should i grow a beard?

i like the idea of having a beard a lot more than actually having one

Do they itch?

I always wondered if that beard-scritching thing that boys while thinking do is an affectation, or if they do actually itch.

if you use a shampoo & conditioner it helps the itching. the itchiest part is like weeks 2-4 imo

i grow a beard every few months, but i've never had a really long one. next time i'm single, maybe. i can grow a respectable 'short' beard in a week.

So it's like any other kinda hair - itches when it's new, but settles in after a few weeks.

Damnm, I want a beard.

And I don't want to have to get a boyfriend to experience beard fun. I want one of mine own.

have never had itch from a beard but like to scratch anyway, is a comfort thing rilly

THIS IS THE MOST TERRIFYING THING I'VE EVER SEEN.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2730/4115270731_1c957e1e1d_o.jpg

Maybe I should get a sex change. I'm *much* better looking as a man than I am as a woman.

come to mommy

That *really* disturbs me. But the more I thought about it, the more it made me laugh, which only made me look like him *more*. :-O

just some fyi to you young beardos, when yr gray beard hairs start coming in they will be wirier than regular beard hairs and they won't go in the same direction

i just did some shaping and i fear it was premature

yea premature shaping can totally ruin a beard imo

can make it look a little douchey

tho hoos i'm sure you don't look like a douche

huh i always thing its good to shape early and then let nature work with the seams

i shaved my beard, but it looked terrible, so i grew it back. i am now thinking of shaping it so that it's shorter on the sides but long from the chin. i am not exactly sure how this is done.

this is kinda how i went when i was sporting a beard (that i think i'm ready to grow back). i kept it a little longer around the 'stache & chin than the sides. i'm cheap and used scissors (very carefully), but i suppose the multiple settings of decent beard trimmer could be employed.

just some fyi to you young beardos, when yr gray beard hairs start coming in they will be wirier than regular beard hairs and they won't go in the same direction

Last month, I grew a three-week beard for the first time in a few years and was amazed at how gray my chin was. Not terribly surprised, because I can tell from the stubble, but it was still fascinating.

I wear mine like this:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2761/4120784568_66559f316e_m.jpg

I shave around it every day to keep the shape, and trimmed once a week to keep the length close. If I had a more casual work environment, I would just go for this:

http://blogs.phillynews.com/inquirer/inthemix/9189160-9189164-slarge.jpg

after 3 weeks, v disappointing. i look like someone covered my neck and jaw in pritt stick and dipped me in hair.

Hey look, it's me.

i swear i'm going to shave this summer. i swear this often. it's been eight years, i was a teenager when i was last clean-shaven. i can't escape.

i did that a while ago. it was pretty good (i was super scared to do it before for pretty deeply ingrained slightly Samsonesque neurotic reasons)! i have a small mouth, i'd forgotten.

at this point i refuse to do it because of the nightmarish thought of a week of ppl i know being like "OH MY GAAAWWWWD! you SHAVED!"

my beard is the longest it's been in awhile. i like it (and my hair) trimmed close usually but i'm enjoying being a hairy mess for a change

i bought a comb

you know it's long when combing it makes it look better.

i shaved mine recently, after 6 months of being pirate-level. i look like a child.

I haven't shaved in a while. Normally I'm clean shaven. Sometimes I forget - especially at the moment since there's no proper mirror in my house and I tend to shower at work. For a while I just look halfway between a stud and a slob and then a tramp depending on the angle and what I'm wearing. Then I shave and my top lip goes all fat and weird.

I grew a beard through last winter after I did Movember. I'm planning on doing the same this year - I enjoyed it, and got an awful lot of compliments.

how do people maintain a beard at regular length? I grow one and then I have to shave it all off...

you trim it

that way you can regulate the length

imagine, if you will, that the beard is say, a hedge in someone's garden. as the hedge grows, the owner uses a hedge-cutting device to remove the unwieldy branches that sprout ever higher.

now imagine that that hedge is on your face, the branches the hair that grows there, and you the hedge owner. in place of a hedge-cutting device you have another device, let's call it a facial hair trimming machine. you apply to this to your face, as the hedge owner the hedge-cutting device to the hedge, and shape or "trim" away the excess hair.

thanks LG. Very helpful. But my razor cuts to zero and so does my electric. do you have to buy a whole new thing?

Yes, you do. You can buy a specifically-designed beard-trimmer from Boots or Amazon etc etc etc for anywhere between £20 and £100.

Or probably a diamond-encrusted one from harrods for £2000.

buy a beard trimmer and you'll prob only need to buy one pack of disposable razors a year, unless you need to be cueball shaved on the reg.

cool. my world has been changed!

haha, I know that was a pretty dumb question but other than the 3 months when I jsut didn't shave, I've always been completely clean-shaven and it never struck me that beard trimmers existed!

I clean-shave once a week, generally on a Monday, unles I've got an important meeting or something later in the week, when I might shave again. That's less often these days - I deal much more with academics and students these days, and they're seldom clean-shaven.

^ Broken Britain

The answer to this question is always yes.

i always lose my enthusiasm for this look at about 8 weeks. which is now.

hi beardos, i have an embarrassing issue so i'm going to state it publicly and ask for advice because it's 2014.

i'm trying to grow this beard thing. first time. it started off looking like a really bad teenbeard, as i knew it would, but after a few weeks it filled in a little. things are ok. oh yeah, except for one thing:

it doesn't grow up at the top, starting at about an inch beneath my ears. there's a gap. it's embarrassing. people are asking me if i'm doing it on purpose. what a fucking disaster.

what should i do? is this is a sign from above? do i just keep waiting? do i fake it and do some sort of blended thing where i trim it so that it gradually fades in? do i ditch the teenbeard and just go with the mustache alone? give it another 15 years and try again? wtf is wrong with me?

When I was younger, I had that problem. As I got older, hair started growing in that little area between sideburn and beard and has done so ever since. I don't know how much that had to do with shaving and how much that had to do with just biological aging or what.

Just keep waiting. It will come. Unless it doesn't. Then I don't know what to do with you.

It took until my 30s for the mustache to come in. It's not the thick, luscious Selleck like mustache I desire, but it suffices.

visual representation of the problem:

http://i.imgur.com/DJhb2jG.jpg

Oh dear, that's much more severe a hair deficit than I had ever suffered, but my brother was sort of in your boat and his finally started coming in after he turned 32 or so.

this morning's division meeting took an excruciating turn when someone mentioned the gap, and then someone else said something about it looking like abe lincoln, and then someone else who felt sorry for me tried to make me feel better by reminding everyone that abe lincoln was a great president

i mean seriously, should i just shave off this monstrosity, deal with a few more days of awkward comments at work about how it's not there any more, and move on with my life?