There Are Many Facial Hair Options For Men

Once it was limited to a simple beard or mustache, but now men sport many styles of facial hair. And the societal perception of men with facial hair is changing. When I was in college more than 25 years ago, my broadcasting professor taught that it would be unprofessional to have facial hair. In fact, he pointed to studies that said people simply don't trust people with a beard or mustache. Actually, that perception still exists to a certain extent. You'll see very few people on the news with facial hair. But I'd love to see the results of a similar study today. I bet they'd be a lot different.

Are you a man? Now, I'm not talking about one of those retro/cavemen, who actually still believe it's girly to use aftershave. I'm talking about a contemporary male, who isn't afraid to take a bath once in a while and possibly even comb his hair.

Whether the male gender likes to admit it or not, that whole race of "so-called" manly men, who never even put on a button down shirt once in a while, have gone out of style. Those women that prefer a "real man" of this ilk are certainly few and far between anymore. In this modern age, women prefer a man who grooms himself regularly and dresses like he's not living in the mountains, trapping skunks and rodents. Believe it or not, women like their men to look nice.

It's hardly fair to ask this of the softer sex, but disregard the concept when it comes to ourselves. Anyway, facial hair is a big part of the male grooming regime. You either want it or you don't. However, these days there are many ways you can wear it. No longer are you limited to a simple beard and mustache.

Do you have facial hair? Now, if you're a woman, I'm certainly not asking this to insult you. I was addressing the men only. If you take a glance around, facial hair is quite the hit now 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 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. Remember the Fu-Man-Chu or the handlebar? Baseball fans in the 70's can think Steve Carlton and Rollie Fingers. You hardly ever see these looks anymore.

Anyway, when it comes to grooming the facial dew, men go all out. 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 keep-up is too simple. 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, which is more prominent.

I'm convinced that the van-dyke was conceived by men to make shaving easier. Think about it, what are the trouble spots when shaving. The upper lip and around the chin always cause the most problems. With the van-dyke, there's no need to shave these trouble spots anymore. Just keep them trim and neat. Shave the easy spots and leave the tough spots alone.

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. Then there are a few men, who go for the unshaven look. This only takes a few days of straying from the razor. And contrary to what you may think, a lot of women like this look. It offers that rugged, yet handsome appeal. The problem of course is you can 't keep the 3 day old beard look for very long. Basically it consists of shaving, then not shaving for a few days, then repeating the process. It's almost like lather-rinse-repeat.

Regardless of your facial hair preference, you can find a variety of shaving methods and beard styles online. Whatever you choose, just make sure you keep your facial hair neatly trimmed. Otherwise you may as well go back to the caveman look we talked about earlier.