AT A time when women are being told that shaving is the best way to rid their faces of unwanted hair (yes, really) men, it seems, are doing the exact opposite. We are in the midst of a beard explosion. Every other man you see on the street is sporting a fuzzy growth, and to be honest, it’s not always a pleasant sight.

Personally, I blame Jeremy Paxman. For years, the TV presenter – known variously as the Rottweiler of the BBC and the Thinking Woman’s Crumpet – was silky smooth and clean shaven. Then he retired from Newsnight, started being nice to people, and grew a beard. At the time, he said his critics were merely pogonophobic, and that a man’s facial hair was his own business.

One wouldn’t want to second guess his reasons for going a bit ape, but you can’t help thinking he was sticking two fingers up at the establishment, possibly the closest Paxo would ever get to true rebellion.

Since then he’s shaved it off, but the touch paper of a new men’s fashion had been ignited, and seems to be spreading like a forest fire out of control.

Handsome hunks who hardly need bother looking in the mirror to check their appearance are following suit: Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and David Beckham have joined the hirsute brotherhood. And now, even our very own Reading East MP (surely a confirmed Conservative with both a capital and a lower case C) has been captured on camera sporting a sprouting chin. It could be that Mr Wilson is just enjoying a little holiday from the rigour of Westminster during the summer recess and will go back to shaving in a few weeks’ time. Then again, it could be a fashion statement.

There’s no denying that a beard is more manly, but they call to mind Roald Dahl’s Mr Twit. Years ago I was friends with a Spanish gentleman who used to say: “A man without a moustache is like a garden without a rose.” To me a man with a beard is more like a garden fringed with thorns.