expensive and overblown

But it opens the possibility of having to explain that you're not a terrorist