Lumberjack beards and handlebar moustaches. Is that the new thing?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

I've recently noticed a lot of 20 and 30 something year old guys out there who are decked out in full length, scruffy type lumberjack beards. Illustrated:





A few have even gone as far to add to said lumberjack beards the old-fashioned handlebar moustache:



I've even noticed it popping up on television. For example, last season's Top Chef contestant Josh:



So is this a new trend that I totally missed? Have we suddenly grown a strong nostalgia for turn-of-the-20th-Century era woodsmen?

And if so, should I grow a lumberjack beard and/or handlebar moustache of my own?

Thank you, and I'll take my answer off the air.

[dr.strangelove]

1. My dad had he Rollie Fingers stache!

I miss seeing him and his waxed handlebars. I loved that look. I could never pull it off, but he looked great with it.

[Chan790]

2. Starting 3-4 years ago through the present...yep.

It's a hipster thing. It helps if you also dress in very-expensive non-lumberjack-appropriate plaid like this Jack Spade:

http://www.jackspade.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-JackSpade-Site/en_US/Product-Variation?pid=P2RU1030&dwvar_P2RU1030_size=XL&dwvar_P2RU1030_color=400
$165.00

[CurtEastPoint]

3. $165 for a SHIRT? Yikes. $38K handbags, now this...

[Chan790]

4. That's a cheap one.

Some of the others in the current Jack Spade collection are as high as $240. Possibly noteworthy, they're also a manufacturer of high-end handbags and small-luggage...some of which goes as high as $400 for a messenger bag.

[rrneck]

5. All you need are looks and a whole lot of money...

[antiquie]

6. Too bad.

I thought it was pushback from manscaping.

[bluedigger]

7. I don't think the beards ever fell out of fashion on the Western slope.

But I did have a young customer with a handlebar the other night that made me do a double take.

[pinboy3niner]

8. 'Whisker Wars' TV series on Independent Film Channel (trailer)

[OriginalGeek]

9. I'm nearly 50 and have been rolling with the handlebar

for 4 or 5 years now..it comes and goes though as I have periods of feeling like it's a pain in the ass to maintain and others where it just comes out without much help from me. My beard, however, is just a little bit long goatee...maybe some day when all the hair finally falls out of the top of my head I'll let the rest go shaggy.

I'm pretty sure I'm far from hip though. I'm too old to be a hipster and too young to be a Santa Claus but I am irrationally attracted to being a little different.

[Arcanetrance]

13. Ive gone back and forth between goatee and beard

A few years back I had a beard that would rival Johan from Amon Amarth and now I have a nicely kept goatee

[OriginalGeek]

14. Epic beard is epic!

My goatee is mayyyyybe 2 inches long and my wife complains about that much. I remember being a little kid in the late 60s and my uncle coming to visit my dad and he had long hair and long beard and that's probably why I still have as much as my head will hold onto...but I doubt I can get away with epic beard.

[Arcanetrance]

15. Thankfully I have a loving girlfriend who put up with it and at the time I was doing meat cutting

So i wore a hair and beard net in fact there were more guys with beards than without. But now that I'm working in restaurant kitchens I keep a nicely trimmed goatee

[Rob H.]

10. I haven't been clean-shaven in 6 years or so

I used to trim my beard down to a Van Dyke in the warmer part of the year, but this year the beard stayed intact. I keep mine trimmed short, though, since lumberjack-style is not for me. (I'm 44, so maybe that's why I don't see the attraction.)

I'd like to shave it all off later this year, I think, but I'm tempted to do something like shave it into Wolverine-style mutton chops for a laugh first or maybe something like this gloriously insane creation:

[NightWatcher]

11. It's the gawd damned hipsters

[loli phabay]

12. ah memories, i used to sport a handlebar when i was in the military no longer though

It looked good with a shaved head. Lol