Are beards awesome for dating?
Posted on November 6, 2008
Filed Under Creativity |
I came across 10 very good reasons why you should grow a giant beard, today, when MattJMcD mentioned it on Twitter. Personally, I think it’s hilarious. Maybe I should grow my beard out into a giant beard, instead of the relatively close-cropped beard that it currently is.
After I read through all 10 reasons and finished chuckling quietly to myself, I saw that the site was setup as part of a viral marketing campaign for Mingle2, an online dating site. While it certainly does the trick of giving them a solid backlink, and probably gets them a number of click-throughs, I think it’s a bit strange that they’d use a site about beards to attract people to a dating site.
I mean, let’s face it, despite the claim that “Every beautiful woman you meet will want to touch, stroke, and possibly frolic in your amazing beard,” most women aren’t attracted to guys with beards.
I was lucky enough to meet and fall in love with a woman who thinks beards are sexy, but that’s just not the way most women in Canada & the US think. In fact, before I met Sara, I was thinking about shaving my beard off, because it was really hard to meet women who either found it attractive or who were willing to look past it and get to know the guy who wore it (i.e.: me).
Unless Mingle2 is thinking about becoming the dating site for bearded guys and the women who love them, it seems odd to use a webpage about how awesome beards are as part of a viral marketing campaign.
Regardless of its effectiveness as a marketing campaign, though, Bigger Better Beards is still a hilarious website. Go check it out. I’m sure you’ll get at least a quiet chuckle out of it.
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8 Responses to “Are beards awesome for dating?”
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I dunno, man. I think women ARE attracted to guys with beards. Not all, of course. And I’m not talking the big, bushy type of beard. I don’t think anyone finds those attractive.
I think well-kept facial hair adds to a man’s sex appeal. You can’t be TOO groomed, though. And funky, of-the-moment goatees, etc. don’t have much staying power.
The wife gives me hell whenever I shave the beard. So it stays.
I agree about the overly-groomed goatees and the like. However, the beard thing, I dunno. Obviously, some women are attracted to it, I’m just not sure how common it is.
I actually read something recently that said most women find stubble (2 or 3 days worth) sexier than either clean-shaven or a full beard. But, in a bit of a contradictory twist, most of those same women said that they hate kissing a guy with stubble, because it’s too rough.
So, I guess most women (or at least a good portion of them) do find facial hair attractive, just not necessarily a full beard (and definitely not the huge bushy beard; you’re right, I can’t think of anyone who finds those attractive, other than the guys who grow them).
I am one of the women who likes my men shaved as I have very sensitive skin and your beards make my skin red and sore when you snuggle or kiss me. Sorry but down with the facial hair! Not that the guys aren’t sexy who have them but OUCH!
I totally understand that stubble could hurt, but once it grows out a bit, it’s pretty soft. Still, I can understand your point of view. I can’t exactly imagine making out with someone covered in facial hair, so I understand why a lot of women don’t necessarily like facial hair.
My husband grew one a couple of years ago, but had to shave it for his work place. I’ve been trying to convince him to stick it to the man and grow it back, but no avail. I found that once his beard has grown past the stubble stage, it’s softer and doesn’t irritate my skin too much.
They are actually just link baiting with social media using temp. domain that they will later 301 redirect to the core site for the link juice.
At least that’s how it appears - but shhhh! don’t say anything it’s a secret
Of course I could be wrong - just making an observation
Excellent point, Shalom. That’s probably correct. I’ve got to wonder why they’d do that, though, considering that Mingle2 got in trouble earlier this year for using link building tactics that were somewhat grey. I mean, I suppose this isn’t a blackhat technique, but it’s grey enough that Google might pay extra attention, since Mingle was already penalized for “unkosher” link building.
I say good luck to them - I don’t think it’s wrong if they are using that kind of “bait and switch” technique to strengthen mingle2. The posts are generally entertaining and deserve to be used for a greater good once the effect of going popular on digg has worn off.