Whilst you’re away you start to notice a common theme amongst the men you meet – a beard. The classic image of a weathered traveller now seems to be the image of the seasoned traveller instead. No longer though is it just the big unkempt beard on d
isplay, there is time and attention to these beards despite being miles from home for large periods of time. The big rise in beard trimmers now available means that you tend to find all kinds of facial styling on the go.
But since I got back it seems that this hasn’t just been people away from home rocking new face cuts, but most of my friends. Whilst we’ve always been a hairy bunch I seemed to be noticing the tweaks much more. This blog was pretty much prompted by Callum (@CJKMerriman) rocking up at our local pub sporting the Brandon Flowers.
A standard beard without cheek hair and with the handlebars between chin and tash carefully removed accentuating the moustache. It looked stylish. It also made me start to wonder what everyone else’s beard would class as. Pretty obscure but the more I thought about it the more it made me chuckle.
beard |bi(ə)rd|
noun
1. a growth of hair on the chin and lower cheeks of a man's face
I actually felt pretty dull in all of this as I think I would sport what would simply be referred to as “The Everyday Beard”. No real deliberate attempt at style, but still has good substance. Has a tendency to result in the unkempt look if left for too long, but also has the coverage and flexibility to be shaped into most other styles.
Other wearers of such a beard would probably be Boris (@EveryOlympian), the stylishly dense beard of Josh Bananas (@joshsananes) and when not carefully grooming or just for men-ing it Callum (@CJKMerriman) has a notably Everyday Beard.
The next style that jumped to mind was the Soul Patch, what can only be regarded as an unnecessary patch of hair on the chin. Somewhat similar to the landing strip on women, which is notably located elsewhere.
Brought to local RBZ fame by Humbo (@humbotronn) and known to football fans as the David Villa.
This was later enhanced to the cooler, more suave alternative – the Guy Fawkes. Pointed soul patch with moustache combo, like the V for Vendetta mask.
Although lack of commitment to the Guy Fawkes did lead Humbo to regularly pursue the Chinney, a full chin and moustache combination.
You could probably go on for ages with all this, but the last one Ifelt deserved a heads up was the tramp. A sparce, yet aggressive beard that lacks the capability to fashion it into almost any other commendable style with the exception of a simple moustache. It tends to be the beard of choice for a few people after days worth of growth and no real need or drive to hack it off. Especially popular with Donn (@donnewalks) and on a particularly bad hangover day Pay (@jtvpay).
End.
Suggested Listening: ZZ Top - Gimme Me All Your Loving
