While we promise Us did pay attention to the lovely, sincere words Prince William and Princess Kate Middleton said in their video montage celebrating the Olympics there was something about it that was a little distracting: Prince William’s beard!
Sure, Prince William looks very well-groomed, sensible and important when he’s wearing a suit and sporting a clean-shaven face at official royal events, but we are so here for Wills in off-duty, stubbly-chinned summer dad mode.
We wouldn’t dare to further objectify the man who’s first in line to the throne, but we have to admit that his Adidas sports top showing a hint of chest hair is a winner too. It’s just all so unexpected!
Still, William isn’t the first star who’s realized that growing a beard can elevate a guy in the sexiness stakes. Here are a few more famous furry faces who’ve discovered that, often, the hairier the chin, the hotter the man…
Jake Gyllenhaal
No beard: looks 12. With a beard: still looks great for 43, but in a much more suave and sophisticated way. Beards are also a useful way to stay warm if you can’t step out wearing a scarf without people accusing you of stealing it from Taylor Swift.
Ben Affleck
Even though Affleck, 51, tends to look kind of brooding regardless of what’s going on with his chin or his personal life, this is a man who’s at his best when he has a big, bushy beard to stroke meaningfully. For all we know, he might just be pondering whether his Dunkin’ iced coffee should be ordered for pickup or delivery, but the more facial hair he grows, the deeper we assume his thoughts to be.
Matt James, Steve Kazee and More Dudes Showing Off Their Beards
Joshua Jackson
As Pacey in Dawson’s Creek, Jackson was always cute in a “looks a bit like your annoying brother’s even more irritating friend” way. Then, he grew up and grew a beard. Suddenly, you’re at your 25-year high school reunion and your brother’s annoying friend is stylish, successful and oh-so-sexy. Damn.
Idris Elba
Elba has admitted that the sight of his beardless face freaks him out on the occasion that he’s needed to shave his trademark stubble off for a role. We can see why — this man is seriously handsome in any state, but his salt-and-pepper beard sends his sexiness through the roof.
Keanu Reeves
Some of these other guys were barely even born when Reeves — who is inexplicably turning 60 in September — first started experimenting with facial hair. If growing a beard was an attempt to shed his early 1990s pretty boy image and be taken seriously, he’s only halfway there. Yes, we definitely take him seriously now, but he’s still extremely pretty. Sorry, Keanu, there seemingly isn’t a thing you can do about it!
Milo Ventimiglia
In This Is Us, Ventimiglia’s evolving facial hair (from big beard to no facial hair to mustache with no beard and so on…) was a helpful signifier of the different eras the series was set in. It also meant that Jack Pearson had the ability to rapidly jump from being a perfectly pleasant-looking guy to quite possibly the most rugged man in the universe.
Ryan Gosling
Remember when your high school geography teacher would take their glasses off and look like a completely different person? Gosling without facial hair has the same effect — most memorably as Ken in the Barbie movie, of course — and it kind of freaks Us out. He’s also basically the reason a million of the world’s boyfriends and husbands have adopted beards too, so fingers crossed it’s a permanent fixture from now on.
Ryan Reynolds
We feel like somebody, somewhere (maybe his mom, it would be a total mom move) told Reynolds that he looks more red carpet ready when he’s clean-shaven. He tends to get the razor out before official events but is frequently furrier when snapped off-duty. Whoever gave him that advice was and is WRONG; he’s always hot, obviously, but the facial hair makes him less boyishly cute and more mannishly sexy. Blake Lively, please hide your husband’s charger for his razor at once.
