Fuzzy Wuzzy

To shave or not to shave, that is the question and it seems that many male celebrities are answering it by tossing their razors out their Lamborghini windows.  The beard has caught on in a big way and that’s not necessarily a good thing. 

I’m not anti-beard.  A well-kept forest of facial hair can be an attractive feature on some guys.  But I’ve never been a fan of the van dyke or the soul patch.  If a man’s mug looks too manicured, if it looks like he calls in a personal stylist to trim it into a topiary every week, it’s not a very manly appearance.

At the other end of that spectrum is the Old Goat Man, so named by The Toronto Star’s delightfully acerbic writer Malene Arpe.   I give you the scruffy face of Brad Pitt;

Beside him is the normally adorable Johnny Depp whose face sports one of those neatly sculpted looks I mentioned.   Then there’s Jim Carrey whose facial hair seems to be in want of a weed whacking

Now I’m not opposed to my mate letting a little stubble appear over a weekend or on vacation.  After all, shaving can be a lot like work. Just ask any woman who has been shaving her legs for oh, say 30 years or more.  If I were ridiculed every time I let my leg hair sprout I’d be mocked an awful lot.  But I’ll guarantee that you’ll never be able to bead it or braid it between shavings. 

My Dad used to grow a beard every winter and sometimes it got a little unruly.  He would joke about saving leftovers in it to snack on later on.  But he’s my Dad.  He also wore one of those big Russian winter hats shaped like a canoe decades before anyone else wore one because he actually purchased his in Russia.  No one expects their Dad to be cool so it didn’t much matter that he looked like a wooly mammoth with a deceased skunk on his head!  Maybe Old Goat Man Brad Pitt does hide a morsel or two of food in that beard of his to nosh on after a long day of chasing after the brood of children he has with Angelina Jolie. Maybe he just got sick of being thought of as a pretty boy.  If he’s trying to bring on the ugly, it’s working.