Bearded Glory: The Face of A Man & Big Dicks, Too! (Volume I)

I grew my beard years ago, during the summer before my senior year in high school, at the age of 17.  My dad wore a beard, had done so since his college days, and encouraged me to grow mine as soon as I became physically capable of doing so. When I first began to sprout a few whiskers on my face, at the age of 15 or so, he bought me a razor so I could prevent myself from looking scruffy at school, until such time I could manage to grow a proper beard.  My dad has always been of the opinion that any self-respecting male should have a beard as soon as he was sexually mature enough to grow one. When I showed up at school in the fall with a handsome set of whiskers, I felt proud to be a grown man.  I was one of a very small number of other guys at school my age who had hairy faces, and we shared a smug bond, relishing the full and complete masculinity we had achieved. 

     

Over the next few years, I experimented a bit with varying styles and lengths, before finally settling on a traditional full beard of short/medium length, neatly groomed so that it is not bushy.  I trim my beard with clippers about twice a week, and I let my barber perfect it here and there when I go in for my monthly haircut.  I shave the area of my neck below my beard daily, as well as a few straggly whiskers that grow on my face above my natural beard line.  I believe having a beard is easier and faster to maintain than shaving my entire face every day, and I'm sure it's much less irritating to my skin.  

I have always liked the way my beard looks on me.  It makes me feel manly and sexy.  I find it attracts both the guys and the girls.  I know, of course, some people do not like beards, but based on my own personal experience, as well as repeated professional studies on the subject, there are more people who find beards sexually appealing on men than there are people who do not.  I find that old ladies and some old men are most likely to dislike beards, while younger women and men either like them or at least don’t object to them.  Of course, long before the beard’s triumphant return to the mainstream, beards were popular among many gay men because they bespeak masculinity.  I am grateful to my dad for many reasons, but among those things I appreciate is him always being a role-model for me -- across the board, really -- but certainly regarding the importance of beards to manhood.  I remember my dad always telling me, from the time I became old enough to start growing facial hair, that beards set men apart from boys, women, and girls, and as men, we should respect what nature wants us to have. He sometimes joked that if a man didn't have a beard, he might as well not even have a dick.  I think he was only partly joking, though.     

While a beard is not strictly a “must have” for me to find a guy sexually desirable, I do strongly prefer him to have one.  I have become so accustom to my own beard and to the beards of so many of my friends and of the guys I admire, that when I see a man who is beardless, he looks like he is missing something he should have.  Thankfully, these days, in any crowd of men, so many of the good looking guys have beards that I am unlikely to even really notice the good looking guys who don't.  That's not to say that a man not having a beard repels me or causes me to think ill of him, at least not in a rational way, but he looks incomplete to me.  He looks less than he should be, less than he could be.  Admittedly, I find that diminishment to be, well, if not tragic, at least regrettable.  Kissing a guy without a beard, or at least a moustache, is too much like making out with a girl or a child.  It's weird and distracting.  

A sometimes expressed opinion used to be that having a beard made a man look older, causing some men to reject their facial hair in hopes of presenting a more youthful appearance.  Nowadays, I think the reverse has become true.  Younger men are more likely to have beards, and it’s the older men (generally over 65) who tend to cling to keeping themselves clean-shaven.  True, males before puberty are beardless, and when a guy is still young, having a whisker-free face may help prolong a boyish image, if that image is important to him.  I know a few guys who have that perspective.  Honestly, though, once a man is over 30, I think he needs to give up on trying to preserve a boyish look.  That ship has sailed.  A clean-shaven face does not make a mature man look bad, but in most instances, neither does it make him look appreciably younger.  If a guy is old enough to have gray in his beard, and he doesn’t like it, it’s not that big a deal to cover it.  I know a lot of guys who use beard color to get rid of unwanted gray.  It’s not like dying the hair on your head.  It’s fast and easy.  For a young guy who wants to "man-up" his appearance, while letting his beard grow won't necessarily make him look years older than he is, having whiskers on his face will go a long way in helping him look like a man rather than a boy.    

I have read several articles about the history of beards.  Here is a basic summary.  In some parts of the world, and in some time periods, beards have, or have had, religious and cultural significance.  That is not so much true in western Christian culture; the prevalence of beards is more a simple matter of the current fashion. In east Asia, the part of the world commonly referred to as "the Orient," beards have never been prevalent simply because most men of east Asian ethnic origin physiologically do not grow sufficient amounts of facial hair to be fully bearded.  Throughout all history, most adult males have kept facial hair simply because (1) growing it is a natural part of male maturity; and (2) before modern times with indoor plumbing, hot water on demand, high-tech razors, etc., shaving (and certainly shaving daily) was an inconvenient task.  In Europe and the western world, during the 1700s and first half of the 1800s, being clean-shaven was stylish for men belonging to the patrician or upper classes, as they were the ones who had the means (time, money, servants) to keep up with the grind of frequent shaving. Between about 1850 and 1920, facial hair once again became prominent among men of all social classes.  For instance, during that era, most U.S. presidents, European aristocrats, industry leaders, as well as men from humbler origins, sported facial hair -- usually full beards – with many beards, moustaches, and sideburns being quite long by today’s fashion standards.  After the First World War, with the advent of more modern conveniences, a clean-shaven face became the most widely accepted style for all adult men.  Having no facial hair stayed the norm until the last few years, although the moustache gained a bit of widespread popularity in the late 1970s.  During that time, beards were mainly only found among men subscribing to the “beatnik” culture of the 60’s, bikers, and other groups disfavored by polite society, which largely explains why old ladies and old men today tend to have an aversion to bearded men.  

The main point of this quick trip through history is to realize that the re-emergence of beards being fashionable among men from all walks of life is not a revolution. It is a return to normalcy. 

While our dicks and our balls make us unquestionably male, it is with with our beards that we totally achieve our manhood.  I love men, and I love being a man.  Accordingly, I wouldn't willingly cut off my genitals, and neither would I willingly shave off my beard.  I believe most bearded men feel this way, or at least, they should.    

As is the case with most matters of aesthetics, to each his own, of course.  One is free to groom oneself as one likes and to pursue in others whatever qualities one admires.  Even so, men, if you have not already done so, I encourage you to join the ranks of us who fully embrace being a man and enthusiastically reclaim our beards from the weird beardless decades of the most of the 20th century. Know that your beard is a natural part of being a guy.  Wear it long, wear it of medium length, wear it short.  Just wear it.  Your beard is your time-honored and God-given rite of passage from boyhood to manhood.  Your beard is masculine and virile.  Your beard is sexy as hell. 

This collection is expanded continuously.  I am currently updating the collection in Volume II, as the original collection of photos grew so large over time that the collection became too unwieldy to contain in one posting.    

For even more sexy bearded men, be sure to check out the second volume. 

# The Face of A Man