The beard is said to be something timeless that does not depend on variable and unstable fashions. Bearded men have always been and will be, and the fact that the bearded "lumberjack" is extremely fashionable today will not change this. Nevertheless, walking across Wroclaw a short time ago, I had the impression that the city had been invaded by Vikings, lumberjacks and other ethnic and professional minorities whose distinguishing characteristic is thick facial hair. I have also heard that beards are already passé in the West, from where this fashion has come to us. So, what's the matter with this beard?
"I woke up and saw that I had it"
I started with my bearded friends, whom I had met as ‘naked-bearded razor users’ and who had suddenly grown a shaggy beard. Maybe ‘suddenly’ is not a good term here, because you may have to wait some time for appropriately thick growth, but I asked them how they hit upon the idea of growing a large beard. "My beard began to grow by itself. I don't even remember how - anyway, this was not planned and I didn't start to take care of it from the beginning," says Kuba. " To tell the truth, it simply started with my dislike for shaving," he admits.
Most of my friends, not to say all of them, whom I asked about their growth admitted to being lazy, although some admit that they had been encouraged by the fact that everybody around them had suddenly begun to grow a beard. "I haven't shaved for seven years. I only trimmed my beard during that time, and now I don't even have to do this, because everybody has a beard," admits Krzysztof. So I ask a straightforward question: "Is this because you think you look nice with it?" "I hear more frequently that I look like an Icelandic troll or an old forest man than that "I look nice with a beard, " he replies. Some of my friends justify their facial growth with… their care about others. " My growth was very rough and hurt my girlfriend all the time. So I got an ultimatum: either you shave every day, or you grow a beard. I hate shaving, so I chose the beard in order not to hurt my girlfriend," tells Adam.
A bearded man = an idler?
This might seem true. My bearded friends, when asked if having a beard means that they have to spend more time in the bathroom when washing in the morning, say ‘absolutely not – just the opposite. " When you have a beard, you spend much less time in the bathroom, because you don’t have to shave your face smooth every day. You can only adjust the contour of growth every 3-4 days and the rest of the washing takes place under the shower, for example, washing your hair on the head," confesses Kuba. Maybe one can do it that way, but a visit to a barber’s shop revealed a slightly different picture of a bearded man to me.
"Among our customers there are businessmen, lawyers, construction workers, artists, musicians – in short, all social groups. Everybody can have a beard," says Tomek from the Petit Pati barber’s shop in Wroclaw. "But if you leave your thick growth unattended for 3-4 months, you will look like a forest man," he says. "So, in order to look like an intended effect and be tidy and elegant, your beard must be properly adjusted and trimmed. It is difficult to do this by yourself at home, so it worth entrusting this work to professionals," he adds. When we already have a nice beard, taking care of it is not difficult, but there are a few things to which we must pay attention. The first thing is hygiene! "After all, we don't want our beard to smell like a shepherd dog's hair after a walk in the rain," says Tomek. "We have a full range of cosmetics - from tonics that treat the skin under the beard, various kinds of oils for moisturising the skin and softening facial growth, including balsams or beard pastes that help us to achieve the appropriate shape of the beard and to gloss and arrange the beard. There are also special shampoos for bearded men that allow them to wash properly, soften and take care of the skin under the facial hair," he adds.
Does this mean that my bearded friends, who look nice with a beard and do not smell like a rain-soaked dog, exaggerate when introducing themselves as cookie-pushers?
Beard stories
Stories quoted by bearded men also suggest that a bearded man is not tantamount to an idler. Living with a beard is not so easy. The first thing that comes to our mind is the pieces of food remaining on the beard. "I have an obsession that something always lands on my beard," tells Krzysztof. "That's why I always have a special little comb on me and when I stand or sit anywhere - for example, when waiting for a tram, in a lift, in a toilet, before leaving the house, and so on - I always use it for combing my beard. I sometimes feel that this has already become a sort of fetish to me, because I find myself combing the beard in order to calm down," he adds. There are also unpleasant surprises from time to time. "A short time ago, I fell asleep with chewing gum in my mouth. It must have fallen out when I was sleeping, because when I woke up in the morning, my whole mouth and beard were stuck together. At this moment, I felt sorry for all of my primary school colleagues into whose hair I had stuck gum. Well, we call it karma," says Adam, adding that it took him 30 minutes to remove the gum from the beard.
Turned on by the beard
In fact, it is hard to tell whom the beard turns out more strongly: men, because it is fashionable and comfortable, or women, because a guy with a beard seems to be… a real man. However, we know that women often do have bearded men on their minds, as I don’t remember any woman that would hit upon the idea of photographing smooth-shaven male chins, but I found one who takes photographs of men’s facial growths.
"I love bearded men!" says Domka Podębska, a young photographer from Wroclaw, who has taken photographs of beards for two years. "I grew up in a family where most men had beards, including my dad – his example is the closest to my heart. That's why this image has stuck so strongly in my head. I wondered how I could "bite" this topic and show my rapture about beards. Eventually, the idea of the Beard Project (Projekt Broda) emerged. Its aim is to show in a classic manner – through photographs – how different men decide to grow a beard and how this influences their appearance (for example, by adding charm, manly qualities, self-confidence, or maybe they don’t feel good about that). And the most important thing is that the Beard Project shows the diversity of facial growths. Every beard counts," says Domka.
She organises regular sessions with bearded men. The last one took place on the 16. of January. For information about further sessions, keep checking the Facebook page of the project. Photographs will be taken till June this year, and the result – the exhibition of the Beard Project – will be presented next year.
So, even if the end of the fashion for beards approaching from the West reaches our country, too, we can be sure that we will hear of men’s facial growth, about "lumberjacks" or "Vikings" also in the future.
