Pogonotrophy

What a fancy word.  It means “the growing of facial hair.”

With the growing popularity of tattoos and piercings, men are also starting to let their facial hair go.  Beards are coming back, and in a true variety of styles.  (Actually body hair is coming back, and in a variety of styles, which we’ve already covered – chest hair, manscaping, etc.  Beards don’t have anything to do with underwear, it’s true – but checking out a great-looking guy’s face, including his facial hair, is really a turn-on which leads to checking out his underwear waistband.  One thing leads to another.  Always has, always will.)

Culturally associated with wisdom and virility (there’s the underwear connection, again), men have many styles of beards to choose from, including moustaches, goatees, and sideburns.  Whiskers and stubble also contribute to the facial hair fad and FAQ.  And you have to remember, too, that beards can convey a lot more than a man’s masculinity, but his inner thoughts.  (Is he a poet or a psychotic?  A dreamer or a sociopath?)

My favorite styles?

I like full beards, but not “chin curtains” (facial hair which literally hangs from the jawline and chin) or “chinstrap beards” (think Abraham Lincoln).  I like French cut goatees or “circle beards” (these wrap around the mouth and include a moustache, narrow lines along the sides of the mouth and a soul patch, the whole thing being thinly and neatly trimmed).  Depending on a guy’s ethnicity, I also like a face of stubble – there are just some guys that look so hot with a five-o’clock shadow.  Older styles, such as the Fu Manchu, the handlebar, and plain mutton chops (with the single exception of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine) are a complete turn-off, as is a scruffy, plain goatee (hair dangling from a guy’s chin).

My father, raising a family in the sixties, didn’t appreciate facial hair; anyone who had facial hair was a hippie.  But I find it interesting that he was such a fan of Civil War history.  If you’ve ever seen some of those old daguerreotypes, those were the types of moustaches and beards that went all out and were as much a part of the uniform as the guns and swords.  And, of course, there are religions that encourage the growing of beards … Sikhism and the Amish come to mind.

I definitely think of virility when it comes to a guy and his body hair.  Although I manscape, it doesn’t mean that other men have to (or should).  One should know exactly what he’s getting – the full package, as it were.  Once this has been established, you can tweak (or tweeze) as necessary to get the look on him that works for you.  Case in point: Tom has had a moustache and some form of beard in all the time I’ve known him, but he alternates between circle beard and full beard.  I prefer him fully bearded, and now, he’s even growing a longer goatee.  I keep hoping he’ll put a bead in it to give me even more to play with!

What do you think?  Five-o’clock shadow or total midnight?  (Two words: David Beckham.)