Guys, it was just a joke! But dyed beards catch on

HAS the beard become such a hipster cliché that some wearers now need an embellishment to set them apart from every other 20-something with scruffy facial hair?

Yes, we are talking about the suddenly ubiquitous coloured beard. Numerous street-style sites, Instagram pages and Tumblr homages like The Bearded have been featuring stylish lads with rose whiskers and aqua stubble. There’s also the occasional neo-hippie with a rainbow-hued imperial.

And none of this comes cheap. Salons are seeing some men part with $200 (about R2 400) and two hours of their time for an intense double process (bleach, then dye). Call it the high (or low) point of facialhair grooming.

So how did we get here? According to Diana Schmidtke, celebrity groomer to Jon Hamm and Michael Keaton and a collaborator with the Art of Shaving, the beard trend was born in Brooklyn, US. In the early 2000s, “it was showing up on younger guys there”, she said.

The urbane-rugged look caught fire, dominating men’s fashion and birthing a name. “Forget metrosexual, it’s the whole lumbersexual thing,” Schmidtke said.

Apparently, when it comes to his facial hair, today’s guy doesn’t mind pitching in for extra credit. About a year ago, for an Instagram selfie, the photographer Tyler Dean King used limited-edition Bumble and bumble spraychalk to colour his hair cobalt and his beard minty aquamarine.

“I was originally just going to do my hair, but then after I did it, my beard looked weird,” he said. He snapped the photo, then took a shower and washed out the chalk.

In January, BuzzFeed ran a story on dyed beards, which included King’s photo.

“That’s when everybody lost their minds,” King said. “I was just doing it for fun. I can’t imagine going out with a coloured beard unless it was for a drag night, or something really niche.” Other men are more committed. Mara Kadish, a colourist at Warren Tricomi salon, has had several male HAIRY PRICE: A beard like Turkish designer Tanju Babacan can cost more than R2 000 clients request beard colours in jewel tones (like amethyst) and pastels. And it’s not only rebellious 20-somethings.

“I’m seeing all ages, but mostly guys who work in creative industries,” she said. “In the past, men were more hushhush about the way they look — it was about looking like they hadn’t gotten their hair or beard dyed,” she elaborated. “They’re feeling bolder now.”

The steep price isn’t even the toughest part to stomach, she said. “If the man has dark hair, that means we have to bleach out the hair first. Beard hair is also coarser than hair on top of your head, so you may have to leave the bleach on longer than usual — maybe an hour. That bleach is sitting right under your nose.”

The disc jockey and electronic musician Andy Butler, who dyed his beard neon pink a few months back, said it only lasted a month before it grew out. He pointed to the silliness of the beard trend, saying “it may have hit its peak”.

Butler, who currently has a goatee, is hoping the beard backlash will catch on. “Beards can still look nice and classically beautiful, but I think men hide behind them a little bit,” he said. “Maybe they are not so comfortable with the boyishness or femininity in their face. There was a long period when I did it. But it’s actually really nice to see people’s faces.” — © NYTimes.com