Beard and beautiful!

Milind Soman (TOI Photo)Gentlemen love beards.
What about the women? It seems, they love hot men with grungy ���lumber-jack��� look, Leonardo DiCaprio flirted with facial furriness in the Oscar-winning Blood Diamonds, Johnny Depp has indeed mastered the art of looking dapper with the ���man-mess���. Sexy men are sporting beards, unapologetically. No longer is the beard verboten, an object of feminine disgust!
THE BEARD MOMENT: The unkempt facial hair was synonymous with the hippie cult as a symbol of defiance and laziness and so invited censure.However, the metrosexual wave in the recent past had eradicated the hairy presence. Its current revival is also a rebellion against the metrosexual trend.
Why are men flaunting their facial flourish? Courting hairiness is a smart way to avert the prolonged hours of meticulous ���scrubbing, cleaning and moisturising��� regime of the metrosexual man. David Beckham, the greatest youth-icon of modern times and the man single-handedly responsible for the metrosexual rage is seen in a bearded avatar these days. Model Tina Chatwal feels that, ���A beard does not make a man although it helps guys look mature and get noticed. A guy should go for it only if it compliments his face and if he is willing to maintain it and not just to blindly follow a trend.���
CASUAL COMEBACK: The increasingly casual nature of the work place supports the return of the beard. Since the work culture has become more relaxed and trendy, men can experiment with hair. Celebrated filmmakers like Shyam Benegal, Shekhar Kapur, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Shimit Amin of Chak De India fame wear the beardy-look. For model-turned-actor, Milind Soman ���flaunting the Christ look with long hair and beard was something that was unheard of especially in the glamour industry and I was warned by my friends against it. However, I went ahead with it as it allowed me to be natural and comfortable with myself. I was tired of people being in awe of my looks and I wanted people to explore other dimensions for my personality and appreciate them in totality���.
LATEST MALE ACCESSORY: When women see Brad Pitt in a beard, it gets trendy. According to hair expert, Jawed Habib, ���Neatness and the soft look has gone out of fashion completely, spiked hair for example is very popular. The untidy look is in, a beard does wonders to attain the bindaas look.��� He adds, that it is the full-beard, which is becoming increasingly popular as it ���helps to build a persona of business���. TV actor, Rohit Roy explains, ���The grungy look is in because ���the rebel��� is the new icon and the ���bad-boy��� image is cool and given a choice, I too love to sport the scruff.���
GET NOTICED: Sporting the stubble is now the surest way to up your kewl quotient. When the hottest men sprout a beard, make sure the rest of the boys will follow the trend. Ritesh, a college goer, who regularly lays down the razor, sums up the argument in favour of the beard, ���while travelling to the West on holidays post 9/11 the beard calls for undue attention from the security personnel at the airport. Whatever be the reason it does grab eye-balls. And women seem to love the look!���