“Puberty Hit You Like A Truck”: These 50 Pics Of Men Before And After Beards May Show Just What You’ve Been Missing In Your Life (New Pics)

As long as men have been able to trim their whiskers whenever they please, the beard has been going in and out of fashion. In 2016, a Wall Street Journal piece musingly stated: "If you’re like us, you may be wondering if the vogue for channeling a mountain man has overstayed its welcome." Perhaps it has something to do with the “Beards From Below” fad that was going around social media at the time. It was so bizarre, in fact, that GQ magazine called it the "facial-hair nightmare." Seeing how Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, appeared before Congress a few years later, sporting a Rasputin-like beard which could've poked our eyes out if seen from below, we can't say that's a total exaggeration.

However, recent data shows that the appeal of the lumberjack look has not only stayed, but has become more popular than ever. According to EarthWeb, 2-in-5 (or 44%) American men today sport a full beard. A number which was twice as small half a decade ago. Does this have anything to do with 65% of women preferring lads with well-groomed beards as compared to their baby-faced counterparts? Well, it's hard to say.

But it's undeniable that A-class celebrities such as Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Gosling have played a role in shaping the current trend of facial hair. I mean, how could you not enjoy a face like this? This trend has become so popular, in fact, that even the multi-million "Avengers" franchise incorporated it into their most recent film by giving all the superheroes some form of facial hair. From Bucky Barnes sporting some groomed stubble to Doctor Strange donning a goatee, it's hard to pick just one favorite.

Men grow beards for various reasons, of course. But one of the primary reasons is the sense of masculinity it can bring. Beards have been associated with strength, wisdom, and maturity. This is even backed by science: according to one paper published in 2016, ladies associated beards with men's increased masculinity. It shouldn't be surprising, then, that guys sporting full-fledged beards are also thought of as more dominant.

On the other hand, a study by the University of Hertfordshire found that bearded men are often perceived as "38% less generous, 36% less caring, and 51% less cheerful than clean-shaven men." We're better off if our dear Santa doesn't find out about this.

In order to understand the art of beard grooming, Bored Panda reached out to Brian Garcia, the owner of 'Barber'is Brian' salon in Marijampolė, Lithuania, who, over the last 9 years as a senior barber both in London and Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, has seen many different shapes and styles of facial hair.

When asked about the popularity of growing one out, Brian said the period of the pandemic was a curious time, since workers were more eager to experiment when not around their coworkers in person. "Since the pandemic, most of the clients let them grow as they were working from home and they couldn't trim it professionally," he explained, "that's when they noticed that the beard suits them." Others, he said, annoyed with their itchy, shaggy, out-of-control new looks - something that the New Yorker called 'the Quarantine Beard' - came to Brian with requests to put an end to their hairy faces.