Facial Hair.....And Hats

[T Jones]

Here's a few of mine. Three hats that I refurbished, black Borsalino, 3X Resistol Western, and a Knox Stagecoach, and a conversion, 3X Stetson.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

A little artistic work added. VS in Navy blue 10X.

 

[StoryPNW]

My facial hair has migrated from my lip to my jaw, for winter at least but it could be permanent.

 

[M Hatman]

Historical Beard and hat.....(clean shaven myself...could not grow a beard if my life depended on it, so, I live vicariously through others).

 

[Phineas Lamour]

 

[Hurricane Jack]

Just about a yr ago…

 

[Zombie_61]

I had, apparently, voted in the poll at the beginning of this thread when it was new. Since then, The Lounge had their software upgraded, members (including myself) lost everything they had posted before that date, and had to pick a new username and start over. That being the case, since all of my previous posts are long gone I guess I'll start over with the Readers Digest somewhat condensed version.

I have no idea about the motives of others. I first grew out my mustache and beard with intent when I was about 18 years old because my girlfriend and I were planning a "secret" trip to San Francisco with friends and I wanted to look older. For me, "older" was a moving target because I've usually looked younger than I actually was; facial hair didn't help much. So I grew my mustache and beard, starting too late for them both to grow in properly before we left for San Francisco, but I did look older by maybe an hour or two. Since then (1980-1981) I've been clean shaven, mustache and goatee, or mustache and full beard, usually trimmed short but occasionally grown out a few inches. I learned early on, and had verification from my aforementioned girlfriend (who became my wife) and other female friends that a mustache alone didn't look "right" on me; I needed more so that I wouldn't look like a child molester or porn star (this was before the term "pornstache" was created), so I've had various configurations of beards over the last 43+ years, and likely will until I stop drawing breath.

Hats came along in 2008 for me. I mean, I liked them and they were always around, but I felt they never looked quite right on me. Finally I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, decided I wanted a Fedora, discovered The Lounge, learned that a company called Akubra in Australia made good hats for a reasonable price, and that started my next fascination. Fedoras, Trilbys, Pork Pies, Flat Caps, and so on. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Hurricane Jack]

I have no idea about the motives of others. I first grew out my mustache and beard with intent when I was about 18 years old because my girlfriend and I were planning a "secret" trip to San Francisco with friends and I wanted to look older.

This is how my morphosis happened: In high school I don’t think there was any policy on facial hair but I doubt it was necessary to have one anyway. After HS graduation I spent all summer growing a Fu Manchu mustache so I wouldn’t look like a baby faced Freshman when I arrived at college. When the upper classmen arrived the wk after Freshmen Orientation I saw many sporting big bell bottom sideburns with their Fu Manchu’s. Wow! So I started to extend & flare my sideburns to just below my ears. By that first winter my sideburns had extended into my Fu Manchu so I started to trim it all into something we called Mutton Chops (sorry I have no pics of that time other than 35mm slides somewhere).

It didn’t take long before cutting in the lines & shaving the chin for Mutton Chops became a chore so everything was just allowed to fill in to a full beard. By that time my hair was on my shoulders anyway. After college I had to keep it trimmed short & neat for my “professional” yrs. In all that time I’ve only been clean shaven for one or two days. It’s long been white & it’s getting thinner but now I’m back to where I can experiment with length & style. I’ve frequently been told that I have an old soul (whatever that means), & I live in the 1880’s with a few modern conveniences. So that’s how this final chapter shall be.

 

[Frunobulax]

I sported a light moustache in HS that got better as I matured. I went through my own mutton chop phase, but that was very short. Sometime in the mid-80s, shortly after I started dating my future bride, she looked at me one day and said, "You would look good with a beard."

I've only seen my face once since then, when I had to get fit tested for a respirator.

As far as facial hair and hats? I'm of the opinion hats look decent no matter what.