Have we reached peak beard? Dapper is what matters.
According to a study from the University of New South Wales this week, we have reached 'peak beard'. The beard trend has caused facial hair to be so prevalent in fashion conscious cities around the world that furry faced men are now the norm while clean shaven faces have become more distinctive and therefore, according to the study, more attractive.
The study involved showing 1450 women and 250 men 36 men's faces, some bearded, some clean shaven, some with light stubble, and asked to rate them for attractiveness on a scale of -4 to 4. People who were shown more beards to begin with found the clean shaven faces more attractive. The term for this evolutionary phenomenon is Negative Frequency Dependence Selection and basically means rare traits are more attractive.
So people started wearing beards because they look good and interesting, but then everyone starts wearing beards and they're not so interesting and, apparently not as attractive. Too many beards ruin the facial effect. People have asked us what we think about this potential death of the modern beard.
We say, dapper is what matters. How a man unleashes his dapper potential is individual to what suits him best. That could be sculpting a beard, finding the right style for your hair or wet shaving properly for the smoothest skin.
The media attention around this study seems to think that everyone has grown a beard purely for fashion reasons. Instantly this idea disregards anybody roughly over the age of 30 who has worn their beard with subtle and honest pride for the past decade without giving it a second thought. Trends come and go, but just like in designer fashion there's no point wearing something that's en vogue if it doesn't suit you. It's definitely true that some men look better with a beard. Some don't. What makes you your most attractive is making the most of what you've got with a bit of expert grooming.
We don't just celebrate beards, we celebrate the best in gentleman's grooming and that's big beards, short beards, and smooth faces. Whatever makes a chap his most handsome. A confident man knows when he looks his best no matter what the current trend is.