i know this isnt longhair related, but there is alot of beard talk on the board so i figured it cant hurt to ask. I am 16 now, and hair grows on my chin, neck, lips, and sideburn area, just doesnt connect. I was wondering about how old everyone on the board was when they were first able to grow a decent beard. i cant wait till i can grow one, how old were you?
I was 20 before I even had to shave. I was hoping against hope that I would be one of those rare men who wouldn't develop a beard. When it did come in, it came in with a vengence.
I have both a long hair and a full beard. I love my long hair, I can take or leave the beard. I have it because I can't abide shaving...
-Zorba
I was able to grow a full beard at 16. At the time, I loved it! I always had one because it meant never getting carded. I'd buy alcohol for me and all my buds and never was even asked for ID.
What's interesting is that I'm 1/2 Cherokke, and Indians aren't exactly known to be able to grow beards. My mother's side definitely stepped in as far as a beard goes.
These days I usually have a goatee. Sometimes though, I shave it off then grow a full beard for a month or so then go back to goatee.
Anyway...for me, it was 16. Even at 15 I could grow a pretty decent beard. At 16 though, it was all there!
I'm 17 at the moment, and luckily, I only get the 'shadow' that was referred to in previous posts. My brother's 25 and it takes him ages to grow a beard - as with my dad.
So, in a way I'm genetically blessed to never get proper, thick growth quickly - which I'm happy about, can't stand the thought of facial hair on me :)
i had a moustache 'shadow' by the time i was 16. my beard came in much as you have described- disconnected areas of hair growth i was 24 or 25 before my patches 'connected' fully- i wouldn't have objected to much to it had it developed symmetrically but my left side filled in ahead of my right so i kept it shaved.
shadow? what the hell is that? like really thin hair, like peach fuz?
I started growing goatee some months before I turned 15 and a couple of months later I had a nice, thick one, though the moustache and beard couldn't quite connect. I got quite a lot of respect from some of the foreign guys who thought it weird that I, being a white guy, had more beard than any fo them =).
I'll turn 18 soon and still have it, only shaved it off completely once. It connects nicely now and even my sideburns connect if I want them, though the right sideburn is thinner than the left for some odd reason.
I wear the sideburns short and going almost all the way down to the beard, pointed at the ends, like it that way.
I have the exact same thing going on; the left grows faster than the right. How strange... Oh, and I first had to shave when I was almost 17 and I'm 18 now...so it's pretty much every few weeks. I hope so much I don't end up all rough looking *shudders* Bleargh. I can't stand the thought of having a beard :P
Well I'm 16 now and can grow a full beard I'm pretty sure, although I've never grown my moustache long but I'm sure it would grow long no problem. The sides, chin, under jaw etc. are all connected and a pretty good thickness. I started shaving in 8th grade, not sure how old I was, my moustache was pretty thick but the chin and rest of the face was just really ugly wiry hairs, but that got better by 9th grade.
I've had noticeable (to other people) facial hair since I was 16...it was real patchy, though. It wasn't till I was 19 that it started coming in real full-I can grow a decent beard in 2 weeks now!
I started growin my hair out for the first time when I was 15 and experienced years of being mistaken for a girl till I had a good beard. I lifted weights in the meantime!
Hope this helps!
I won the beard-growing contest in high school at age 17. I started saving at 15. I still have a thick, full beard.
Beard growth like so many other things is influenced by your genetics. It is called secondary hair growth, as opposed to the hair you had as a young child, and is in response to the increased amount of testosterone produced in puberty. Beard follicles that possess the 5-alpha reductase enzyme that converts testosterone to dihydrotestosterone will sprout 'terminal' hair.
I am 42. I have had a beard for most of the last 20 years. I grew my first at about 21-22. It looked decent then. Over the years, it has thickened. Sounds like your not quite there yet. That's okay--all in time. At 16, it was just cool to have something to shave--anything! Enjoy what you've got now--always.
Robert
I'm almost 22 now, and I don't think I'll ever be able to grow one. I get a big pile of hair on my neck in a hurry, but that's about it. I haven't shaved my sideburns in probably a year (just trimmed the stragglers), and they're still maybe a half inch long, with little more than a few short hairs that you can see the skin through. And a mustache or goatee? - forget about it, not a chance. I let it go for 1-2 weeks once, and you couldn't see anything from more than couple feet away. I think I get it from my dad - he's always had the same thing.
I started growing a beard about age 13. Unlike Zorba, however, mine did NOT come in with a vengeance. It appeared 1 hair at a time so by the time I started high school, I had serious facial pubes if I didn't shave. The beard didn't finish coming in until I was 19 or 20. I can grow a full beard now but keep it shaved to maintain that clean-cut /long hair paradox that so confuses middle America. ;-)
The Rev
I was 20 kinda late. You should let yours grow what ever you have on your chin sideburns. That would be a good pic. Don't worry you will look great with your long hair. Should try taking a pic when you have some growth bud!
I grew my beard when I first turned 19, and have never shaved it off since then. I recall starting to shave at age 14, and up until I was 16 or 17 it was rather like yours. Although I had a respectable looking beard at 19, it continued to thicken up further for quite a few years afterwards.
Check out my site - there are a few pics of me, the one at the bottom was taken when I was 19 or 20.
David.
Oooops...
The website link thingy didn't work. I'll try again for my site:
http://www.starnet.com.au/davem/bear.html
David
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Hell, I'm 46 and I still can't grow a decent beard. Some people can, some can't. Genetics, I guess.
--Tock
lol well im 18, and i have one real hair on my chin, only one ;p but i have a noticable "fuzz" stash and sole patch ;p looks stupid, the hair is like clear and extreamly thing, sad really.. i have been growing it for a month
sounds like you got it better than me, so dont worry about it
we had to keep shaven in school, so as soon as i graduated in 2000, i stopped contact with scissors/trimmers. my beard is pretty scraggly, and does not exist for an inch under my lower lip or on much of my neck, so i certainly would not call it "full", but it is about five inches long at longest (though curls up to much shorter), and is very bushy and bouncy to "pat". feeling it fly around in the wind is wonderful.