The term neckbeard was first invented to describe a certain type of person that existed ~20 years ago. At the time, realistically, the only guys with beards were literally that guy who played magic the gathering and wore a trenchcoat and baggy clothes to school. Hygiene habits were very questionable, overweight, likely smelled like BO. It basically meant geek and a lot of neckbeards were weaboos.

Then the hipster trend started with the plaid shirt and beard look and you started to see more bald and beard looks with guys taking steroids etc... The beard kind of made its way back into the mainstream. Neckbeard now doesn't really have the same meaning as an insult because 20 years ago the only guys with neckbeards were really that one type. You don't even really see true neckbeards as the original archetype much anymore. The evolution of the neckbeard is more like the soyboy. That bald + beard with the glasses and low T kind of look.

Actually a great example I just realized is this League of Legends streamer who is like 40 years old. SoloRenecktonOnly. If you search this guy and look at his old videos of him, he was a neckbeard... Overweight, had that neckbeard look to him down perfectly. Then the guy lost weight and now looks like the typical soyboy. He went through the evolution perfectly if you want to see how the archtype has evolved over the years.

The term neckbeard was first invented to describe a certain type of person that existed ~20 years ago. At the time, realistically, the only guys with beards were literally that guy who played magic the gathering and wore a trenchcoat and baggy clothes to school. Hygiene habits were very questionable, overweight, likely smelled like BO. It basically meant geek and a lot of neckbeards were weaboos.

Then the hipster trend started with the plaid shirt and beard look and you started to see more bald and beard looks with guys taking steroids etc... The beard kind of made its way back into the mainstream. Neckbeard now doesn't really have the same meaning as an insult because 20 years ago the only guys with neckbeards were really that one type. You don't even really see true neckbeards as the original archetype much anymore. The evolution of the neckbeard is more like the soyboy. That bald + beard with the glasses and low T kind of look.