Beardology.

There are 3 basic time periods thus far in beard history. The beginning basically being from the early caveman day to about the time period when the prophets started shaving. Back then beards meant respect, authority, not to say that it doesn't mean a lot of the same things now-a-days....HA! The next stage being when all of the sudden people considered a beard to be gross and a display of grunge and lack of hygiene. The men would always shave after a long days work and before they went into town.
Until recently, this is how society viewed beards, however the intensity ebbed away. In the past few years the beard and the idea of "the beard" has come back with a boom! What could have brought this rage back? What brought about this new surge, love, and adoration of beards?
People have zines about beards, publish sketches and pictures, and the beard can be found around any corner out and about your town.
One of the reasons the new beard craze is MENERGY. The reclaim of masculinity. The rejection to the feminization of men. Denying metrosexuality. The "Middle" period of the beard, the clean face period seemed to bring about the metrosexuality, and this is how men have choosen to push it away.
The next reason being the need for change. Fashion is always changing as we know. But now everything seems more extreme, and people are looking for anything that can help them change their looks. (ex. Lady Gaga, weird clothes and strange makeup). For men, it is harder to achieve a new look without looking too abnormal (again... Gaga.). So they have embraced the face. I dont know if you realize how many styles you can acheive with facial hair. Let me show you.

This is Man's new way to get new looks.
The next and last reason is the rise of Indie/Hipster style. In many places it is reported that Indie Rockers were the first to bring the beard back around. Then people started following. Now not only "hipsters" (the term hipster is still confusing me.) are following, but you can find anyone in and "group" growing some nice whiskers.
I happen to be married to a man who is lucky enough to have an easy shot at growing a beard, I have also married into a family who share the genes. I really hope my future sons will be blessed with this wonderful trait!
I think my husband looks SO fine in a beard. I'm glad they have come back around and I hope that the trend does not leave anytime soon.

Thank you for listening, this is a sub-project for my next paper for english class. If you have any input on how the beard came back about let me know. I'm not very good at reasearching, and my knowledge on the whole "indie hipster" area is not completely clear.
Have a great day!
"oh my beards!"- quoted by my family since 2002 (probably)
see ya!