Beard of Sorrow



"I'm a lot like my dad, I would have to say

He's been wearing a beard ever since mom passed away

She would have hated it"

- Buck 65, Roses and Blue Jays

One of the easiest ways to show that a male character has fallen into depression is to show him with unkempt stubble or sometimes even a full beard after a Time Skip.

Happens to be Truth in Television, of course. A common symptom of depression is loss of interest in personal appearance; and in men this might cause them to quit shaving. This is frequently accompanied by the Drowning My Sorrows trope.

Some observant shows may justify this with Jewish characters, because, by Jewish law, men may not shave for thirty days as means of mourning.

Subtrope or perhaps Sister Brother Trope to Good Hair, Evil Hair: just as a goatee indicates evil, so does stubble/an unkempt beard indicate squalor. Also a subtrope of Expository Hairstyle Change.

Contrast Perma Stubble, which is the mark of a Badass. Also contrast with Wangst, which is telling, while this trope is showing. Compare Perma Shave, where no facial hair grows.

Anime & Manga

 * Gendo Ikari of Neon Genesis Evangelion is seen beardless when he's young but, bar one scene, bearded . Suits his new persona rather well.
 * Aizawa of Death Note gets preparatory Angst Stubble.
 * This Happens in Zodiac.
 * Fullmetal Alchemist's Roy Mustang sports a bit of stubble while.
 * Vash does this after the Fifth Moon incident in Trigun.
 * Tomoya of Clannad After Story gains a stubble after the events in THAT episode.
 * The titular character of Afro Samurai sports an unkempt beard at the beginning of the sequel, after living for some time as the Number One.
 * Sasahara from Genshiken briefly grows some stubble when he's losing hope of ever finding a job.
 * Hei seems to be a victim of this trope in the second season of Darker Than Black.
 * Tenma from Monster not only ceases to care that his beard is unkempt and his hair growing all over the place, but he goes to the degree of negligence where other characters are complaining of his smell and emaciated appearance.
 * In the 1986 feature film version of Fist of the North Star, Kenshiro grows a textbook version after he loses to Shin.
 * Soul Eater: Stein grows some stubble when
 * Kiryu in Yu-Gi-Oh 5 Ds doesn't grow a beard, (he may not be capable of it) but when he hits a huge slump in Crash Town, his hair grows quite a bit because he's not bothering to cut it.

Comicbooks

 * John Constantine of Hellblazer, when he falls into an alcoholic depression and takes to the streets after Kit leaves him.
 * When Tony Stark/Iron Man became an alcoholic this happened.
 * Ralph Dibny grows this after those Running the Asylum at DC decided that a funny, healthy, loving marriage can't exist for as long as his did, and raped and retroactively raped in flashback and killed off his wife Sue. Also, his face looked completely different.
 * Scott Summers does that a lot. Fans have taken to calling it "The stubble of angst". and comment on how fast he grows it.
 * Jamie Madrox in the recent X-Factor series grew one, after.
 * Cosmo in Elf Quest - The Rebels after
 * Franky grows one in The Goon: Chinatown & the Mystery of Mr. Wicker, when
 * One time when Thor came home to find Asgard laid waste and all his friends missing, The Mighty Thor returned to Earth weeks later with a beard. This wasn't so much because he was depressed as because he had been searching for weeks nonstop and just hadn't taken the time to shave. (The beard looked pretty awesome actually, since Thor arguably shouldn't be clean-shaven in the first place.)
 * Flycatcher in Fables grows a massive orange beard whilst . He later implies that he hadn't even noticed it.
 * Superman grows one while traveling space to protect the earth from the split personality he developed out of guilt after executing three Kryptonian criminals, although that may just have been because he didn't pack his shaving kit, since he was going on a voyage into space, after all.
 * Also, most post-apocalyptic versions of Superman are be shown as having grown-out beards, most likely due to their inability to prevent the aforementioned apocalypse.
 * Reed Richards grew one during his exile in the past. It was lampshade when he told his family that Doc Samson suggested that he shaved it so it won't remind him of the past.
 * Savage Dragon did this early in his series when a girlfriend was killed.

Film

 * Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall. Twice as awesome because he cycles between cleanshaven and furry more times than you can count.
 * The Spy Who Came In From The Cold's main character acquires one as he becomes an alcoholic as part of his cover to become a Reverse Mole.
 * Moulin Rouge opens with a grieving bearded Ewan McGregor. You find out why later.
 * In Pirates of the Caribbean, Norrington is clean-shaven while he is accepted in society, but while he is disgraced (and has lost his love), he doesn't shave.
 * X Men the Last Stand: Cyclops displays a stubbly beard while in mourning (for as long as he's in the film, that is).
 * Ron Burgundy grows one of these in Anchorman right after his career apparently goes down the drain.
 * In The Butterfly Effect it's subtly used, but there. In the futures that Evan loses Kayleigh in he's always grown out a full beard. When he's still with her in the "frat-boy" future he's shaved it down to a goatee, but it isn't until that he's clean-shaven.
 * Swingers: Jon Favreau's character, Mike, rocks an atypical unkempt Beard of Sorrow after Sue gives him The Business in the parking lot.
 * In Sunshine, Mace's unkempt hair and stubbly beard represent his degrading morale. When he finally starts to buck up and take things seriously, he shows up clean-shaved, with a fresh buzzcut.
 * Parodied in Superhero Movie; with Rick's fake beard.
 * Hancock's Perma Stubble is eventually revealed to also be a Beard of Sorrow. Having lost his memories and sense of belonging, he's drifted into a self-perpetuating slump. His rise out of this drunken depression is marked by his removing the beard. With his fingers.
 * Inverted in Hostage. Willis actually has a beard and unkempt hair BEFORE the sorrow.
 * James Bond ends up with a Beard of Imprisonment in Die Another Day, one of the few times he's seen with any kind of facial hair on screen. (His chest hair, on the other hand...)
 * Forrest Gump decided to just start running non stop after Jenny left him. He didn't care about anything besides running and as a result grew a long beard.
 * Subverted in Rasen: Ando attempts to slash his wrist, but can't go through with it. Cut to him shaving for work.
 * Lucius Malfoy sports some stubble on his otherwise aristocratic face after sharing his home with Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. Either he's very worried about Draco, or he just misses "Snakey".
 * Inception: Cobb, although it may qualify more as a Stubble of Sorrow
 * Mr. Rochester of the 2011 Jane Eyre film has one when
 * In Team America World Police, Gary grows stubble after leaving the team.
 * Rainn Wilson's character grows one of these in Hesher after At the end,.
 * Kumar grew one of these in A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas, after his girlfriend Vanessa dumped him for being irresponsible.
 * Jet Li's character in Fearless, who's normally Bald of Awesome, gets a long, shaggy beard and head of hair after
 * Played straight in Hesher. The main character's father wears one throughout most of the film, but shaves at the end to indicate he's come to terms with

Literature
"He was degenerating visibly, under the eyes of all. He had entirely lost the almost foppish concern for his appearance, and was grown careless and slovenly in his dress. He allowed a black beard to grow on cheeks that had ever been so carefully shaven; and the long, thick black hair, once so sedulously curled, hung now in a lank, untidy mane about a face that was changing from its vigorous swarthiness to an unhealthy sallow, whilst the blue eyes, that had been so vivid and compelling, were now dull and lackluster."
 * In Dan Abnett's Gaunts Ghosts novel Honor Guard, after a disaster, Gaunt starts drowning his sorrows, but when a general arrives, he has straightened up; his soldiers note with relief that he is clean and clean-shaven.
 * Harry Dresden's normal response to grief. And it goes on a long time.
 * Roran of the Inheritance Cycle. After, he grows a beard, and keeps it for the rest of the series.
 * Older Than Dirt: In The Epic of Gilgamesh several characters remark on Gilgamesh's haggard, bearded appearance after the death of Enkidu.
 * Inspector Lynley stops shaving and washing during his trek along the Cornish coast in Careless In Red.
 * Captain Blood goes through a period like this in the original novel when depressed after believing he's lost the love of his life:


 * Inverted in The Way of Kings, shaving the beard he grew as a slave is one small piece of Kaladin becoming a warrior once more.

Live-Action TV

 * In Doctor Who, the Eleventh Doctor grows one of these while held in the Tower of London by the Holy Roman Emperor Winston Churchill. It's a long story.
 * Burn Notice: In "Good Soldier", Michael Westen adopts the persona of an alcoholic and stops shaving.
 * Heroes: Nathan Petrelli in Season Two. General reaction among fans was Kill It With Fire - thankfully, it vanished after two episodes.
 * When House  he shaves his Perma Stubble. The other characters are taken aback by this, not to mention the fans.
 * Lost:  at the end of the third season. The beard was massive, probably because it stood for alcohol and pills. Frank Lapidus of the Freighties also sported a beard, as he was busy drinking before being recruited.
 * The Office: In the US series, Roy grows a Beard of Sorrow after Pam breaks up with him. This does involve alcohol (and a DUI). Later, reeling after his breakup with Angela, Dwight also rocks the depression stubble.
 * At the beginning of the second season of 24, Jack has one as he is shown missing his wife and daughter and possibly contemplating suicide. It takes the killing and beheading of a peodophile to snap him out of it and reach for the razor.
 * In Band of Brothers, Don Malarkey has quite a scruffy beard, starting right after . It's not until episode 10 that he's shown clean shaven and (seemingly) happier.
 * Scrubs: Dr. Cox after spirals into a depression that involves drinking and growing a much heavier beard (as opposed to the regular stubble he had for much of that season).
 * Also, grows an impressive beard in a minimal amount of time after he gets dumped, explaining to J.D. that he is part Bulgarian.
 * Dr. Romano in ER, after his
 * The Shield: Actor David Rees Snell, who played "Ronnie Gardocki" on "The Shield", upgraded in his trademark moustache to a full-fledged beard in between seasons two and three of the series (largely to sidestep the issue of his character being brutally disfigured in season two by having a beard cover up where his scars were). The character shaved off the beard midway through season six, to please a new girlfriend of his, but after finding out that fellow Strike Team member Shane Vendrell had not only murdered Ronnie's friend Lem, and had exposed Vic and Ronnie's involvement in robbing several million dollars from a local crime syndicate's money laundering ring, the beard came back for revenge as Ronnie sought (unsuccessfully) to save himself from being destroyed by Shane and Vic's war.
 * Titus- In fact, taking time to shave was an indication that he was going sober.
 * Used a few times in Rome:
 * Mark Antony in grows a beard after Octavius defeats his army. By a historical account, this actually happened.
 * Brutus grows one after he kills Caesar. It goes away after he cleanses himself in a river in slow motion.
 * Lucius Vorenus grows a "mourning beard" after his wife dies. His friend Pullo grows one as well out of solidarity.
 * Angel - Starting towards the end of Season 3, Wesley, the formerly clean-shaven, glasses-wearing nerd loses his glasses, his boyish optimism, and his boyishly smooth cheeks. He kept it up for the rest of the series, too- this was The Stubble That Would Not Die.   It was part of Wesley's character development, a visual aid to his newly acquired badassery. Alexis Denisof once commented in one of the episode commentaries how difficult it was to maintain the stubble rather than either keeping clean-shaven or just actually growing a full beard. This was also Lampshaded in the memory-loss ep. "Spin The Bottle", where Wesley, who, along with the rest of the gang has woken up thinking he is in high school after a memory spell goes awry, scratches his chin thoughtfully and remarks "I seem to have grown about three days' worth of beard."
 * Star Trek the Next Generation: In an alternate timeline, William T. Riker (who's already famous for Growing the Beard), captains the Enterprise. In the timeline, the Borg have won, the United Federation of Planets has been destroyed and the Enterprise is one of the last few intact/unassimilated ships. As a result, he grows a beard of Leonidas-like proportions.
 * BattlestarGalactica: Happens multiple times over the course of the show, some of them played with:
 * There's a triple example during the New Caprica story arc. After the Time Skip humanity is doing pretty crappy and both Saul Tigh and Chief Tyrol sport big scruffy beards while Admiral Adama had a case of a mustache of sorrow. They all lose their facial hair around the same time when the status quo is returned and they're able to leave the planet. Starbuck can also be said to have grown Long Hair of Sorrow during the same arc, while Apollo leaves his hair untampered with but has the Weight Gain of Sorrow to show his misery after, both of which also go away quickly after they're back on Galactica.
 * Similarly, Gaius Baltar grows a beard during his trial after the events of New Caprica and loses it once he slips away into hiding.
 * Tyrol again stops shaving after . And then later he goes all Private Pyle on us.
 * In an episode of Sledge Hammer, Sledge starts showing up to work looking disheveled and with unkempt stubble after the love of his life was stolen from him... that love being his gun of course.
 * On Charmed, after Phoebe rejects and divorces Cole, he grows a beard, goes insane, and attempts suicide only to discover that he's Nigh Invulnerable.
 * When Grey's Anatomy's Dr McDreamy, his face acquired a startling amount of bush.   the beard disappeared and quite a lot of viewers let out a sigh of relief; if not because  , then because Patrick Dempsey looks a lot cuter clean-shaven.
 * Crichton at the start of Farscape season four.
 * Daniel in Ugly Betty, after losing his fiancé.
 * The first episode of Chuck's third season sees Chuck grow one of these after  We actually see it growing in a series of cuts as Chuck's life wastes slowly away.
 * Rob Fitch (Katie and Emily's dad) has one in series 4 of Skins.
 * Parodied in Weeds by Andy when Nancy . People keep commenting on it, and he eventually shaves it, after much hilarity.
 * On That 70s Show, Eric gets one after his
 * In a sixth season episode of Medium Joe grows a Beard of Sorrow while Allison is in a coma. It's a pretty impressive beard, though it turns out to be a dream.
 * Duncan near the end of the first season of Veronica Mars. Unless he's actually entering the Beardness Protection Program -- at the time that he grows it, he's both depressed and running away from home.
 * Lampshaded in the season 3 episode of How I Met Your Mother, where  grows a beard after breaking up with  . Also played with, in that the beard only showed up for less than two minutes of screen time before it was shaved off, in stages, as he kept walking in and out of the bathroom to shave off portions of the beard between taking part in a group conversation in the living room. Each time he comes out of the bathroom, he is given a different name by his friends, including "Old Timey Inventor", "Our 21st President, Chester A. Arthur", and "Persian Nightclub Owner".
 * Mulder of The X Files grows one of these in times of stress, ranging from stubble in season 2 when Scully is missing to a full beard in the six-year interim between the end of the series and "I Want to Believe".
 * Byers has very subtle one. In the episode "Three of a Kind", he has a dream sequence about living the American Dream. At the begining of the dream he has a short and neat beard, but his beard becomes longer after his dream is shattered.
 * Gibbs, after being blown up, and retires. Even if it is just a mustache
 * Danny Messer, after being shot in the back on CSI: NY. It started with a few month time skip between seasons and then only lasted a few eps after the season opener, getting shaved off when he found he could walk again.
 * Constable Fraser talks of this happening with his father, Bob Fraser, after his mother's death in Due South. He recalls his dad then suddenly coming out of his depression, shaving, and making breakfast one morning.
 * Ben Wyatt of Parks and Recreation sports some thick stubble after.

Music

 * The song "Razor Burn" by Lagwagon is all about this.
 * On the night she left me, facial hair grew miraculously, I dressed in black like Johnny Cash and grew this beard of shame.
 * Hollywood Undead's song about spiraling into depression and alcoholism has the line, "I haven't shaved in a week".

Videogames

 * Phoenix Wright in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, 7 years after he.
 * After going through a the events of Condemned: Criminal Origins, main character Ethan Thomas went from being a clean cut Federal Agent to a bearded alcoholic transient transient by the time of the sequel. Considering the events of the game, I can't say I blame him.
 * After getting  at the end of Act 3, Snake spends the Act 4 Briefing of Metal Gear Solid 4 with a stubbly jaw, although he's shaved it off by the time he becomes playable again.
 * Heavy Rain: After  a formerly clean shaven Ethan Mars sports a beard for the rest of the game.
 * He will shave it at the end of the game
 * Both Kane and Lynch games have Kane with one. He grows one in the first game's final act after  and he is forced to travel to Cuba to get revenge. He begins Dog Days with one after his daughter tells him to his face that she hates him and never wants to see him again.
 * In the trailer for Gears of War 3, Dom is shown with a heavy beard. This is likely due to the fact that
 * Max Payne has this in the upcoming third game, in addition to being fat and bald.
 * Naked Snake does this in transition to becoming Big Boss in Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, in response to the events of Snake Eater.
 * He did already have a beard, although it was less a "beard" beard and more Perma Stubble.
 * In Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories,.
 * By Mass Effect 3 the default male Commander Shepard's perma-stubble has begun to evolve into one.

Webcomics

 * In Supernormal Step, Van stops shaving while he searches for Fiona, who ditched their party after her Heroic BSOD.
 * Steve from Questionable Content grows one after a break-up. He is also seen drinking heavily. He keeps it after getting better, albeit groomed instead of fluffy-lion mane.
 * Indie Rock Pete from Diesel Sweeties can literally grow a beard as he is told depressing news.
 * Davan grows a beard when  Ironically, he still has this beard once he gets over his issues and is seen smiling. He eventually shaves it off, but no show is made over it.
 * When Agatha fakes her own death in Girl Genius, the mourning Gilgamesh Wulfensbach swiftly develops a Perma Stubble - and takes a level in badass. Interestingly enough, he keeps the badass-ness even after he shaves...
 * Dmitri from Dresden Codak grows one at the end of the Hob storyline.
 * In Sluggy Freelance Riff grows one of these after exterminating the human race.
 * It's slightly less bad than it sounds. And it's not *our* Riff.
 * Ethan has been growing some stubble ever since Zeke left, return to alcoholism included.
 * Subverted in Scary Go Round when Ryan shaves his beard in sorrow after Fallon breaks up with him.
 * The page picture is taken from this Rob and Elliot strip.

Web Originals

 * In The Gamers Alliance, Refan grows a beard after the Cataclysm because he feels he betrayed the world for not killing his brother when he had the chance, which might have prevented the rise of the Godslayer.
 * Tariq grows a beard at the start of Kate Modern series 2, apparently out of grief.
 * The Nostalgia Critic is a Sad Clown and has had a goatee ever since he first started.

Western Animation

 * When Bender stopped drinking, he developed a beard-shaped patch of rust. Fry occasionally develops a Beard of Sorrow in a few episodes.
 * Homer Simpson of The Simpsons. He grew it over the course of one day -- could sorrow increase the growth rate of a beard?
 * And Smithers, during the 'Who shot Mr. Burns?' plotline.
 * Sol Butcher of Sons of Butcher has one of these in the pilot episode, and it reappears several times through the series. He actually refers to it as his "Alcoholic Beard".
 * Being prepubescent, Aang of Avatar: The Last Airbender had to grow Hair Of Sorrow after which didn't sit well with him. He shaved it again right before
 * After The Venture Brothers' death, Dr. Venture grows such a beard while traveling around the world "finding himself".
 * And Mr Incredible, the Reed Richards Is Useless Expy of Mr Fantastic grew one when his wife left him for Rusty's one-armed midget brother.
 * On Jimmy Two Shoes, Beezy manages to get stubble literally seconds after losing his collection of chewed gum.

Real Life

 * A common symptom of depression is that sufferers stop caring for their appearance, so beards of sorrow are pretty common in Real Life.
 * Inverted by Alexander the Great who reputedly shaved off all his hair after the death of his lover Hephaistion. At the time, this was a standing custom.
 * Vice President Al Gore gained weight and grew a scraggly beard after losing the Presidential Election in 2000. He was one of a handful of candidates to win the popular vote, yet not the office, so if he was kinda depressed for a while, it would be no surprise.
 * There is a tradition of Popes growing beards when Rome is conquered.
 * Archbishop Thomas Cranmer grew his beard as a sign of mourning after Henry VIII's death. Cranmer may have been the only person in England who was genuinely sorry Henry was gone.
 * It is customary for Jewish men to not shave during the Shiva, the customary week of grief and mourning. Some actually extend this to a full month.
 * Ladies and gentlemen, the Strike Beard; both David Letterman and Conan O'Brien developed impressive beards after vanishing from the air during the WGA strike. They didn't last long, but they made an impact. Stephen Colbert, of course, parodied this by having a massive Rip van Winkle beard the first time he appeared after the strike.
 * And after leaving The Tonight Show, Conan grew the beard (though he kept the literal facial hair after being picked up for a new show by TBS).
 * Many people noted that during the breakup of The Beatles and the stress that resulted, Paul McCartney grew a beard, something he was not previously known to do (even when the other Beatles were experimenting with facial hair, McCartney was usually noticeably clean-shaven) and only rarely seen to do since. It was suggested that this trope might have something to do with it.
 * In fact, Mc Cartney himself summed up his post-breakup depression as follows in a 1984 interview with Playboy: "[Linda] had to deal with this guy who didn't particularly want to get out of bed and, if he did, wanted to go back to bed pretty soon after. He wanted to drink earlier and earlier each day and didn't really see the point in shaving, because where was he going?".
 * Jim Morrison of The Doors grew a beard while in depression before he died. He was noted as taking heavy drugs and drinking a lot of alcohol, so the beard was just the finishing touch.
 * Christian singer/songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman has had a clean-shaven appearance for most of his career. He grew a beard for a while in 2008-2009, after the death of his youngest daughter that because the subject of his album Beauty Will Rise.
 * A standing custom in Roman times was to wear ragged clothing and stop shaving or cutting their hair to show mourning or to inspire pity when prosecuted.
 * After the disastrous battle of the Teutoburg Forest, the Roman Emperor Augustus had a breakdown, letting his beard grow, banging his head against the walls, and shouting "Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!" Varus had led the 17th, 18th and 19th Roman legions, all of which were destroyed by German troops; Varus himself fell on his sword to avoid capture and execution.
 * M. Porcius Cato the Censor, who grew his beard during the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, and mourned every Roman citizen who died.
 * This extends to myth as well. Charon, the Greek/Roman ferryman of the dead, is portrayed as being permanently dirty, disheveled and unshaven, since, as someone who always deals with the dead, he's in a constant state of mourning.
 * Keanu Reeves is sad.
 * A former example - Gary Weddle of Ephrata, Washington is a high school teacher. After the events of September 11 2001, he vowed not to shave his beard until Osama bin Laden was either dead or in US custody. At the time of his decision he thought it would only take a few months; as time went on he had to start explaining to incoming freshman classes the whats and whys behind his facial hair, the students having been too young to remember the events of that day. Mr. Weddle ended up bearded for nearly ten years and ultimately bore some resemblance to the infamous terrorist before bin Laden's death in May 2011 allowed him to shave again.
 * There's an old Italian custom; when a loved one has died, a man doesn't shave until the funeral.