People love labels. They make us feel safe. They allow us a convenient way to place others into categories so we feel as though we know what we're dealing with. It's not that surprising, really--it's a built-in survival mechanism. If Grok the cavemen didn't have something in place to help make immediate value judgments, he would have been eaten by something that did. We've come a long way since Grok. Maybe it's time to reconsider the wisdom of holding onto value judgments that are unnecessary and counterproductive in today's world.It seems there's always a new label to put on guys with Beards. Beatnik. Hippy. Mountain man. Hipster. And the most recent label du jour: Lumbersexual. It's a play on the term "metrosexual" and is used to describe the guy who's jettisoned Ryan Seacrest suits for $300 patched jean and custom-tailored flannel shirts. And a Beard. Labels are a funny thing. They almost never fit as well as we like to think they do. The reason I have such an aversion to labels is because I never come close to fitting the ones people impute to me. I'm amazed at how many people who have known me for a couple decades have slapped down the now-defunct "hipster" label on me, simply because I grew a Beard. It was so comical to me that I decided to show them what Hipster Jeff would actually look like. Before the short hair, I was a 'Hippy".
The Beardsmith® mission is to provide quality, affordable Beard solutions. But that's only part of the story. We're here to be a part of transforming the way Beards are viewed and accepted at large. To us, Beards aren't a fad or something used to paint a predefined picture of someone. Having a Beard is simply a grooming choice. It's a natural part of being a human male. In modern history, having a Beard has often been seen as a counter-culture indicator. In today's world, where CEO's wear jeans and sport visible tattoos, this just isn't the case anymore. Trying to attach labels to a man simply because he has a Beard is one of the last holdouts of the counter-culture value judgement. And The Beardsmith™ is here to help it find the door. And yes, we're going to give it a swift kick in the ass on its way out.
Do you have a Beard? Good. Guess what we're going to call you. A guy with a Beard. Anything beyond that is to support a labeling response that is outdated and provides no value to anything. Are you actually a beatnick, hippy, mountain man, hipster or lumbersexual? Go ahead and be one, we don't care what you call yourself. We just care about you and your Beard. So get out there and grow it. We'll call that good enough. It's the only way to get to the point where others stop trying to categorize us simply because we refuse to have an unnaturally bald face. Fortunately for us, dropping labels probably isn't going to result in us becoming breakfast.
Photo © sharplaninac/Adobe Stock