I am emphatically not a hipster (no way I’d get into skinny jeans, legs like a rhino) but it seems in my impending middle age I cannot find a razor/soap combo that doesn’t leave me with either a sore or lacerated face. To give my skin a break from 25 years of daily scrapeage.

So it’s been growing a week today, when the hell will it stop looking like I just haven’t been arsed to shave today?

It’s made worse by my professional services job, where I feel like I’ve been seeing clients this week looking like I’ve just escaped a hangover (which is not a good look for a practical teetotaller)!

About 3 weeks for me, then a going over at no4 with my beard trimmer. Changed my hair too this year, now rocking like Jay Tattoofixers. Usually mine comes off March 1 but I’m liking the look.

No extra lady love though, not even from e Mrs.

I admit im probably not the best person to ask (!) but no, i really dont like beards. Stop it – its just lazy.

Rachel

I have a beard in 2 weeks.

Its a proper hipstery axy mcaxerson one.

My girlfriend won’t let me shave it off.

Try a diuble edge razor.

Shaving is far lazier than keeping a beard in shape.

About a week maybe 2 but they’re bloody awful, get a better razor.

Just trimmed mine right back after 6 months growth, was in the Gandalf category. GF days she misses it

had one for about 20 years. gets trimmed about every 6 weeks or so. No idea what I look like underneath and no intention of finding out

Mrs GD doesn’t like it but is encouraging it as my face looks like someone’s machete’d my chin and even with sensitive/safety razors it’s just not recovering and every day my face is raw. I also spend a lot of time with head/chin resting in hands (usually while thinking at work). I’m trying to change this habit but I am a creature of habit.

I don’t get how a DE razor would be different, it’s still ultimately a blade slicing hair off…but feel free to enlighten me. 🙂

About 3-4 weeks. Week 2 is the hard one. The itch…….

First beard is always a bit scruffy. Give it 3 months. Shave and regrow.

Trimming you cheeks and neck line will smarten it up while its growing. The europeans call in designer stubble.

I’ve got one. Used to only grow it for winter, but my lovely lady is properly fond of it, so I’ve had this one as long as I’ve had her. I’m easy going either way though. If she didn’t have such a strong opinion I’d have probably got bored with it by now. I don’t like it too long mind you; about a grade 2 on the sides and a three on the ‘goatee’ area. Seems to work.

I don’t get how a DE razor would be different, it’s still ultimately a blade slicing hair off…but feel free to enlighten me.

I have very thick dense beard hair. A single blade cuts one hair at a time. Mach3s and the like will grab multiple hairs and it just yanks at a patch of skin rather than cut it cleanly.

And you can get away with using one on multiple days growth with no ill effects.

I’d like to grow a beard, but it makes my ears hurt too much.

At least wait ’till it’s weird again.

All those who grew beards just because it was fashionable?
The sea’s that way.

Ok, but how’s that different to say a BIC single? Apart from the obvious more plastic goes in the bin when it’s worn out.

44, have probably shaved on average once per year since teen years, go from stubble to beardish but never full beard. wahl is all you need.

surely depend how hairy you are?? being from good welsh stock, after about 10 days i’ve got something that you could legitimately call a beard rather than not being arsed to shave.

buy some decent beard clippers to keep it neat as you go through growing it until you get the length your happy with. if you work in customer facing jobs, i would suggest shorter rather than longer (number 5 works for me) as i think it looks better groomed and less stragley.

to avoid the itchyness, shave it high and tight under the chin and moisturise the the rest in the mornings

About a month minimum. Mine took a couple of months to properly grow in. Second week is a right ballache, itchy as **** but once you get past that it’s ace. Buzz the straggly shit off once every two weeks or if you have something fancy to smarten up for.

Stop it – its just lazy.

Damn right it’s lazy. Bollocks to scraping my face with a blade every day, stupid **** waste of time and money, that, not to mention the cuts and ingrown hairs and rashes, ugh. I used to use single-blade and double-edge razors, fancy shaving oils and gels and whatnot, nothing really worked, always ended up with spots. Since I grew a beard: no zits, no rashes, no itches, lovely. Also I don’t really give a shit what I look like any more, the less time I have to spend on making myself acceptable to society the better.

I actually grew my beard because my face was all smashed up at the time and I couldn’t shave in between the superglue and scabs. Once it had all healed up my wife decided she really liked it and I wasn’t allowed to get rid. Not everyone hates beards, fortunately. 🙂

I used to use single-blade and double-edge razors, fancy shaving oils and gels and whatnot, nothing really worked, always ended up with spots.

Thanks Mint, that pretty much sums me up. Perhaps with less fancy stuff but same result. Not had an issue until about a year back but its getting worse not better.

De razors have loads of space arround the blade for hairs to move arround, into the blade and then wash out. A Bic (or multiple blade) is just dragging the blade across the hair, sometimes cutting it, sometimes just pulling on it or skin. I’ve got really ‘soft’ skin and can use one daily with good soap and an alchohol based aftershave lotion to flush out the pores.

But i got lazy and grew a beard instead.

Which is actually a lot more effort, clippers #4 as often as nececary, or #2 then #3 untill it thickens out, don’t let it grow too long without clipping or it looks horrible and ragged, keep it trimmed and it grows softer and thicker. Then start worrying about shape, easiest is to get someone else (unless you have good hand, eye coordination in the mirror) to trim off the stray hairs on your cheeks, the work up from the bottom 4/3/2 tapering from the jaw to the sideburns. Once its looking good at that stage you can leave it a bit longer and work up the grades, past 6 or 7 though mine always looks crap (a bit like if you’ve ever tried to DIY a haircut with clipers on #8, just looks wrong) , so maybe get a pro to do it with scisors beyond that.

that pretty much sums me up. Perhaps with less fancy stuff but same result. Not had an issue until about a year back but its getting worse not better.

Maybe just giving your skin a rest for a bit will do the trick? Grow it out for a month or two, keep it trimmed and tidy, then try shaving again, see what happens.

Don’t worry about looking scruffy or weird to customers in the meantime, people really don’t give a shit if you’ve got a hairy face or not, so long as you’ve not left bits of your lunch in there or something. 😉

A proper beard needs nothing more than a brush every now and then.

Seriously though, about 2 weeks for a decent short beard but it does need trimming every few weeks to keep it neat. Leave it to grow out a few more weeks and you’re into a whole different beard world of soft plush beard stroking, although beer, food and frothy coffee needs wiping off your face

Oh, one more top tip: whoever invented the ring-pull didn’t have a moustache, so always ping the little buggers off before you take a drink from a can, cos it hurts like hell when you get a hair or two caught in there.

I may have just been forcefully reminded of that by this here can of beer. Ow. 🙁

if it was the 70’s all these hipsters would be velcroed to their wives muff

Anyone actually just given up because they can’t grow one thick enough?

Only once grew it more than a week, 3 weeks in a very cold winter. The itching drove me close to madness.
Nowadays stuble for a week.

Clip till October, leave till March.
You could call me lazy, and you might even be right.

I can grow a faint moustache.

Gone for the clipped hair, somewhat unkempt beard look for a while.

Mostly because:

A) I’m lazy

B) I look like something out of Das Boot with my pea coat.

C) It keeps my face from freezing when riding in the winter.

D) Makes my big nogin more in proportion to the rest of my face.

E) I swear I get taken more seriously at work with a beard, I look too boyish without one.

I’ve gotten to that age where i am able to grow a beard…chest hair…back hair…..not sure if it is a good thing or bad thing.

I don’t understand why there aren’t more beards.

Why go to all that trouble to look like a pre-pubescent boy?

Rusty Spanner – Member
All those who grew beards just because it was fashionable?
The sea’s that way.

That’s good. 😆

epicyclo – Member

I don’t understand why there aren’t more beards.

Why go to all that trouble to look like a pre-pubescent boy?

Coz you might have fleas in them beards … 😆

I don’t understand why there aren’t more beards.

Isn’t it something to do with the increasing physical crowdedness of human society? I read somewhere that more juvenile features can indicate to or cause other humans to think, that you have a lower propensity towards violence and higher agreeableness/conformism within the group.

Perhaps that’s why the clean shaven look is dominant across more conformist societies.

If you want to have a beard, then crack on. Don’t let hipsters or antibeards get in your way. Do you think they worry about wearing a bow tie/shit tattoo/braces/boiler suit/slippers/corduroy/dungarees/brouges?

I use trimmers / razor to neaten the neck line (and the random few hairs that grow halfway up my cheeks – it makes it look much neater overall before it thickens up.

My wife as ways professed to hate beards but I had always wanted to grow I e, just once in my adult life, sort of a bucket list thing.
She relented and let me grow one. I kept it trimmed and neat, around no 4 or 5 on my trimmer and always tidied up the neck and upper cheeks.
She then decided she actually rather liked it and when I shaved it off after 6 months suggests I ought to grow it back again.
I did, since it keeps my chin warm and I still have a few years left before it’s completely gray.

I’ve sported facial hair of varying lengths since 1992. I’ve forgotten how long it took to grow in but two to three weeks would seem about right. Assuming you can grow a beard (some people are just too patchy to carry it off).

You can keep it neat ‘designer stubble’ like which can be a bit of a pain as it probably needs doing every week. Probably best route for a start though. A beard trimmer is pretty essential (it’s pretty hard work with scissors). I have no fancy beard care package, just wash/shampoo it same time as my hair.

I probably ran it that way for most of the time. I’ve let it grow out a couple times. It takes about 8-9 months to grow a proper beard though. A proper beard is when you have to decide over the duvet or under the duvet.

Currently knocking on 5″ growth atm. It’s getting a bit wild, which will only be exacerbated now that the biking season is almost upon us (up North). Beard sticks out a good inch below the full face, it gets pretty ‘full’ after a 300-400 miler day! Think I might have to cut it back a little.

I’m afraid I really can’t be doing with all these groomed to an inch of their life beards though. Must have waaaaay too much time on their hands (or in love with their own reflection perhaps).

At least wait ’till it’s weird again.

All those who grew beards just because it was fashionable?
The sea’s that way.

What is certain is that beards seem nearly always to attract self-appointed judges as to your beard-motive. This has been the case, at least in Western society, for centuries. Beards are variously viewed by society as weird attention-seeking gay commie thickets that are not only evidence of extreme over-preening, but also proof of extreme lack of personal care. my opinion is that a beard is akin to a whiskery mirror. A reflecting surface upon which is projected the heart of the viewer. If they see you as somewhow ‘less’ for your beard – they are actually revealing their own insecurities and shortfalls, not yours.

Blokes have beards. It’s nature. Not having one is a choice. Having one is neutral.

*Unless you’re a hipster 😉

@malvernrider: Re insecurities, oh yeah. The amount of abuse/stick I’ve had to put up with over the years is ridiculous. Its even worse than when I was a vegie. For some people ‘other’ is a real problem. It seems to undermine their sense of self (worth?).

I stopped shaving about eight years ago, because of a January beard thread on here. It stopped looking scruffy after the first time I trimmed it.