Lifestyle Beauty & Style Celebrity Hair The Benefits to Having a Beard, According to These Hollywood Hotties On the fence about facial hair? These handsome men's words of wisdom just may sway your decision By Diana Pearl Diana Pearl Diana Pearl is a former writer and reporter at PEOPLE. She left PEOPLE in 2018. People Editorial Guidelines Published on November 24, 2015 10:00AM EST 01 of 05 IT'S GOOD FOR YOUR CAREER – AND YOUR LOVE LIFE Everett Looking back on his decades-long career, Burt Reynolds has a lot of reflections. One of the first? His facial hair was a big help. "After I grew it," he says of his signature mustache, "I got better parts and better ladies." And there's no denying that it boosted his star power, too. 02 of 05 IT'S A SYMBOL OF A NEW STAGE IN YOUR LIFE Debra L Rothenberg/Getty; Paul Zimmerman/MJF2015/Getty What did both Jon Stewart and David Letterman do after bidding adieu to late night? Grow a beard, of course! "So I grew a beard because everybody who quits a talk show grows a beard," Stewart said. "Mine is white ... I look old, right? It's f---ing weird, right?" It's not weird, Jon, it's distinguished. 03 of 05 IT'S FOR A GOOD CAUSE James Devaney/GC Images Movember brings people together – even one-time sworn enemies Shawn Booth and Nick Viall of The Bachelorette. In order to raise awareness for men's health issues, Booth challenged Viall to grow out a mustache this month in honor of Movember. No word on whether or Viall has accepted the challenge, but who can't get behind a cause like that? Not to mention, a cause that bonds two Bachelorette bros. 04 of 05 MAKE IT A COMPETITION! Gregg DeGuire/WireImage When Grey's Anatomy's new resident hottie Martin Henderson was on the set of the film Everest with a number of fellow bearded men – including Jake Gyllenhaal and Josh Brolin – the gang would try and see whose beard was the "gnarliest." "We rubbed our beards together all the time," Henderson said. "Jason Clarke had the best beard before shooting. It got so gnarly that they had to tone it down. Jake had a pretty good one, too, but I had to opt out." Hey, if you have fun doing it? 05 of 05 IT'LL MAKE PEOPLE LAUGH Courtesy thehughjackman When Hugh Jackman sported some facial hair for his role as Blackbeard in Pan, his kids couldn't help but giggle at their dad's gray hairs. "I went off to work one day, and of course the beard gets colored, and my son goes, 'Dad, are you sure it's Blackbeard? It looks more like black-and-white beard,' " he told PEOPLE. Close