THE.MAN.BRAND

The fantastical furor around men growing beards as a moddish fashion statement since the beginning of the year reached such a peak that New York hipsters were willing to pay north of $8,000 for "facial hair transplants" to embellish their patchy beards. But according to a recent essay from Biology Letters released in April, we can account for 'Negative Frequency Dependence (NFD)" to predict that the fad in nouveau-beards is starting to die down, losing it's advantage of rarity in the mainstream.

And this means, of course that the trend is now just hitting Egypt. You've probably seen it creeping in everywhere on social media; you might have even given a go at growing a furry face friend yourself and then begin to notice the majesty of them everywhere - the bearded-meinhof phenomenon, as we'd like to call it. There haven't been this many beards around since a certain political party grew out of one.

Now if you have attempted growing a beautiful beard in the last few months in Egypt, more than likely you didn't get past that stage where you start to look like this:

And if you got past that, followed by the constant questioning of "Inta ikhwan wala eh?" then your mother and girlfriend probably got their way in the end leaving you looking like a 12-year old boy in front of the mirror. Well, fear not: you are about to come a man once again, thanks to The.Man.Brand! Go on say it like a 70s advert voice-over, it feels so manly. The Man Brand was founded by Mohamed El Shaarawy as a way to mould and shape this revival of beards in the country and groom a subculture of like-minded manly humans.

Aside from their daily inspirational posts, The Man Brand aim to sell everything there is to do with this new breed of bushy metrosexuals starting off with oils and waxes specifically for beards, and adding jewellery and apparel soon, with the aim of making the beard much more than just a fad.

"Obviously the bearded man is a style that is booming here in Egypt but everyone leaves it eventually, feeling that they're doing it alone. They need someone to follow, someone guiding them that's actually bringing the style to Egypt in a clean and cool way," Sharaawy, the bearded vigilante (pictured above), explained to us.

For daily inspiration, orders and to join your bearded brothers in 'the fellowship of the beard" check out The.Man.Brand on Instagram here.