“I just don’t have a beard face,” said Mr. Weber, 23, who is otherwise short on flaws. “It could come in, but it takes a while. I have very thin hair.”

Like sideburns and chest hair, stubble is one of those organic male accouterments that perpetually cycles in and out of favor. These days, it seems, everybody wants a little scruff.

Jon Hamm, whose role on “Mad Men” inspired many a clean shave, was among the actors pairing stubble with a tuxedo at the Emmys last week, just as Brad Pitt did at theToronto Film Festival earlier this month. Lots of male models, for whom facial hair is traditionally verboten, walked the runways unshaven at this year’s Fashion Week. George Clooney always seems to have a shadow on his jaw, and good luck finding a recent picture of a cleanshaven Justin Timberlake or Gerard Butler.

The producers of the Duckie Brown show wanted their models to exhibit some facial growth, too, genetics be damned. So they invited Conair to set up a “stubble station” backstage. Conair, eager to promote its new line of stubble trimmers, was happy to be there.

“Stubble is always in fashion, especially now going into the colder months,” said Garrett Bryant, a senior stylist at Antonio Prieto Salon in Manhattan. But not patchy, unmanicured stubble. “It’s just a question of keeping it maintained and not making it look messy.” Grooming companies like Conair and Philips Norelco are retiring the term “beard trimmer” and calling their new models “stubble trimmers.”

These models, which arrived on shelves in 2010, are specially calibrated to deal with facial hair at close range, manufacturers say.

They are not the first. In 1986, Wahl introduced the Miami Device, a trimmer designed to approximate Don Johnson’s sandpaper jaw on “Miami Vice.” Fearing copyright infringement, the company soon changed the name to Stubble Trimmer, but the device proved unpopular and was quickly discontinued. 

But “society has become a lot more accepting of guys having stubble,” said Michael Schwartz, a brand manager for Philips Norelco, “so we designed a specific product” to maintain the in-between look. Indeed, he added, “our primary focus for the beard and mustache segment now is stubble.”

The main difference between stubble and beard trimmers is slight but cosmetically important: the minimum length that the razor guards on Philip Norelco’s beard trimmers would allow was 1 millimeter; the guards on its stubble trimmers go down to 0.5 millimeter.

Sales for the trimmer category increased 14 percent in 2010, and are up nearly 17 percent so far in 2011, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm. Mr. Schwartz said his company had seen a “large spike” in sales for the category, “even with the higher prices.” (Its top-of-the-line stubble trimmer retails for $59.99, about $30 more than its best beard trimmer.)

Whether these trimmers can really keep a man in permanent stubble is another question. Mr. Bryant does recommend them for his clients, albeit without the guards.

“Just don’t keep a guard on” and apply the blades directly to your face, he said. “That way you’re getting a clean look, but that keeps it right at a 5 o’clock shadow.”