by Evan Lee

Created on: August 17, 2008

Even if it is only forgetting to shave when you first need to, most men have some interest in experimenting with their facial hair. After all, men don't really have nearly as many fashion options as women, and we've all seen handsome men like Viggo Mortensen or Errol Flynn wearing a rugged beard or a debonair moustache. There are, as every teenager who tries to grow their first beard discovers, limitations and obstacles that stand between men and the freedom to have whatever beard their inner mountain man should desire. The quality of one's facial hair, as well as the shape of one's face and their personal grooming and style can do a lot to help determine what facial hair, if any at all is best.

There exists a rather prevalent social standard in the western world for men to be clean-shaven and smooth in most professional and personal environments. Certainly this offers the most clean and approachable look and for many men this is the right choice. If your beard is patchy or thin, your dreams of a beard may not be terribly viable (although, as I will discuss later, there may be hope in the form of a smaller beard or moustache) and any beard should be properly maintained. If you are not willing to invest in a beard trimmer and regularly maintain your beard or keep it clean (how to eat certain foods with a beard could be an article by itself), you run the risk of looking homeless or as though you sell hemp clothing for a living. Once the style decision has evolved beyond "beard" versus "no beard," there are a number of choices.

Despite its popularity among younger people, the goatee has a nasty habit of making people appear to be just that. If you're a professional skateboarder or graffiti artist, then the goatee might be just the statement you are looking for, but anyone whose profession does not cause their neighbors to run outside yelling at them to get of his lawn, may wish to steer clear. The circle beard (a goatee connected to a moustache) is a more professional or adult alternative, as witnessed by college professors everywhere, but it is certainly a style that should be well maintained and very short and orderly. Other variations which include soul patches or points obviously seem to move farther away from the realm of more normal facial hair, without delving into novelty beards seen in international competition, so they may also be just the thing for someone who hopes to look more at home at an art gallery opening than an office building. Any form of goatee

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