Manatee

A prototypical manatee

Manatee refers to the little beard a man may wear on his chin. (Only goats wear goatees.)

What it is

When referring to a man's chin beard, the manatee is many things. It is always a collection of whiskers growing from the chin (at least in part). The length of the whiskers may vary from slightly overgrown stubble to an inches-long food-encrusted ecosystem. The whiskers may be waxed and straightened, or they may curl. They may blend into whiskers growing along the sides of the mouth and a mustache above the lip, or the chin whiskers may stand alone. The man wearing the manatee has a great deal of discretion when it comes to the style he employs. However, as discussed below, there are limits.

What it is not

A manatee is not simply facial hair. Facial hair on the upper lip (or growing from the upper lip down around the sides of the mouth, without any chin hair) is NOT a manatee. Nor is facial hair growing from the chin that connects with facial hair along the sides of the face, connecting to a man's sideburns. Such a growth is technically a partial beard (and if long enough, may be considered an Abe Lincoln or Amish beard). Lastly, simply letting whiskers grow below the lower lip, alone, does not count as a manatee if there are no actual chin whiskers. Such a growth is more appropriated labeled a "soul patch" or a "flavor saver".

Shakespeare sported a manatee and a skullet.

Mr. Spock sports the manatee of the future.

Evolution

Manatees have come and gone from men's fashion over the ages. For example, they were quite popular in the Elizabethan age in the 1500s; William Shakespeare sported a manatee (as well as a skullet (a balding-elder-male variant of the timeless hair style wherein hair growing from the front and sides of the head is trimmed relatively short, but the remaining hair growing down the back of that head is kept lengthier, often extending well below the wearer's neckline).

By the age of reason in the 1700s, however, manatees were no longer in style. Benjamin Franklin's chin, for example, was always clean-shaven (although he, like Shakespeare, also wore a skullet as his hairstyle of choice). Manatees made a vicious comeback in the Industrial Age; virtually every man photographed during the American Civil War wore a manatee. One thing is for certain: the popularity of the manatee has ebbed and flowed over the years.

Mel Gibson's "Captain Morgan" called many to question the wisdom of wearing a manatee.

Heather Ledger wore a manatee and the dude killed himself by accident.

Captain Jack Sparrow a.k.a. Keith Richards a.k.a. Johnny "Scissorhands" Depp

Life cycle

Like all men's facial hair, manatees start as stubble and work to extend in length over time. They may be sustained by regular trimming. If sheared off so that the chin is smooth, the manatee is eliminated and is not considered to exist any longer.

Endangered status

Manatees were quite popular in the 1990s and early 2000s, but have come into hard times as of late. Certain celebrities like Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, and Captain Jack Sparrow (often confused with prehistoric guitarist Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, although actually an eccentric Hollywood actor and Chicago mobster who goes by the stage-name of Johnny “Scissorhands” Depp in his alternate Mafia life). These men helped the recent and sudden demise of the manatee from contemporary men's fashion (see pictures, inset). Many style experts today consider the manatee an endangered species of facial hair.

See also

• Shaving

	All About Facial Hair
	Beard ~ Bearded dragon ~ Beardism ~ Eyebrows ~ False Moustache ~ Fu Manchu ~ Goatee ~ Moustache ~ Moustache-o-meter ~ Mustaches of Legend ~ Sideburns ~ Unibrow
	Famous People with Famouser Facial Hair
	Abraham Lincoln ~ Adolf Hitler ~ Blackbeard ~ Bluebeard ~ Brian Blessed ~ Epic Beard Man ~ Frank Zappa ~ Freddie Mercury ~ Frida Kahlo ~ Friedrich Nietzsche ~ Grigori Rasputin ~ John R. Bolton ~ Joseph Stalin ~ Karl Marx ~ Sal Fasano ~ Salvador Dalí ~ Stan Lee ~ Wilford Brimley ~ ZZ Top