By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Apr. 16: People are getting creative with the free time currently at their disposal because of the lockdown. Some are cooking, some are knitting and others are picking up a new sport. But equally noteworthy is what people, particularly men, are not doing. They are not shaving.
No sooner did the lockdown hit that men of all ages and backgrounds seemingly threw away their razors and let their beards shine.
“Now is the right time to grow your beard,” said Logan Jha, 27. He works in a real-estate investment firm and thus, needs to be “professionally” clean-shaven. But the ongoing off-days are allowing him to let his facial hair loose.
“I don’t need to be anywhere or see anybody so this is the perfect time to have a hairy face. If I don’t like it then I can shave it after lockdown without any harm done,” Jha said.
Similarly, Nitish Awale, 40, is a tourist guide who normally keeps a “business smart” trim as he explained it i.e. a light stubble around the chin and a short moustache, and clean-shaven everywhere else. But currently, his business is off and so his beard is on.
“My daughter always tells me I look good in a beard so I decided to try it out. I’ll grow it all through the lockdown period and see if I want to keep it permanently or not,” he said.
But not everyone is doing it for the look. Laziness also has a part to play in the trend.
“It takes a lot of motivation to get up and actually shave,” said Harish Sapkota, a 31-year-old project manager in a Kathmandu-based social organisation.
“I haven’t shaved since the lockdown began and I look like a mess,” he admitted, “My beard is so long that food crumbs get stuck in it and it even touches my drinks but I don’t mind. Why shave now when you have to shave it again later after the lockdown ends?”
Of course, these and many other Nepali men are merely replicating a larger international trend; joining the likes of former Australian Cricket Captain Steve Smith, Hollywood Actor Jim Carrey and Bollywood heartthrob Tiger Shroff in growing what men world over are calling “quarantine beards”.