Fedoras and beards

[Mike H]

Another vote for beards and fedoras. The right hat will complement any style.

 

[Not-Bogart13]

The 'stache is great Douglas! And you always seem to have some great hats that suit you well. :eusa_clap

NB

 

[Fletch]

Without trying to sound conceited I don't think I look that bad. Do I? Don't answer that.

You actually look very sharp. It's not easy to bring off a classic snapbrim with a modern parka. :fedora:

Now: I understand the Gaylord is discontinued – What do you call that color, and what else can you sell me in a 7 5/8 in that color?

 

[LeeB]

Just my two cents. I've had a beard for more than twenty years (since before grqduating high school) but I've only been wearing fedoras for about five. I've had no complaints and I think I look good. As long as you wear the hat comfortably, it'll look good no matter what.

 

[Sefton]

How about this fine fellow?

 

[art92101]

Beards n hats n helmets

I think the beard or in my case a goatee looks good with a hat. One place where i actually thought it improved my "look" was with a motorcycle helmet. With my clean face i think I look like a dork when wearing a helmet. Kind of fat faced. Now with the goatee...I think it elongates the face and I look better in the helmet. At least i get second looks from some women. And my bike is a honda Helix scooter..so its not the bike.

 

[Tango Yankee]

fedoras n beards n helmets

I think the beard or in my case a goatee looks good with a hat. One place where i actually thought it improved my "look" was with a motorcycle helmet. With my clean face i think I look like a dork when wearing a helmet. Kind of fat faced. Now with the goatee...I think it elongates the face and I look better in the helmet. At least i get second looks from some women. And my bike is a honda Helix scooter..so its not the bike.

Switch to a full-face helmet--problem solved, and you get better protection as well! (Couldn't resist--I'm a former motorcycle safety instructor! )

After 25 years of just a regulated mustache I started growing my beard immediately upon retirement. I think it looks good with a fedora or a Gable-style. (See my avatar.) As long as you're comfortable wearing both you'll look good.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Hans]

My Own Opinion

While beards were not especially fashionalbe during this period,One found them on:academics;Orthodox clergymen;eccentrics,anda number of Europeans.
Take a look at many of the extras in the film "CASABLANCA."One sees many of the men with neatly trimmed beards in a variety of styles.And they all wear hats.But the keyword is NEAT.
In the film"The Cincinnati Kid"(which takes place in the 30s),Edward G. Robinson wears a fine,well groomed space beard and mustache.Along with a gray homburg.He wears neat clothes,has impeccable manners,and is courteous.He's a gentleman.
Monty Wooley("The Man Who Came to Dinner")wore a full beard during his entire adult life.It was thick,neat,well-groomed and well-trimmed.He was distinguished and elegant.it enhanced his appearance.
The keyword,I believe,is neatness.The focus of this froum(I'm quite new)is on elegance and neatness.That's what it's about.

 

[leo]

The original question on this thread was answered long before my joining, but I will join Hans in adding a bit.

I've worn a mustache or goatee or beard in some fashion for over 30 years. In the last few, I generally keep a close-cropped goatee in the summer (short hair, too), and a trimmed full beard during the winter. I believe that fedoras and panamas compliment my beards nicely. Others seem to agree.

My beard now covers up most of the scaring on my face caused by recent reconstructive surgery from skin cancer, so it is as functional as it is decorative.

Bill

 

[KObalto]

"So, what's with the hat?"

"What about it?" I asked.

"Nothing. You usually see them on fat guys and guys with beards?"

I am neither fat nor do I wear a beard. I shrugged. The theory was new to me.

"It looks good on you though," she said, though not at all convincingly.




*"People of Rotundity". Thanks TinT

EDITED to say: BEARD FUNK!?!?!?!
*barf*

I could be wrong, but I'm 50 and clean-shaven (most days) and I have thought that definitely put me in the minority among FLers and other hat wearers who are middle-aged. I feel like one of the few who doesn't have a beard.

 

[dostacos]

I have worn a full beard for close to 20 years, I just started wearing a goatee. I have a thick beard and always hated shaving at 4AM before I went to work. Now I shave my cheeks and neck usually daily. I will always wear a mustache since I have serious issues with shaving my upper lip

I also wear fedoras and frankly if others don't like my beard and/or goatee and fedora that is their problem

 

[RBH]

I also wear fedoras and frankly if others don't like my beard and/or goatee and fedora that is their problem

AMEN Brother Taco!

 

[Rooster]

Back in the 80's when Indiana Jones first came out I tried a fedora. Looked like crap with a red ZZ Top beard that came down to my belly button and strawberry blond hair that came down to my lower back. Now a horned Viking helmet looked fantastic back then, but a fedora....no.lol

 

[duggap]

Heck, I sported a beard for over twenty years. Then I went through radiation treatment to the throat and now I can't grow a beard at all. Don't seem fair, but for all you bearded fellows, I like the look of a good fedora on a man with a beard. Maybe I could paste one on.......[huh]

 

[deanglen]

When I wore them, the beard and glasses elicited a few remarks about looking like a rabbi. Kind of funny if you think about it.

dean

 

[Hans]

Some new Thoughts

As a newer member of this forum,I feel entitled to share some of my experiences.
I've worn hair on my face since June,1968.Sideburns,then in June,1970-a mustache.A spade beard was added on 9/1/70.he beard became full on 9/1/72.Have had it like that ever since.
If I hadn't trimmed it,it would be 18 feet long.But,neatness and proper grooming have been essential for me.
I have 4 dress hats. A black Tyrolean,(January,1971).A pearl grey Fedora(November,1972).A grey Tyrolean(December,1991).A black Homburg(December,1994).
Fur hats,Kangol caps,and Panamas as needed.
I'm a well-educated(Ph.D.,Pennsylvania State U.,1979),professional(Counseling Psychologist) who has to meet with clients and the public constantly.While I wear blue jeans at home, at work it's impeccable hygiene,immaculate grooming,and a neat appearance with regard to clothing.Some of my colleagues used to com in with T-shirts and bib overalls.So be it.
Having endured the excesses of the period 1967-1977,I became convinced that,if i wished to wear a beard and longer hair,I needed to add other accessories to show the public that I wasn't some sort of counterculture yahoo.Hence the proper clothing and gear,including a hat when weather warrented it.
I like this forum(so far),as the period seems to espouse dignity and elegance.I hope to be able to add other comments when appropriate.

 

[Nigel]

I have just grown a beard, well goatee to be precise, for the first time, IMO I think it looks good with my western hats. I am waiting for the mailman to bring my first fedora, a Penneys Marathon, I'll decide how it looks with my goatee shortly.

 

[BigLittleTim]

Rock Hudson, beards, bias, etc.

Rock Hudson, in one of those Doris Day movies, pretends to be a college professor. He grows a beard and wears a tweedy suit and glasses. He allows himself to be "made over" by Doris, and the coup-de-grace is her convincing him to shave off his beard !!!

A woman in the salon, when she sees him clean-shaven, exclaims: "My! You really DO have a handsome husband!"

As if Rock Hudson could be made to look dowdy by growing a beard!!

It just shows you what a blind-spot western culture had when it came to facial hair back in the Golden Age (1920's through the '50's). Only old men or "professors" could get away with it.

-BigLittleTim

 

[Fatdutchman]

Off and on since High School, I have worn a mustache. Usually, though, I have been clean shaven. Right now I'm back to my big Tom Selleck/Cowboy mustache. My facial hair grows so fast, I can have a fair mustache in a week, and a really nice one in three, so I can change up whenever I want to suit my fickle moods.

I think it looks fine with a fedora, and wear one every day.

You DON'T want to see me with a beard. I've tried once or twice. Oh, it grows in nice and full, but also BRIGHT orange (compared to my sandy blonde hair). Barbarossa indeed! Besides, I really find a beard exceptionally uncomfortable. Mustache don't bother me, but a beard sure does.

I think, like everyone else, that the hat with the beard thing is mostly neatness. If the beard is neat and "classicly styled", it will look fine with a hat and neat clothing.

 

[BrotherBob]

On beards and moustaches...

I have had a beard of one type or another since before my daughter was born. That was 1972.

I had a medical problem (internal bleeding) in May and was in a coma for a week or so. An orderly had to quickly shave my beard and moustache so that they could insert several tubes into every damned orifice I have.

When I came out of it, my son-in-law kept asking my daughter "When are you going to tell him?"

I was still VERY goofy, but finally I asked what in the hell he was talking about. He squealed with delight as he told me they shaved me, and did a real bad job, too.

I took it in stride and only let my "womb-groom" and a thin moustache grow back, cut off my ponytail, which had been growing for three years, and bought some fedoras. My dermatoligist made me buy a bush hat, since I'm a Surveyor and Mapper and had damaged my skin over the years (most brutal sun I've seen: Kyrgyzstan) . I figured what-the-hay, and that's when I bought 5 fedoras and 3 new pair of glasses over the last few months.

CIGNA won't pay for them, but it's nice to "rearrange the furniture", anyway. I feel like a different person. In fact, right now, as I type, I'm watching "Lassie Come Home", a nice period piece starring the most beautiful woman ever to grace the screen.

Clothes do make the man.