new thread
I wondered if people who have shorter hair lengths like Bill of San Francisco and Longmanedude but yet have vigorous beard lengths and guys like Absalom (Scott) who have extra long hair terminal length but shorter beard terminal length whether their is a kind of connection between variations in beard and hair lenght.
So what do you think? Do guy with longer beards have naturally shorter terminal hair lenghts?
Are there guys out there with beards to their belts along with hair past the waist?
Duncan
It's down to my arse but goatee isn't...what shall I do!
Perhaps if you bend over and kiss your Axxx......goatee will be in position and hair will be flowing freeing past your ankles! Ha!
My thought is that the two are independent of each other and both depend on genetics and age, but the only way to find out for sure would be to do a survey of a few hundred men who have both substantial terminal manes and substantial terminal beards, and such men are not common. In the directories here and at gaylonghair.com, a look at the photos shows only 16 out of 375, which is about four percent. Since longhairs appear in the general adult male population at about two percent, to survey a few hundred such men we'd have to cull them out of a group of about ten thousand longhairs or half a million men in general, and we would not come close to reaching that many people should we take a survey here.
Interestingly, all the longhairs I saw with terminal beards appeared to also have terminal manes, however the converse is not true. Some bald or buzzed men grow terminal beards.
Bill
I think genetics have to be a factor. I've never had any body hair (except in one place), and the goatee I wore for years took a couple of months to grow and required little maintenance since that's the only place my facial hair grows, and slowly too.
But it is independent like you say. I have no MPB, and my hair is growing pretty nicely. My MLHH picture was taken 3 years ago when I was 58.
So the body hair, including the beard, and the head hair are two separate issues I'd say.
Hi Duncan,
I have seen a lot of guys with big beards who have short terminal lengths and/or a lot of MPB.
There is a fellow on the beardcommunity.com board who can barely grow 6 inches of hair and has had MPB since his 20's, yet grows a nice big white beard.
On the flip side, I have seen examples of guys with very long hair and less beard growth. Alessandro, who is listed here as "Ale", is a clear example. Similar case with "Luckskind", too.
In most cases, it has to do with personal testosterone levels, with increased testosterone favoring beard growth and somewhat diminishing head hair growth.
Yes - Victor Engel who started the MLHH is a great example of classic-length hair and a long beard together.
The saying "Your Mileage May Vary" definitely applies here :)
- Oren
Interesting observations, Oren.
I agree that there is sometimes a correlation between prolific beard growth and shorter terminal length head hair and/or MPB. Likewise the inverse is often true. There are, of course, exceptions as you noted. You are a prime example of one!
Here I am! I posted right after Absalom's post.
Visit my Flickr!
In my life time I have seen a few dozen men with very long hair and beards, most of them back in the 70's.
When I first moved to LA 11 years ago, a substitute postman in my neighborhood, had a waist lengh beard and mid back hair. I asked him about it one day and he said he was inspired by his cousin who had knee length hair and beard.
My second enconter, in LA, happened at Universal Studios. At the time I was a tour guide. A Gentleman from Belgium was on my tour hhe had hair past his shoulders and a floor length beard.
That was the longest beard I've ever seen in person.
A couple of weeks ago I had a third encouner, this time a man exiting a post office in Hollywood. He was wearing shorts and flip flops. His hair was waist length and his beard was knee length. What was even more amazing is that he was VERY hairy,
dense blonde fur covering his legs, arms, shoulders, torso (front and back. He was the hariest ma I've ever seen in person.
I was only able to give him a quick compliment on how good he looked before he had to leave. I'm sure that this guys excessive (all be it amazingly attractive) hairiness had to have been some sort of anomaly. One just does not see men that hairy, at the gym, pool, beach, anywhere.
My feeling is there are probably more men than we think who have the ability to the grow long hair long beard combo but for whatever reason have choose not to. That said this style is starting to make a comeback. Last year several Fashion designers promoted colectoins that featured young male models with shoulder length hair and large bushy beards. Many young men in their twenties are starting to grow out their hair and beards in an effort to see how hairy they can get. If this trend continues, overthe next decade, we could see a much larger hairy male population.
I seem to remember Bill posting long ago that he thought growing his beard extra long would somehow detract from his hair. Of course, he changed his mind, which is his right. At the time I think I bought into what he said, but now I still don't want to grow my beard longer. Hard to say why, but although I'm still trying to grow my hair longer I prefer to keep my beard the way it is.
I liked the look, so I stayed with the long beard. It flows together with my hair in my case, and it all ended up at terminal length to be about the same length, so I have one bigger hair mass, and I just look like I have more hair. The "detraction" was that more people seemed to think of me as a guy with a big beard instead of as a longhair, and I got fewer acknowledgments (you know, the smiles and nods we get from each other) from other longhairs. After I'd had long hair for many years, any support from that was unneeded so meant less and "liking the look" prevailed. I went for the long beard.
What's really cool about a beard when it gets as long as mine is that it moves around in the wind and it moves around when you move your head. Just as we discover long hair has life rather than acting like it's painted on, one discovers the same about a long beard!
Bill
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Testosterone probably controls this balance more than any other factor. Mine is 432. (normal range is 299 to 999) I am graphically showing it here as best as I can. You can see it is in the low end of the range. It has been as low as 361.
299||||||||||||||||||432||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||999
299||||||||361||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||999
I would love to have a waist length beard, but it isn't going to happen for me. Those low levels do allow my hair to reach knee length.
I am reasonably convinced that genetics play a role too.
Scott
That sounds right! High testosterone causes baldness as well as body hairyness, so extra long hair could bring a shorter beard.
Actually, my head hair reaches the end of my butt but my beard doesn't grow longer than 10 inches.