Thread: Why are beards having a resurgence?

Originally Posted by ChrisL

Why now? We're at a time where globally masculinity, it seems, is downplayed, discouraged and even disdained by an emasculated culture. The bushy beard thing seems to be out of step with the direction of society.Thoughts?

This could be some of it, along with the hipsters, the sports teams and the Duck guys (although there are older pics of 'em all clean-shaven and looking like raging preppies). In the younger generation of fly-fisherman, I see a lot of 'em in the bro culture of that segment of the sport. But yeah, fashions come and go. I myself had a full beard for many years, until I started straight shaving.

Originally Posted by Mcbladescar

Blame it on the Duckmen

You know those guys were average joes til they got that show. If you google old images you see that it's just one giant marketing scheme. As for the beards I also subscribe to the hipster theory. Funny enough I read an article about beards and hipsters today. To summarize if you have a beard you better at least own a hammer and know how to use it.

P.s. I just now read the post above me... Crud I should have completed the threaded sorry.

Reason number 1: they do not know how to shave properly and for them, shaving is just PITA (not like "us")

Many years ago, I grew a beard to look older, now I shave to look younger, no resurgence goin on here.

Originally Posted by Mcbladescar

Blame it on the Duckmen

Seriously, do you think a single person gets inspired by looking at those...characters?
What is the world coming to?

I suppose the answer to why beards are in vogue somewhat these days are based on a number of reasons.

TV and movies (although hopefully not those neanderthals mentioned above)
Lazyness
Lack of skills to do it comfortably
The almighty fear of not being unique
And a few others that are not suited for a family oriented shaving forum

And I can't wait for the day when I get to grow back my mullet, wear sailing shoes without socks in 'em and yet again put on a jacket with those sorely missed shoulder pads

Moustache ....... the only way to go ! Sam Elliot and Tom Selleck can't be wrong. Just sayin.

I will also say however,that when I did have a beard,I was a bit fond of the shortcropped Amish style sans moustache.

Originally Posted by Birnando

Seriously, do you think a single person gets inspired by looking at those...characters?
What is the world coming to?

Walking through US department stores I have lost count of Duck branded/licensed gear. Somebody is inspired - lowest common deominator thing, I expect, given the tranparency of the schtick.

Originally Posted by Birnando

The almighty fear of not being unique

I think we have a winner! There is nothing like the desire to be unique....so much so that everyone ends up doing the same thing to accomplish that goal. Its like the tattoo craze. No offense to anyone here that has some ink but I've seen some truly terrible ones. I can't imagine the guy that got the Guns and Roses tattoo back in the day is still happy with his choice. So many of them are so uninspired, so off the cuff, so mundane that I can't imaging having dedicated a square of flesh toward that end. But it seems that having one is more important that what it actually is. Again, many of them look so forced that they can't be anything but a need to be unique...even if its for the wrong reasons. Now if you really want to look unique, you'd be better off not getting one.

Way off topic but,since you brought up tatoos here's food for thought. Imagine in about 30-40 years ,all the old ladies who will have tramp stamps. Oh yeah....it's gonna be interesting for sure.