This article is about stubble as facial hair. For the online comic, see Stubble (web comic)

Stubble on a man's face is the unshaven beard growth that exists for one to three days, before it becomes long enough to cover the skin and be considered a full beard. In recent times, electric clippers have rendered stubble growth an easily maintained and fashionable style, as it can lend some men a rugged swarthiness and does not require daily attention. In the 1950s and 1960s, when a clean-shaven appearance was in vogue in the Western world, it was also known as a five o'clock shadow and a man sporting one was considered to be unattractive, unrefined and even unclean. In the 1960 US presidential election's televised debates, Richard Nixon's five o'clock shadow was reputed to have counted against him in the voters' perceptions.

In the early 1980s the British pop star George Michael popularized a stubbly beard (known as "designer stubble"), which had been a German fashion at the beginning of the 16th century, when many young men sat for their portraits sporting a week's stubble growth.

"Stubble" can also refer to any regrowth of shaven hair (e.g. on a woman's legs), or to the short stalks left in a field after crops have been harvested.

See also

• Beard