Chicken or egg, kilt or beard

[LANCER1562]

I've had moustache since I got out of the Army almost thirty years ago and I grew a beard about twenty years ago just to see how it would look. I got rid of the beard because it was just to itchy. I've shaved off my moustache only three times. When my daughter was born because when I would nuzzle her, it would give her a rash, when my son was born so that it would not iritate his tender skin, and about five years ago when I wanted to remind myself of what I looked like without it (about ten years younger).

I've been wearing kilts for about six years. So I guess facial hair came before kilt wearing.

Since I'm looking for work and competing with youngsters, I may shave the moustache to give myself an advantage.

[TheBrus]

It's close. I started wearing a beard when I was 16, and I could grow a full one (minus the moustache, which grew in a year or two later). I look kind of Amish for a while. The kilt came when I was 19.

One thing the beard is essential for, in terms of Highland dress for me, is I need to have one in order to wear the bonnet. I think I look as goofy in a bonnet without the whiskers. I think it's the lack of a bill--I wear the flat cap no matter what.

Either way, both very manly.

[MikeS]

I started a goatee several years ago when I decided that the hair on my head was too thin to worry about anymore and I started shaving that off. The kilt came later.

I thought of looking masculine has crossed my mind, however its been my experience that those (usually teens) who snicker at seeing "the man in a skirt" usually focus on that one thing and ignore the shaved head, goatee, t-shirt and the boots or chunky shoes, and the "I'm gonna kick the crap outta you!" look that everyone seems to think I have.

Short of wearing a t-shirt that says, "ITS A KILT, STUPID!" I really don't think I could do anything different. I would make a horrible looking crossdresser even if I tried.

[SoSelkirk]

Grew a beard in my early twenties. Have had it for 35 years except for one day. Shaved it off one day, and remembered why I grew it in the first.

Have only had a kilt for a year. Guess the beard is first, but I think the kilt looks better with a beard.

[chrisupyonder]

Never had a beard, never felt the need. I always use a rotary electric shaver, gives a very close shave in 2 mins. If I miss a day and don't shave my face feels grubby and I hate it.
Some look good with a beard but not for me.

Chris.

[Peter Crowe]

As someone who is almost always clean shaven but wears the kilt, I'll offer my thoughts for what they are worth. Since I have been wearing the kilt from the age of three (1969/70), the thought of growing facial hair had nothing to do with it. I may also add that most (not quite all) of the kilt-wearing men I knew as a boy were clean shaven.

1) I have a very mixed growth in terms of texture, colour, and evenness, so that any attempt at facial hair makes me look like I have not washed my face.

2) I have never felt my manhood was in doubt because I am clean shaven and wear the kilt. When wearing THCD I feel myself to be dressed very much as a man (and perhaps more importantly as a gentleman).

3) Some men suit facial hair, I don't! My one serious attempt at a goatee made me look like Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) after about 10 days.

4) My father (who is a retired Merchant Navy Master Mariner and whom on the two occasions when he ever came home with a beard grown while at sea had a King George V pointed Royal Navy number, shaved it off within a week or two of beginning his leave to please my mother) used to put down my friends who were growing moustaches etc. with the choice remark "why bother to cultivate round your mouth what grows wild round your a**e?"

5) Most of my role models including both my late grandfathers were clean shaven.

I am not judging others, some men really suit beards, mutton-chops, moustaches, I just feel I look dirty or like a stranger with facial hair.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

I've had a beard since I was 15. Been wearing the kilt since I was 16. No connection.

[Christo13]

I've had a beard off and on since my early 20s. I'm not fond of the way I look with short hair and no beard--it makes my head look too small for my body. So it's longer hair and a beard. With a beard, I have some semblance of a neck--not a big stump like when I don't wear a beard

The kilt came a few years ago. For me, there's no real relationship between the two, but it's a very interesting point. I'm glad you started the thread.

Christopher

[artificer]

My beard, when properly maintained, is, at best Elizabethan (think Black Adder the 2nd) due to some major scarring down the left side of my face from the crest of the cheekbone down to the middle of the jaw.

It's all patchy on the left side.

Also, for years, it was blonde in the mustache, reddish in the goatee area, and VERY dark in the muttonchops area.

Needless to say, I didn't grow it out

Now that I'm older I occasionally grow a beard. Mostly if the weather is either grotesquely hot or cold, as both irritate my skin. I still need to trim the upper cheek-bone area, as the left side is all f'd-up. But my wife hates kissing me with a mustache, and gents must have priorities. So, apart from a "Lad's week" fishing or terrible weather (hot or cold), I tend to be clean shaven.

The kilt doesn't enter into it.
ith:

[Peter Crowe]

But my wife hates kissing me with a mustache, and gents must have priorities.

ith:

Mine too, another reason why I shave daily.