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I do think beards, for some men, add a look of masculinity and gravitas. I had one on and off for many years up until two years ago when I noticed the budding trend. But combine that with the skinny jean, the beer belly and the milquetoast physique in Billyburg, Brooklyn and you've got one tragic looking blipster. I'd like to throw some attention to Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips for wearing a beard so nicely.

I'm sorry I was out of the country when this originally aired! I'd like to point out two things: 1) Mustaches are actually militaristic! Or at least that is why the Amish have non-mustachioed beards (they associated the 'stache with German military officers); and 2) the fashionable beard is at least two years old, see this Times piece: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/23/fashion/thursdaystyles/23BEARDS.html

yeah, i'm surprised beardpunk wasn't mentioned. hair beard combo from gainesville?

and alistair, you are totally right. i mean, there are 20 thousand bands in nyc alone, and they keep having the same bands on this show over and over. they could take the time to help promote some lesser known bands but instead we get fashion discussions.

I think that a beard is an excuse to cover up the double-chin phenomenon that these 20-something so-called creative types start to experience after pounding too many beers before/during/after music-making and eschewing exercise.

Another thought is that perhaps it's to make up for the lack of hair on one's head. Perhaps it's a warmth and hibernating thing? Then there are the bands who grow "tour beards" just to prove that they've been sleeping on floors and haven't had time for hygiene. I wonder what the female equivalent might be.

As a woman, I find that a carefully trimmed beard can be really soft and nice to be close to. However, that doesn't stop me from preferring the clean-shaven music-making guy. The mountain-man look is so over-with AND the stuff that gets trapped in the hair can verge on repulsive.

It's not surprising too see beards in Williamsburgh. Anyone who grew up in Brooklyn up to th 1970s knew where most of the "beards" lived. Of course the beards matched their "crazy clothing" long black coats, flat fur hats, and black lace-up boots.

But nore germaine to your discussion, their musci was far from rock or hip-hop or soul or salsa. It was more along the lines of klezmer.

You could at eats have given a nod to those style setters how haven't changed their style in about 2,000 years.
PerryL

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Does the trendy "ultra five o'clock shadow" look that's been "in" for what seems way too long count as a beard? Othere than the "look", I would think that women would hate it especially if they get "close" . . . sandpaper face . . . yuck!

I am 55, and have had a full beard for 35 years, with a short period where I shaved it. It has been neatly trimmed for maybe the last 20 years. I have been enjoying a bit of extra attention from women recently, and now I guess I know why. BTW it has gone substantially salt-and-pepper grey; I have tried coloring it but I prefer it au naturel these days.
Thanks for the great programming. Keep up the good work! -Paul

How can you not have mentioned the beautifully bearded Neil Fallon of Clutch or their song, "Burning Beard."

My husband and I are in our late 40s/early 50s. We met in the 80s and I've never seen him without his beard.

I finally got him to grow his hair to go with the beard in the late 90s.

Personally I love the look of the goatee, but I would never ask him to go to the trouble of shaving the bit around the shag.

Can't imagine going back to kissing sandpaper-faced guys.

C'mon, man! "Why do jazz groups have boring names?" "Why are beards back". Stories on Led Zeppelin, who was better Paul or John? You've reached the very, very bottom. So much music in New York and Cat Power is no longer at the vanguard of it, nor did she save "New York, New York" from being a crappy song. Please dig deeper! PLEASE!

Give me a coal miner or lumberjack any day. I love beards.

drag! so good. retro drag. that's such a great way to put that, because that is really really how it feels.

Beards are about nature letting hair grow becomes purposeful as I grow them.

Are uber-masculine beards a backlash to the metrosexual look?

Or perhaps just part of the greasy, flared pants 70's throwback thing happening these days?

My husband just shaved his hillbilly beard at the request of a friend whose wedding we just attended. I loved it actually more than he did. It transformed him into this mysterious and introspective creature. I'm sure he'll grow it again!

did anyone mention the simple fact of being lazy? or a weak chin?

There are some definite biological aspects of it, it is of cores facial ornamentation, ornamentation is a common means for males to attract a female, the largest/brightest ornament attracts the female, this begs the question in a biological sense, dose the largest beards attract more females?

I started my beard 7 months ago and not to make a statement. I'm not against the war and I don't follow style magazines, instead I felt that it was more of a return to turn of the century style, and perhaps a more "insightful looking" corporate actor. And, as your guest, I may be shaving it for my upcoming wedding.

Hair is a way of just saying NO I will not shave. I think we can learn a lot about a person through his/her beard.

First, as a woman, let me say that I find this whole shaggy unkempt beard thing profoundly unattractive and I am impatiently counting the days for it to vanish into the dusty corner of eye-rolling-I-can't-believe-I-thought-this-was-cool trends to be ironically lampooned on VH1's "I love the '00s".

Also, a beard is a statement about masculinity - after all, there's nothing that says I'm a Man! more clearly than facial hair. I wonder if, in uncertain times, there's a male instinct to display his readiness to defend his house and home against desperate, hungry mobs.

Have you seen the price of razors?!

Also, I think indie musicians are skewing older these days and, well, balder. It's a matter of pride for some of them to prove they can actually grow hair.

Im only 19, but have had a beard for about 2 years now, in junior year of high school. I did it half as a joke and half, like so many because I saw it as an aspect of counterculture that I see myself in tune with being very into in the modern punk and anarchist community. But the very fact that it is now becoming a function of fashion I am questioning it.

Sometimes men grow beards to symbolize a period of change. I have. It shows the world that a time of introspection is coming and the wisdom of a beard is needed to reveal the necessary new course. The Bush years are coming to an end and can explain some of the politicians growing beards.

This show is as fatuous as growing a beard to protest the war. Public radio listeners and musicians deserve better….

had a goatee until a few years ago, always had a moustache, had a heart attack on Thanksgiving, couldn't shave because of blood thinners, left a soul patch to remind me of my mortality. to me facial hair has always been a personal but removable statement.

I just grow a beard so I don't look like Simon Cowell. And because lead singers are supposed to have beards.

As the winter winds down and the summer begins, I trim my beard shorter and shorter. should it dissapear before I hit the beach?

In my experience, Williamsburg seems to be the one neighborhood in New York City where a beard is actually a physical asset. Girls in Williamsburg, and to some extent Greenpoint, like beards. Why? One of the best answers I can find comes from Wikipedia. It’s almost unheard of, says Wikipedia, for American politicians to wear beards, or even mustaches. Evidently, the last president to wear facial hair of any kind was William Taft, whose term ended in 1913. This was around the time chemical weapons were first being developed, which created the need for gas masks, the seals of which are broken by facial hair. The U.S. Army and Marines Corps justify banning beards for this reason. (Although the Special Operation Forces currently allow beards in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, for the purpose of blending in with the native population.) Beards, therefore, may simply be signaling to girls from Williamsburg and Greenpoint that you’re not involved with the government or military, and that, like members of the sixties and seventies counterculture, you’re into music, sex, and drugs.

I never heard a beard sing!

I thought this show was about music ?

women's body hair would be a much more interesting discussion. and it's still music relevant, if we're talking about identity and musicians.

I grew out a beard in January, after my son was born-- as a way to declare myself a "dad". I was also inspired by a character with a red beard in a novel I was reading-- (I have a red beard). it just felt like a good time to grow it. Not following any trends really. But I love my beard!

Everytime my bands Last Funeral Song and Ye Olde Royal Shithouse Players start booking alot of shows, I always wind up with a beard. Which is not due to any kind of style, but is instead due trying to stay in bed as long as possible before leaving for work in the morning after staying out late playing a show.

This is the lamest of all possible lame things to discuss, ever.

The beard is nothing more than the trendy replacement of the trucker hat.

Boring!

I wasn't particularly aware that others were growing beards at all. Mine has had to do with exploring a Jewish identity, looking more like a Jew.

I had grown a beard over the last year and I recently shaved it off. Now beardless I can see the change in the way I am treated. Bearded men are received with more gravitas. I am in the process of growing what I had back.

yeah, i totally have beards under my arms.

Now that we've established that trendy men grow beards to symbolize their rebellion against corporate culture, can we ask what these guys' girlfriends think of beards?

um, emasculating power of corporate culture? corporate culture is nothing if not masculine in the worst ways.

It's funny how things change and remain the same... U.S. Grant et al with the beard, the founders with long hair. All these things are ever-changing as we discover them again and again.

Akron/Family

if beards are fashionable and appearing on runways, then there is nothing 'alternative' about sporting one.

this is possibly the least important thing you could discuss on this show.

As soon as I heard about this topic, my mind immediately went to Sam Beard of Iron & Wine fame (well, after I briefly lingered on ZZ Top). I think Sam's beard is an intrinsic part to his persona, tying closely to his introspective lyrics and quiet vocals.

I wrote an essay called A History of Beards for The Brooklyn Rail: http://www.brooklynrail.org/2007/11/streets/beards
I look forward to listening to this discussion. I'll try to call in to comment.