Growing a beard has strangely become a worldwide “trend” within the past five years. For something that is so easily obtained and literally grows on us, we are treating it like it is a new toy we have all gotten and want to showcase it to almost everyone. We’ve been questioning if the end is coming for 2 years now at The Sharpe (Will 2016 See The End Of The Beard? & Is 2017 Really The End Of The Beard?) so will 2018 be any different?
It is not a coincidence that this all started around the same time as the whole hipster trend was beginning. These intertwine perfectly as I believe this was the beginning of the “beard era”. The search trend on Google for beards is skyrocketing, everyone wants a piece of the action. Let’s roll back to 2013, social media is booming with a completely new wave of people being labelled as “hipsters”. Guys are being characterised as “cool slick dudes with brand new styles of hairstyles, clothing and looks”.
Suddenly everyone took an interest. This is what people wanted to look like. Girls craved it, and as we now, men will do almost anything to please women. Social media exploded with almost every picture of a celebrity rocking the look or a model having the beard and hairstyle. The whole country was rushing to the barbers and pointing at their phones to models on Instagram, chasing a certain look. It was madness.
Fast forward two years to 2015. Nearly every second guy you see on the street has a beard, or has shaved sides and slicked back hair, or ripped jeans or ding ding ding all of the above. It’s all around us, Instagram is being flooded with picture after picture. Hundreds of “men’s fashion” pages are appearing which showcase celebrity looks and hipsters sporting these brand new styles leading to the normal John Doe copying the style.
This is how a trend begins. Trends usually last a year tops. However, this was still very much relevant throughout 2017, four years on. Although, there has been a slight decrease in full beards. The more ‘casual trimmed stubble-beard’ seems to be taking over for the time being. This could be due to a lot of work places clamping down on beards as a lot of jobs require you to be clean shaven especially around food. But who knows, people might just be getting tired after four years of beards, beards and more beards.
Instagram could be considered the main reason this trend has stayed around for so long while continuing to gather popularity. The majority of models are rocking some sort of facial hair look. This also goes for gym users. A big strong ripped guy with a fresh haircut and big beard was the ideal look for everyone to be at one point. This was because nearly every men’s fitness page consisted of their models fitting this image. There’s no doubting they looked good, but it was all a bit forced and over exaggerated as the average person could not obtain that body type.
Now let’s go back to that point about what women think of beards, as I’m sure you’ all want to know. It has been widely documented through countless surveys that women prefer men with facial hair whether it be stubble or a full beard ( I even asked a sample myself for research). This is due to it giving off an older, more mature look on a man. I suppose it divides the boys from the men so to speak.
This is another reason behind this rising trend. Women love the look of these models on social media as well as celebrities like David Beckham and George Clooney front lining the A-listers. Us men are alert to this and we will do anything to have a woman take notice of our looks. So to put it short, a lot of beards were grown and a lot of women were happy during the period.
Although there has been a major decrease in searches online for beards, there has been a big style change with a tight trim clean look coming back to fashion. It was seen throughout 2017 and has become predominant since. It is an easy, non messy job that looks well and is very easily suited to most men. The simple fact is the beard trend will never truly be gone.
There are just too many styles being thrown around and it depends what look celebrities like Justin Timberlake or Jamie Dornan showcase when photographed as the general public always take notice and want to get with the latest trend. This, as well as Instagram being riddled with hipster and Celebrity photographs daily. The Beard is here to stay and will be around for a long time to come.
Stephen Kierans is an Irish journalist from Louth with an obsession of sport and fitness while also writing some lifestyle and tech piece
Comments are closed.
Growing a beard has strangely become a worldwide “trend” within the past five years. For something that is so easily obtained and literally grows on us, we are treating it like it is a new toy we have all gotten and want to showcase it to almost everyone. We’ve been questioning if the end is coming for 2 years now at The Sharpe (Will 2016 See The End Of The Beard? & Is 2017 Really The End Of The Beard?) so will 2018 be any different?
It is not a coincidence that this all started around the same time as the whole hipster trend was beginning. These intertwine perfectly as I believe this was the beginning of the “beard era”. The search trend on Google for beards is skyrocketing, everyone wants a piece of the action. Let’s roll back to 2013, social media is booming with a completely new wave of people being labelled as “hipsters”. Guys are being characterised as “cool slick dudes with brand new styles of hairstyles, clothing and looks”.
Suddenly everyone took an interest. This is what people wanted to look like. Girls craved it, and as we now, men will do almost anything to please women. Social media exploded with almost every picture of a celebrity rocking the look or a model having the beard and hairstyle. The whole country was rushing to the barbers and pointing at their phones to models on Instagram, chasing a certain look. It was madness.
Fast forward two years to 2015. Nearly every second guy you see on the street has a beard, or has shaved sides and slicked back hair, or ripped jeans or ding ding ding all of the above. It’s all around us, Instagram is being flooded with picture after picture. Hundreds of “men’s fashion” pages are appearing which showcase celebrity looks and hipsters sporting these brand new styles leading to the normal John Doe copying the style.
This is how a trend begins. Trends usually last a year tops. However, this was still very much relevant throughout 2017, four years on. Although, there has been a slight decrease in full beards. The more ‘casual trimmed stubble-beard’ seems to be taking over for the time being. This could be due to a lot of work places clamping down on beards as a lot of jobs require you to be clean shaven especially around food. But who knows, people might just be getting tired after four years of beards, beards and more beards.
Instagram could be considered the main reason this trend has stayed around for so long while continuing to gather popularity. The majority of models are rocking some sort of facial hair look. This also goes for gym users. A big strong ripped guy with a fresh haircut and big beard was the ideal look for everyone to be at one point. This was because nearly every men’s fitness page consisted of their models fitting this image. There’s no doubting they looked good, but it was all a bit forced and over exaggerated as the average person could not obtain that body type.
Now let’s go back to that point about what women think of beards, as I’m sure you’ all want to know. It has been widely documented through countless surveys that women prefer men with facial hair whether it be stubble or a full beard ( I even asked a sample myself for research). This is due to it giving off an older, more mature look on a man. I suppose it divides the boys from the men so to speak.
This is another reason behind this rising trend. Women love the look of these models on social media as well as celebrities like David Beckham and George Clooney front lining the A-listers. Us men are alert to this and we will do anything to have a woman take notice of our looks. So to put it short, a lot of beards were grown and a lot of women were happy during the period.
Although there has been a major decrease in searches online for beards, there has been a big style change with a tight trim clean look coming back to fashion. It was seen throughout 2017 and has become predominant since. It is an easy, non messy job that looks well and is very easily suited to most men. The simple fact is the beard trend will never truly be gone.
There are just too many styles being thrown around and it depends what look celebrities like Justin Timberlake or Jamie Dornan showcase when photographed as the general public always take notice and want to get with the latest trend. This, as well as Instagram being riddled with hipster and Celebrity photographs daily. The Beard is here to stay and will be around for a long time to come.
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Stephen Kierans is an Irish journalist from Louth with an obsession of sport and fitness while also writing some lifestyle and tech piece
Comments are closed.