Facial Hair, “Real Men” Stand Up And Be Counted

Facial hair, if you’re into getting deeply serious on the subject, is a secondary sex characteristic in human males. Now what does that means in everyday English you may be asking? What it simply means is that most men will develop facial hair sometime during puberty.

So why didn’t they just say that in the first place?

We all know that women can also develop facial hair, especially after menopause, though typically much less than men. Now we’re not talking about eyebrows and eyelashes of course which are also grown by both sexes of all ages, so there’s none of that “secondary sex” stuff here.

Oh well who really wanted to to get deeply serious anyway.

Okay let’s get down to business. Men, can I ask you a personal question? Are you a “real man?”

Now, you know I’m not talking about one of those retro/cavemen types, who actually still believe it’s girly to use aftershave. I’m talking about a contemporary “real man”, who isn’t afraid to take a bath once in a while, maybe even enjoys smelling nice for their lady and possibly even combs his hair. Heaven forbid! Whether the male gender likes to admit it or not, that whole race of “so-called” manly men, yup, that’s right the ones who never even put on a button down shirt once in a while, or clean their fingernails have actually gone out of style.

Those women that prefer a “real man” of this ilk are certainly few and far between anymore. In fact I don’t think they ever really existed except in the movies. In this modern day and age, women prefer a man who grooms himself regularly and dresses like he’s not living in the mountains or possibly trapping skunks and eating bugs. Believe it or not, women like their men to look nice and they aren’t afraid to admit it. This doesn’t mean they are totally against men that have a little facial hair from time to time.

So no matter what rock you crawled out from under, facial hair is still and always will be a big part of the male grooming regime. Let’s face it, if your a man, you either want it or you don’t. However, these days there are many ways you can groom it.

Next question. Do you have facial hair?

Now, if you’re a woman, I’m certainly not asking this to insult you. As we know in our contemporary western culture, almost all women shave, tweeze or otherwise remove facial hair which does appear in those unwanted places, as there is considerable social stigma associated with facial hair in women. And a woman would never admit to anyone not even me that she actually had any unwanted facial hair ever. Of course in the days of the freak shows and circuses they once displayed (usually fake) bearded women.

But I digress as I was actually addressing the men only.

Okay, so let me rephrase the question. Men have you allowed your facial hair to grow at least in part?

If you take a glance around, facial hair is quite the hit these days. Of course I’m not referring to that scruffy, un-kept beard that looks like it contains the left-overs from last Thanksgiving. I’m talking about the facial hair of the well groomed sexy modern male. Anything from a full beard, to a goatee, to a van-dyke, to a jazz dot is in fashion these days. I hardly see the mustache too often; therefore I’ll leave that one out. Maybe it’s just not in style at the moment.

Anyway, when it comes to grooming the facial dew, men go all out. They will spare no expense. Gosh, do you think maybe they have now gotten as bad as women? Have you seen those crazy beards that basically look like a labyrinth of lines? How long are these dudes spending on a morning shave? I can’t imagine that the up-keep is very simple. How do they ever get out of the bathroom and on to work?

Now, the more popular facial hair trends of today are the van-dyke and the jazz dot. The van-dyke in particular is often confused with the goatee. While a goatee is the mere chin beard, the van-dyke is the mustache and chin beard (Hey, I guess maybe there are some mustaches still out there after all. They just took on a partner.), which is more prominent. Then there’s the jazz dot, which consists of that one small spot of facial hair under the lower lip. This is a simple one to keep up with on a daily basis.

But then there are a few men out there, who still go for the totally unshaven look. For most men, this only takes a few days of staying away from the razor and actually is not the simplest of all to take care of anymore especially if those Thanksgiving leftovers we talked about earlier give you a problem.

But seriously, (That is if I can allow myself to be serious this time.) and contrary to what you may think, a lot of women really do like this full beard look. I’m not among them but oh well, to each her own. The women that like the full beard look say it offers that rugged, yet oh so handsome appeal. Regardless of your facial hair preference, you can find a variety of shaving methods and beard styles to choose from in magazine and even online.

And then again if you truly are a contemporary “real man” you might even want to check out some of the more advanced technology of the lasers and light sources that are rapidly changing hair removal treatment, providing gentle, non-invasive and long-lasting solutions to unwanted hair. They say these treatments can even last for weeks at a time.