But are hipster beards really over? At Sailor Bup’s Barbershop, a trendy men’s barbershop in Halifax, they are decidedly still in fashion. During a recent visit, most of the employees and clients proudly sport facial hair.
Is the trend is waning?
“It hasn’t really died off that much,” says Cory Murphy, a bearded barber at Sailor Bup’s. “I can’t give you a percentage or anything, but there’s definitely a lot more unshaved men walking around these days.”
Is there a style trend in beards?
“Every beard tells its own story,” says Murphy, explaining that it depends on what type of job the client has. If they’re in a corporate job they’ll need to be more conservative, and some guys in the Navy are allowed to have shorter beards, he says. “If you’re working in a kitchen, you have to wear a beard net, so you’re probably not going to have a bigger beard.”
What about beard maintenance?
There’s more than one would think, says Murphy. “You wash it, beard oil is really good. … there’s actually products like beard shampoo and conditioner that don’t strip all the natural oils out as much as a normal shampoo or conditioner would do.”
Murphy says the sides and mustache need to be trimmed regularly.
“Definitely you need a lot of trims along the sides of the beard, otherwise you’d basically have a ‘beard-fro.’ It gets a little wild, you wake up in the morning, ‘oh god, my beard is out of control right now.’”
Are you getting more guys asking about starting beards?
“There’s definitely a lot of questions,” says Murphy, who has had his current beard for about two years. “It’s kind of neat because as a male when you grow up your dad teaches you how to fight, drink and shave — he doesn’t teach you how to maintain a beard. We’re educating people on what to do when you have one. When I first started growing mine I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.”