To shave or not to shave: Omar Abdullah’s new look divides Twitter

To shave or not to shave, that is the question.

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday ventured out onto the online world after a rather long break. Free from detention after nearly eight months, Abdullah looks rather different at present.

Sporting a lengthy beard and closely cropped hair, his appearance has startled many as well as finding favour amongst others.

But should the beard stay? Should it stay in some other style or form? Or should it be completely eviscerated?

Well, that depends on who you ask. And going my comments on Twitter alone, Abdullah is going to spend a very long time in deciding if he opted to take advice from social media users.

“Welcome back. Now please shave,” wrote NDTV Editor Nidhi Razdan. This prompted fellow journalist from India Today, Shiv Aroor to start a Twitter poll regarding the same.

He incidentally voted in favour of the beard.

Similar to Justin Trudeau’s “beardgate” moment a few months ago, Omar Abdullah’s style choices have divided netizens.

“We all hope that you wont trim your beard. Let it flow. Welcome back,” wrote one user.

“Call the barber” exclaimed another.

A third thought that he could now model for Beardo.

“If you trim your beard, i will pray they put you back there,” read one mildly ominous post.

Take a look:

Now, we’d mentioned Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier. And in case you were curious, let us remind you of the time when he returned from a vacation with a salt and pepper beard. While that particular beard can in no way match Omar Abdullah’s it certainly set Twitter aflutter.

You see, this unshaven look was the first time Trudeau had sported any sort of facial hair during his tenure as Prime Minister. Previous looks, while he was an Opposition leader had included a mustache and a goatee.