The Right Trim- A Guide to Fashionable Facial Hair for Men.
We met at our usual joint for our
weekly catch-up. I’d had a long day at
the office and couldn’t wait to kick off my heels (figuratively speaking. Taking your shoes off in a bar is not exactly
the done thing...) and have a glass of red wine while chatting to my girls.
After arguing about who had the
bitchiest boss (Dora. Her boss is the
Devil Incarnate), the best hairdresser (Daphne. Jackson is a magician with curling tongs),
the biggest loser-of-a-boyfriend (Agnes.
But that’s another story), and the most useless house-help (yours
truly), the conversation turned to the inevitable- men.
This wasn’t your usual,
run-of-the-mill, all-the-good-men-are-married-or-gay discussion (true as that
may be. Sigh…). Daphne had recently gotten engaged to her
long-time boyfriend Amos, who seemed to be going through a crisis of sorts ever
since he had popped the question. You
see, Amos is one of those… how can I put this delicately?-‘follically-blessed’ men.
In other words, Amos is hairy. Very hairy. A fact which proves to me more than ever that
love truly is blind because, at the
risk of sounding rather shallow, I don’t know how Daphne manages to see past
all that hair to the man inside.
Since they’ve begun planning their
nuptials, Amos can’t seem to decide what he wants to do with the hair that
grows in such abundance on his face (and in other places we won’t
mention). Luckily (or unluckily, as I
see it) for him, if the barber messes up, it’s no big deal to shave it off and
start again, seeing as the hair sprouts anew in a matter of days.
The problem, Daphne tells us, is
that he keeps changing his look so dramatically and she doesn’t know how to
tell him just how awful he looks without hurting his feelings and pushing him
to break up with her. (Daphne has
already been engaged twice to two different men, both of whom broke it
off. One can understand her
determination to cling to this one for dear life. I once told her not to worry- if she ever
felt Amos pulling away from her she could just grab him by the hair, he’s got
enough of it after all. This didn’t go
down too well so I decide to bite my tongue this time.)
One minute Amos is clean-shaven,
the next his beard is so long and bushy that one couldn’t be blamed for
imagining a whole menagerie of birds setting up house in it. Another time, his barber seemed to have gone
all artistic, shaving everything off except a thin line that ran down Amos’
chin and along his jaw. Don’t even get
me started on the time Amos experimented with sideburns. Can you spell ‘Fashion Disaster’?
By the time I got home that evening
my mind was in turmoil. Do guys actually
have a clue as to what we ladies like or dislike when it comes to their facial
hair? Surely it is our duty as womankind
to break it down for them?
At the behest of a male friend of
mine, I have taken it upon myself to present to you, my follically challenged (read
hairless) and follically-blessed (read
hairy as your friendly mountain gorilla)
brothers, the Dos and Don’ts of Facial Hair- from a girl’s perspective. Here goes.
- The Elvis Presley (circa 1977). Sideburns. Not the neat, smooth, rub-your-face-against-mine, sexy ones. I’m talking about the ones that stick out the sides of your head and make you look like you’re about to take flight. A big, BIG turn-off. If I need my face to be tickled every time we hug, I will let you know. Until then, kindly shave off those face-rugs.
- The Michael-Jackson-in-Court
Bum-fluff. Sounds nasty, I
know. And it is. This one goes out to you. Yes, YOU. You know who you are. No matter how often you stare into the
mirror, willing your chin to sprout just ONE blessed hair, nothing
happens. So what do you do? You lovingly cultivate the slightest bit
of hair that DOES make an appearance and try to pass it off as a
beard. Not cool, not sexy, not
nice. Stop it, please. Thank you.
- The ‘O’-
ah, the favourite of many a Bad Boy.
Clean shaven apart from a perfectly-formed ‘O’ around the lips and
chin. VERY nice but only if, and I
mean IF, maintained properly. If
you choose to go down this route, please get rid of those stray hairs that
are longer than the rest and ruin the whole look. I stress the importance of keeping it
even. We women notice such things
and tend to get a bit obsessive about them. Or maybe it’s just me.
- The Goatee-
an old favourite, but a sensitive one.
Please note that the name of this style is NOT an accident, nor
does it favour all men who can sprout enough hair on their faces to have
it done. It you have the wrong
shaped head/chin, YOU WILL LOOK LIKE A GOAT. So long as its neat, and you don’t keep
stroking it (I cannot describe just how annoying, not to mention
disgusting, it is when a guy keeps stoking his beard. It’s not funny, and it’s not clever. And NO, it does not make you look like
an intellectual. It makes you look
like a man with too much hair on his face who can’t keep his hands off it. Or like a goat which has miraculously developed
chin-stroking abilities).
- The Santa
Claus- I’d like to state for the record that I have nothing against
facial hair. In fact, when
maintained, it can add an air of sophistication to a man. Yes, even the fully-fledged beard. BUT.
Keep. It. Neat. Trim it. Don’t get bits of food caught in it and
you never know, maybe I will answer your call next time. Maybe.
- The Designer
Stubble- This is the science part, boys, so concentrate. You have cultivated the beard, and the
moustache, growing just enough
for her to feel it when you oh-so-casually brush your cheek against
hers. This is all very nice, but don’t brush too hard. Giving her stubble-rash is a sure-fire
way of going home alone.
- The
Straggly-I’m-Trying-Too-Hard Beard- I don’t need to say much about
this one. If the hair will not grow
evenly, and you find yourself twisting that one little strand to the left
of your top lip constantly, SHAVE IT OFF.
ALL OF IT.
Addendum:
- Nasal hair-
enough said. There are special
scissors available to deal with this problem. If you are a victim, sort yourself out.
- Ear hair- (see above.)
- Follically-
not a real word. But do I
care? No I don’t. You know what I meant.
My work here is done. Don’t say I
didn’t warn you. (Please note that names have NOT been changed to protect
identities. It is my duty as a
responsible citizen to let my people know the reality of some shit.)
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