BLACK MEN BEARDS: 20 BEST AFRICAN AMERICAN BEARD STYLES PICTURES 2017

Here are the twenty most common answers we got when we asked modern guys why they grow facial hair: 

1. I hate shaving. 
2. I want to look older (or younger). 
3. I want to hide my double chin or facial scars. 
4. I’m losing it up top (balding) and want to balance things out. 
5. I’m leaving my marriage/relationship and it’s time to put on a new face. 
6. It’s more masculine and people find it hot. 
7. It’s a family tradition. 
8. I did it to drive my family crazy. 
9. I admire Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, or any other num- ber of left-wing politicians. 
10. My favorite rock star/athlete/actor has one. 
11. I’m changing my life and want to change my look. 
12. I’m on holiday/hiatus. 
13. It’s my playoff/layoff/strike beard. 
14. I’m grieving a loss. 
15. Barring store-bought T-supplements, it’s the only thing left that women can’t do. 
16. Guys can’t wear makeup (most of the time), but we can use facial hair to highlight our features. 
17. I grow one in the winter to stay warm. 
18. I’m no corporate slave. I can get away with it at work. 
19. It’s natural/God-given. 
20. It’s fun, and I like the reactions I get.

And then, all hell broke loose in the nineties. Grunge- rockers like Kurt Cobain started growing goatees and so did sports stars, boy bands, and brat-pack Hollywood types. Before you knew it, you and your dad (and your dentist) had one too. 

Workplaces (with the consistent exceptions of government and high finance) became more relaxed about facial hair, because everybody (in- cluding your boss) was proving that he was no corporate slave. Men took their cues from pop culture (rather than their Mad Men clean-shaven fathers or other authority figures), and their partners, for the most part, didn’t seem to mind. Fussy metrosexuals soon gave way to bad-boy retrosexuals sporting playoff beards, mountain- man tufts, break-up beards, bear fur, and F-you beards. 

If history has taught us anything, it is that facial-hair trends cycle on and off, but this modern interlude shows no signs of slowing down. All of the large shaver compa- nies have seen the writing on the wall and have introduced products that allow you to clip within a mil- limeter of your life, so that you can combine stubble with a full stache (or embrace one of an endless number of partial beard combinations and permutations that you will find in the pages that follow). 

Every imaginable facial hair expression has been manifested since the 1990s, from full-on ZZ Top beards to micro-carved architectural experiments, from stubble with a full stache to a Soul Patch with a pencil-thin mustache, sideburns, and a chin- strap. 

It’s all up to you. Mathematically, the variations are endless. Fuzz now knows no bounds in terms of age, class, or race. (Even gender is up for grabs, as female-to-male transsexuals take testosterone and wear facial hair as a proud cele- bration of masculinity.) Surveys tell us that sixty percent of men in their twenties now sport some kind of facial hair. 

You know things are serious when razor and shaver companies start inventing products that allow for trimming and pruning rather than total removal.