What happened to him... (Hint: Its Stubble).

We’ve all experienced that moment of seeing someone we know and thinking, “Something’s different… what happened to him?”

Often, the answer is surprisingly simple: he’s simply let his facial hair go untouched for a few weeks.

Maybe that’s why it’s noticed as being so striking? When everyone is trying so hard to look their absolute best, there’s something about someone who has a few imperfections, a bit of stubble, a skinny moustache, or something unexpected, that just stands out. Or perhaps a patchy beard or some unruly stubble. Messiness is sexy and almost intimate, and it’s not just “messy is sexy,” it’s “messy is sexy because it also breaks predictability.”

Walking into the office with a bit of stubble can be more attractive than showing up perfectly shaved. It’s rough or rugged and effortless, and it breaks the corporate sameness in a way that actually makes people feel more relaxed.

And that’s really the point: these small, imperfect details are what make someone stand out without even trying. A clean shave can look good, sure, but a bit of natural roughness has its own pull.

The celebrity examples below further highlight this.

Images:

Jeffrey Dean Morgan Watchmen Premiere 23 February 2009. Photo by Ian Smith (Flickr), retouched by RanZag, via Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 (CC BY-SA 2.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/.

Idris Elba at the 'Defeating Ebola in Sierrra Leone' conference 2 October 2014. Photo by DFID – UK Department for International Development, via Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 (CC BY 2.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.

Colin Farrell at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival September 2007. Photo by gdcgraphics, via Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 (CC BY-SA 2.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/.

Steven Yeun speaking at the San Diego Comic Convention Center for The Walking Dead on 25 July 2014. Photo by Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 (CC BY-SA 2.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/.

Timothy Olyphant at the 70th Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon 23 May 2011. Photo by Peabody Awards, via Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 (CC BY 2.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau speaking at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con International for 'Game of Thrones', 25 July 2014. Photo by Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 (CC BY-SA 2.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/.