Beards and dudes

[Klaus Korters]

Does the beard maketh the Dude or the Dude maketh the beard?
Was just thinking, how many dudes here have beards?
This question was inspired by the Great dude's way of cleaning his top lip hair after taking a slug of White Russian, does anyone else have examples of facial hair sports?

[Rev. Ed C]

I'm not sure about beard sports, but I do have the honour of sporting a beard of around 6'' and growing.  I've had it in various styles over the years, from the plain bush usually tied at the bottom it is today, to a viking style dual-tuft, to my Celtic tri-braid (as sported in my profile pic).

But, I'm not sure it can be said that the beard maketh the dude.  Afterall, a beard only flows as the dude does, and some choose to flow sans-beard.  It's down to personal choice.  I love my beard and would give it up for nothing (I did once before, and regretted it within 24 hours), but some people can't abide them growing out of their own chins.

Not wishing to put too much into this discussion, as I am compiling a future Dudespaper article "You and Your Hair, A Spiritual Journey" on the spirituality of hair growth across religions and culture, but I will part with a key points:

The Dude himself did not grow a full beard, just a long shaggy goatee, ergo he must have shaved his cheeks and jaw.  The Stranger sports a stylish bushy tash and keeps the rest of his face in line.  Of course, in reflection, these two men are mirror images of their own actors who always keep that same style in life and in a lot of their other movies.  But, that aside, they are given to forming their own Dude style through facial hair, as opposed to just letting it all grow as I do.  This is the prime example of Dudes choosing facial styling over  a statement of either naturalness or laziness.

This is seen in many other Dudes.  Is JC more of a Dude than Big Sid, just because Jesus had more of a pronounced beard that Buddha?  Who was the more valid author, Vonnegut or Twain?  It certainly doesn't matter about the size of their moustache, dude.  Of course, from Lao Tzo to Heraclitus, to Jerry Garcia to Terry Pratchett dudes have more commonly fallen in with the beard, but that's because there are more beard styles than beardless styles, the difference between having hair and being bald

[Klaus Korters]

"You and Your Hair, A Spiritual Journey" on the spirituality of hair growth across religions and culture.
Thats fucking interesting man, I wish you well on the project.
Just to say it was merely observational, the reason I asked, as I noticed much facial hair around, apart from my own which is called a Baldric, that is when you have the tash and the goatee, the goatee being hair on the chin only. 

[therighteousdude]

Well, I've had a beard for 20-something years, now, man. Had it long, had it short. Shaved it once and The Mrs. Righteous Dude didn't care for me beardless.

Normally, I keep it short, along with my hair. Just less hassle, man. Around here, people get all reactionary if you have long hair and a long beard. They start avoiding you and giving you funny looks. Just too much negative energy.

You don't have to have a beard to be a dude, and having a beard doesn't make you a dude, but they sure are cool.

[Caesar dude]

My friend who is an Australian Dude, has no hair and is bald...I call him upside down man.