These days, between the perma 5 o’clock shadow, the lonely soul patch under a man’s lower lip and general scruff, it seems as if the cleanshaven man no longer exists. When did male facial hair become de rigueur? — Mary, Chicago
Beards, mustaches and the like, as with most hair trends, go in cycles, and this one, while increasingly ubiquitous, is nothing new. Over much of the last 50 years, being cleanshaven was the dominant style in facial hair — JD Vance was the first major party nominee on a presidential ticket with facial hair in 75 years — but it is far from being a historical norm.
According to a popular beard blog, there have been four great beard movements in history: in the second century, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the late 19th century. We are currently in the fifth.
Just think of some of the many famous bearded figures scattered throughout the above eras. Henry VIII was a committed beard man, as was Shakespeare (and Moses, for that matter). The 17th-century painter Anthony van Dyck even had a style named after him. Then there were Abraham Lincoln, Karl Marx and Charles Darwin — to name a few.
Traditionally, beards have signified virility, though in the 1960s and ’70s — the last Great Beard Renaissance — they came to symbolize rebellion, literal and cultural, against the establishment. (See the movie “Hair,” as well as Fidel Castro.) The man in the gray flannel suit was, after all, almost always a man who shaved every morning.
Then, with the rise of Wall Street, the power pendulum swung the other way as the prevailing corporate ethos held that men with beards looked as if they had something to hide, and facial hair became the provenance of mountain men, professors and grandpas.
Now it is moving once again.
You know we are in an Age of the Beard when the leading candidate for New York mayor has both a beard and a mustache, and the New York Yankees change their corporate policies to allow facial hair (albeit of the “well-groomed” variety, whatever that means). Disney, which had prohibited facial hair on theme park workers since the 1950s, led the way in 2012.
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