Aimless scrolling through social media rarely leads to anything of value. That is, unless you happen to stumble upon a nugget of internet gold.
Well, it happened to us. We found an image that’s majestic, epic and funny as hell.
Feast your eyes on the rarely-before-seen glory of the mermaid beard flip:
The graceful flip in the photo above, aptly titled “Parody,” was a combination of talent, spontaneity and timing, according to Matt Sprouse, the South Carolina-based photographer who captured the moment.
Sprouse was testing out a new waterproof camera at a lake with his friend when inspiration struck.
“Dusty, the majestic gentleman in the picture, and I seemed to have the same idea at the same time,” Sprouse said in an email to The Huffington Post.
“The stars aligned and his head flung back and created the most spectacular wave of water coming out of his beard,” he said, adding that he snapped the photo at the perfect moment.
“Parody complete.”
The parody that Sprouse is referencing is the whimsical hair flip that long-locked wannabe mermaids attempt at the beach.
You’ve likely seen it if one of your friends recently vacationed somewhere tropical. It looks like this:
But Sprouse’s version of the flip has opened our eyes to a whole new world of facial hair-flipping we didn’t know existed.
After doing some Instagram digging, we found out that men with impressive facial hair have been flipping their face fuzzies for quite some time. And with all the hype around facial hair, it’s a wonder the #beardflip hasn’t gone viral.
Below, see the internet’s best beard flippers in their element ― because it’s time these mermen got the recognition they deserve.