As a man who only managed to grow a beard in the last couple of years, it pains me to hear that beards are going out of fashion. I've only just got mine!
UnSplash
I dug a little deeper and found that some people have been saying beards are dying since 2013. Well, 4 years later and I go into the street and see more bearded chins than ever!
I wanted an expert opinion so I spoke to 2nd generation barber Sal from Mens Hair Cut Advice and he said:
"Sometimes it seems the beard trend is disappearing. It's a trend like any other. But then when I think it's fading, I notice it comes right back. I'm not sure it will disappear anytime soon."
Which is excellent news for the guy who has only just managed to start growing his.
But apart from my strange pride in my beard I think growing a beard can teach men everywhere a great lesson about patience in the age of instant gratification. Because even though growing a beard is a biological process done for thousands of years it's surprisingly hard.
When it first starts growing in it's nothing but constant itching and irritated skin, especially if you wear a shirt every day. Then you have to put up with the patchy half way between stubble and full beard where you just know you look a little ridiculous. Follow this up with more itching that could be so simply stopped with the swish of a razor and finally you have your beard. You can't just order one online or click and collect you have to put the time in and face the ridicule to achieve the chin wrapping Viking-esq glory of a full beard.
So it seems to me that the only thing that could stop the beard craze would be some sort of health concern, but since men have been growing them for thousands of years this is highly unlikely.
In fact, a test was conducted in a hospital to find out if those with beards were the cause of spreading illness throughout the ward. The study actually found that clean-shaven chins were three times as likely to be carrying MRSA than those with beards. They then went on to discover several microbes that were producing a new antibiotic right in the midst of your beard! This certainly doesn't mean that you're going to start rubbing a beard on you when you're ill but it's far better than what you might have thought is lurking in a bushy beard.
And when more and more studies seem to be coming out touting how beards make men more attractive I can only see the trend continuing for some time to come. As for myself I'll be keeping my beard and avoiding the baby-faced look that lies underneath it for as long as I can.