Okay, the stubble thing is starting to bug me. Oliver Queen in Arrow, Mr. Reese in Person of Interest, Grant Ward and all the other pretty boys in Agents of SHIELD.
I also notice that elegant villains get to shave — Loki, Harrison Wells in The Flash, Hannibal in Hannibal. Most of the leaders of Hydra. Scruffy seems to indicate you’re a low rent villain, a drug dealer or a terrorist.
Then there’s a class of good guys who get to shave. Mr Finch in Person of Interest, Phil Coulson in AofS, Barry Allen in the Flash, Gordon and Alfred in Gotham, Captain America.
So what determines the stubble thing? Hunks don’t shave? Stubble = virility? And do they make a special razor that leaves you with just the right amount of stubble? Is it named for Yasser Arafat?
(This is where your brain goes after you’ve written six pages in one day.)
It’s a visual cue, a simple short cut to hint that the hero is not completely civilized. That there is a wild savage lurkin just under the surface. If you’ll nice in the earlier seasons of Arrow the more time he spent as Oliver the more he shaved
Good point. Mr. Reese is a stone killer and controlled only by his love and respect for Harold. This past season Oliver looks like a homeless guy half the time. All the assassins guild stuff seems to be getting to him.
“Do they make a special razor that leaves you with just the right amount of stubble?”
Indeed they do. Back when Miami Vice was a hot item, there was a razor called the “Miami Device” designed to leave a three-day stubble, such as worn by Colin Farrel (who may well be the one responsible for starting the “unshaven is cool and edgy” trend).
Incidentally, add Matt Murdock, from Netflix’s Daredevil, to the list of ranks of the unshaven.
Well, I’ll be damned! Thanks for that info, Wolf. Yeah, I think it was Daredevil where I finally hit stubble overload. I love that actor and I adored the show, but he’s so good looking and I wanted to see the planes of his face. I loved that actor in Stardust. He was so cute.
“Studies have indicated that women find facial stubble the most “attractive” look when it comes to facial hair. One study went a step further, separating “light stubble” from “heavy stubble,” at which point women found heavy stubble the most attractive and light stubble the least….”
So says http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/03/25/facial-hair-signal/
Obviously, your view is different. 😉
I have noticed in my professional life that I seem to do better with about a quarter-inch or so of heavy stubble. I go much longer, and people start treating me differently, and in a way I don’t exactly like. Of course, my beard is almost totally white now, so maybe that’s part of it?
Well, I don’t disagree with that. I’m not a big fan of the beard so I’ll take stubble over that.