Schick Razors Goes Anti-Beard

Schick has launched a "free your skin" campaign meant to convince hipsters to ditch their beards. Because beards look like rodents. Or something.

We've Reached Peak Beard Frequency

According to an Australian study, we've reached peak beard frequency and the style pendulum will now swing back to clean shaven mugs.

"Big thick beards are back with an absolute vengeance and so we thought underlying this fashion, one of the dynamics that might be important is this idea of negative frequency dependence," said Prof Rob Brooks, one of the study's authors. "The idea is that perhaps people start copying the George Clooneys and the Joaquin Phoenixs and start wearing those beards, but then when more and more people get onto the bandwagon the value of being on the bandwagon diminishes, so that might be why we've hit 'peak beard'." "Peak beard" was the climax of the trend for beards in professions not naturally associated with a bristly chin - bankers, film stars, and even footballers began sporting facial hair.

Bears will ignore the pendulum, of course. (Tipped by JMG reader Ray)

Beard Font

The font's name is Alphabeard. (Tipped by JMG reader Dr. Jeff)

Beards, Baseball, Boston

"There’s no point to a trimmed and well-groomed beard, which resembles exactly the sort of suburban lawn that often led to the growing of the beard in the first place. (That’s why my hero among this year’s pennant-winning crop is Mike Napoli, whose dense and colorful beard is as gonzo as his all-or-nothing, free-swinging style at the plate.) One of the beauties of the beard is that its lushness is polysemic, lending itself to an interpretive exuberance to match its flow.

"A beard is a celebration of nature that brings appearance closer to that of untamed human animals—a Rousseau-esque gesture that was crucial to the age of Aquarius, a time when long-established norms of behavior collapsed and made public life a clearer expression of formerly unspeakable private desires. By contrast, the shaven and crew-cut athlete suggests a martial fury that is joyless—a grim, self-denying efficiency that may work in war but is exactly the opposite of the essence of baseball, which, for all its competitive ardor, is playtime." - New Yorker columnist Richard Brody, writing about the world champion Boston Red Sox.

Fight Pogonophobia! NOH8!

At The Beard & Mustache Championships

Sully Bait

Mustache Transplants Offered In Turkey

If your facial scruff grows in a sparse or unsatisfactory pattern, you might consider a trip to Turkey, which is seeing an increase in medical tourism from men seeking mustache transplants.

The procedure uses a technique called follicle-hair extraction, in which doctors remove clusters of hair from the more hirsute areas of the body and implant them along the lip or cheeks to magnify a mustache or beef-up a beard. Performed under local anesthetic, the surgery takes around five hours and can cost up to $5,000, cosmetic surgeons say. Tourism agencies have begun offering "transplant packages" combining facial-hair operations with a shopping vacation in Istanbul or beachside retreat on the Mediterranean coast.

The mustachioed and bearded stars of Turkish soap operas—wildly popular across the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans—have helped repopularize facial hair as a symbol of virility and machismo. Surgeons say many patients request the full-bodied mustache worn by Turkish singer Ibrahim Tatlises, which has long set the standard for top-drawer whiskers. Another popular style is the stubble beard worn by Turkish TV show heartthrob and model Kivanç Tatlitug, surgeons say.

(Tipped by JMG reader Kevin)

Stubble Makes You Sexier

Heavy stubble, that is. According to one study.

Men may now think twice about reaching for a razor. A new study shows that facial hair says a lot about a man and that attractiveness peaks at the "heavy stubble" phase. Researchers photographed 10 men at four stages of beard growth: clean shaven, 5-day "light" stubble, 10-day "heavy" stubble (shown), and fully bearded. Three hundred and fifty-one women and 177 heterosexual men viewed the photos and rated each face for attractiveness, masculinity, health, and parenting ability. Women ranked heavily stubbled faces as the most attractive. Participants said that the clean-shaven men looked about as healthy and attractive as those with a full beard, but rated the bearded men higher for perceived parenting skills. Light stubble got the short end of the stick, garnering low scores across the board from both men and women.

(Tipped by JMG reader Nicholas)

PAC For Bearded Pols Launches

A political action committee was launched today to support candidates with beards.  The group has already filed with the FEC. Andrew Sullivan will be thrilled.

The Bearded Entrepreneurs for the Advancement of a Responsible Democracy (BEARD) was founded by 30-year-old Jonathan Sessions, who sits on the Columbia, Mo., Board of Education, according to his website. “With the resurgence of beards in popular culture and among today’s younger generation, we believe the time is now to bring facial hair back into politics,” Sessions said in a statement.

Sessions notes that the last bearded major party candidate to run for president was back in 1916. And that guy lost. The last bearded man to win the presidency was Benjamin Harrison in 1888. (Tipped by JMG reader Gustav)

Sexy Beards Photo Shoot

(Via Towleroad)

Evening View - Terry & Sean

Longtime JMG reader Terry (right) brought his gay-married husband Sean out to Island House tonight. You can view Sean's artwork at Key West's Stone Soup Gallery.

The Rise And Fall Of The Goatee

See What A Mo Can Do

JMG reader Bill is amused by the tagline and image for this year's prostate cancer campaign.

365 Days Of Beard

Via Towleroad we get this day-by-day clip of some dude growing his beard. And then he shaves it off. Pity.

Saturday: NYC Beard Championships

While I have not yet shaved in 2009, I will not compete. I've never really had a "full" beard before, always done the #1 or #2 crop. Gotta learn how to do the "shaping" thing.

Beard Song

I thought this was too silly for the blog yesterday, but this morning I found myself singing "beard and soup, beards and soup, they don't go together, beards and soup." What's that bit at the end about "beards and man dates"? Apparently they do go together.

The Evolution Of Face Fur

Via Boing Boing. Embiggen to find your style name. I prefer the Grizzled and am least fond of the Waddler.

(Tipped by JMG reader Scott)