Editing Beard (section)

==History==

===Ancient and classical world===

====Phoenicia====
[[File:Anthropoid sarcophagus discovered at Cadiz - Project Gutenberg eText 15052.png|thumb|160px|right|Phoenicians gave great attention to the beard, as can be seen in their sculptures.]]

[[Phoenicia]], the ancient Semitic civilization centered on the coastline of the Eastern Mediterranean (modern-day [[Syria]], [[Lebanon]] and [[Israel]]), gave great attention to the hair and beard. It was arranged in three, four, or five rows of small tight curls, and extended from ear to ear around the cheeks and chin. Sometimes, however, in lieu of the many rows, we find one row only, the beard falling in tresses curled at the extremity.<ref>{{Source-attribution|sentence=yes|{{cite book|last1=Rawlinson |first1=George |title=History of Phoenicia |url=https://archive.org/details/historyphoenici01rawlgoog |year=1889 |publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co}}}}</ref> There is no indication of the Phoenicians having cultivated mustachios.

====Israelites====

[[Israelites|Israelite]] society placed a special importance on the beard. Many male religious figures mentioned in the [[Hebrew Bible|Tanakh]] are recorded to have had facial hair. According to biblical scholars, the shaving of hair, particularly of the ''corners of the beard'', was a mourning custom.<ref>''[[Peake's commentary on the Bible]]''</ref> The religious cultivation of beards by Israelites may have been done as a deliberate attempt to distinguish their behaviour in comparison to their neighbours, reducing the impact of foreign customs (and religion) as a result.<ref name="Jewish Encyclopedia">''Jewish Encyclopedia''</ref> The [[Hittites]] and [[Elamites]] were clean-shaven, and the [[Sumer]]ians were also frequently without a beard;<ref name="Jewish Encyclopedia, Beard">''Jewish Encyclopedia'', ''Beard''</ref> conversely, the [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptians]] and Libyans shaved the beard into very stylised elongated [[goatee]]s.<ref name="Jewish Encyclopedia, Beard" />    [[File:Black Obelisk, Jewish delegation to Shalmaneser III.jpg|thumb|center|upright=4|The Israelite king [[Jehu]] kneels before [[Shalmaneser III]] as carved on the [[Black Obelisk]]. He and the Israelite delegation are distinguished from the Assyrians by distinctive beards.]]

====Mesopotamia====
[[File:Gilgamesh Statue Sydney University Statue4.14th.JPG|thumb|upright=.6|Statue of [[Gilgamesh]] with elaborate beard]]
[[Mesopotamia]]n civilizations (Sumerian, Assyrians, Babylonians, Chaldeans and Medians) devoted great care to oiling and dressing their beards, using tongs and curling irons to create elaborate ringlets and tiered patterns.<ref name="Motamedi">{{Cite book |last=Motamedi |first=Mohammad Hosein |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UGmQDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA586 |title=A Textbook of Advanced Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery: Volume 2 |date=2015-04-22 |publisher=BoD – Books on Demand |isbn=978-953-51-2035-3 |language=en}}</ref>

====Egypt====
While generally ancient Egyptian fashion called for men to be clean-shaven, during at least some periods the highest ranking Ancient Egyptians grew hair on their chins which was often dyed a reddish orange with [[henna]] and sometimes plaited with an interwoven gold thread. A metal false beard, or [[postiche]], which was a sign of sovereignty, was worn by kings and by [[queen regnant|queens regnant]]. This was held in place by a ribbon tied over the head and attached to a gold chin strap, a fashion existing from about {{BCE|3000 to 1580|link=y}}.<ref name="Motamedi"/>

====Greece====
[[File:Aristotle Altemps Inv8575.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Aristotle]] with a beard]]
The [[ancient Greeks]] regarded the beard as a badge or sign of virility; in the [[Homeric epics]] it had almost sanctified significance, so that a common form of entreaty was to touch the beard of the person addressed.<ref>See, for example, Homer ''Iliad'' 1:500–1 and 8:371.</ref> According to [[William Smith (lexicographer)|William Smith]] in these ancient times the moustache was shaven, leaving clear the space around the lips.<ref name=smith/> It was only shaven as a sign of mourning, though in this case it was instead often left untrimmed.<ref name=smith>{{cite book|last=Smith |first=W. |date=1890 |title= A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities |publisher=William Wayte |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0063:entry=barba-cn}}</ref> A smooth face was regarded as a sign of effeminacy.<ref>{{harvnb|Peck|1898}} cites Athen. xiii. 565</ref> The [[Sparta]]ns punished cowards by shaving off a portion of their beards.<ref>{{cite book| last=Ephraim |first=D. |author-link= |date=1989 |title=Classical Sparta. Techniques behind her success |location=London |publisher=Routledge |page=14 |isbn=0-415-00339-3}}</ref> Greek beards were also frequently curled with [[tongs]]. Youngsters usually did not grow a beard, moreover wearing a beard became optional for adults in the {{BCE|5th and 4th century}}.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Adkins |first1=L. |last2=Adkins |first2=Roy A. |author-link= |date=2005 |title=Handbook to Life in Ancient Greece |location=New York |publisher=Facts on file |page=453 |isbn=0-8160-5659-5}}</ref>

====Macedon====
In Ancient Macedonia, during the time of [[Alexander the Great]] (r. 336–323 BCE) the custom of smooth shaving was introduced. Alexander strongly promoted shaving during his reign because he believed it looked tidier. Reportedly, Alexander ordered his soldiers to be clean-shaven, fearing that their beards would serve as handles for their enemies to grab and hold onto. The practice of shaving spread from the Macedonians, whose kings are represented on coins, statues, etc. with smooth faces, throughout the whole known world of the Macedonian Empire. Laws were passed against it, without effect, at Rhodes and Byzantium; even [[Aristotle]] conformed to the new custom, unlike the other philosophers, who retained the beard as a badge of their profession. Due to this, a man with a beard, after the Macedonian period, implied a philosopher; there are many allusions to this custom of the later philosophers in such proverbs as: "The beard does not make the sage." Due to this association with philosophers, who lost reputation over time, the beard acquired more and more a negative connotation, as in Theodore Prodromos, Lucian of Samosata and Julian the apostate (who wrote the Misopogon, i. e. "beard hater")

====Rome====
Shaving seems to have not been known to the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] during their early history (under the kings of Rome and the early Republic). Pliny tells us that P. Ticinius was the first who brought a barber to Rome, which was in the 454th year from the founding of the city (that is, around {{BCE|299|link=y}}). [[Scipio Africanus]] ({{BCE|236–183}}) was apparently the first among the Romans who shaved his beard. However, after that point, shaving seems to have caught on very quickly, and soon almost all Roman men were clean-shaven; being clean-shaven became a sign of being Roman and not Greek. Only in the later times of the Republic did the Roman youth begin shaving their beards only partially, trimming it into an ornamental form; prepubescent boys oiled their chins in hopes of forcing premature growth of a beard.<ref>{{harvnb|Peck|1898}} cites Petron. 75, 10</ref>

Still, beards remained rare among the Romans throughout the Late Republic and the early Principate. In a general way, in Rome at this time, a long beard was considered a mark of slovenliness and squalor. The censors [[L. Veturius]] and [[P. Licinius]] compelled [[M. Livius]], who had been banished, on his restoration to the city, to be shaved, to lay aside his dirty appearance, and then, but not until then, to come into the [[Roman Senate|Senate]].<ref>{{harvnb|Peck|1898}} cites Liv.xxvii. 34</ref> The first occasion of shaving was regarded as the beginning of manhood, and the day on which this took place was celebrated as a festival.<ref>{{harvnb|Peck|1898}} cites Juv.iii. 186</ref> Usually, this was done when the young Roman assumed the ''[[toga virilis]]''. [[Augustus]] did it in his twenty-fourth year, [[Caligula]] in his twentieth. The hair cut off on such occasions was consecrated to a god. Thus [[Nero]] put his into a golden box set with pearls, and dedicated it to [[Jupiter Capitolinus]].<ref>{{harvnb|Peck|1898}} cites Suet. Ner.12</ref> The Romans, unlike the Greeks, let their beards grow in time of mourning; so did Augustus for the death of [[Julius Caesar]].<ref>{{harvnb|Peck|1898}} cites Dio Cass. xlviii. 34</ref> Other occasions of mourning on which the beard was allowed to grow were, appearance as a ''reus'', condemnation, or some public calamity. On the other hand, men of the country areas around Rome in the time of [[Marcus Terentius Varro|Varro]] seem not to have shaved except when they came to market every eighth day, so that their usual appearance was most likely a short stubble.<ref>Varro asked rhetorically how often the tradesmen of the country shaved between market days, implying (in chronologist E. J. Bickerman's opinion) that this did not happen at all: "quoties priscus homo ac rusticus Romanus inter nundinum barbam radebat?",[http://archimedes.fas.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/dict?name=ls&lang=la&word=nundinus&filter=CUTF8 Varr. ap. Non. 214, 30; 32] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304051754/http://archimedes.fas.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/dict?name=ls&lang=la&word=nundinus&filter=CUTF8 |date=2016-03-04 }}: see also E J Bickerman, ''Chronology of the Ancient World'', London (Thames & Hudson) 1968, at p. 59.</ref>

In the {{CE|second century|link=y}} the Emperor [[Hadrian]] (r. 117 - 138), according to [[Dio Cassius]], was the first emperor to grow a full beard; [[Plutarch]] says that he did it to hide scars on his face. This was a period in Rome of widespread imitation of Greek culture, and many other men grew beards in imitation of Hadrian and the Greek fashion. After Hadrian until the reign of [[Constantine the Great]] (r. 306–337) all adult emperors appear in busts and coins with beards; but Constantine and his successors until the reign of [[Phocas]] (r. 602 - 610), with the exception of [[Julian the Apostate]] (r. 361 - 363), are represented as beardless.<ref name=smith/> The wearing of the  beard as an imperial fashion was subsequently revived by Phocas at the beginning of the 7th century and this fashion lasted until the end of the Byzantine Empire.

====The "philosopher's beard"====
In Greco-Roman antiquity the beard was "seen as the defining characteristic of the philosopher; philosophers had to have beards, and anyone with a beard was assumed to be a philosopher."<ref>Citing Lucian's Demonax 13, Cynicus 1 – {{cite book|title=The art of living: the Stoics on the nature and function of philosophy|first=John|last=Sellars|year=1988|publisher=Ashgate Publishing Limited|location=Burlington, VT}}</ref> While one may be tempted to think that [[Socrates]] and [[Plato]] sported "philosopher's beards", such is not the case. 
Shaving was not widespread in Athens during fifth and fourth-century BCE and so they would not be distinguished from the general populace for having a beard. The popularity of shaving did not rise in the region until the example of Alexander the Great near the end of the fourth century BCE. The popularity of shaving did not spread to Rome until the end of the third century BCE following its acceptance by [[Scipio Africanus]]. In Rome shaving's popularity grew to the point that for a respectable Roman citizen, it was seen almost as compulsory.

The idea of the philosopher's beard gained traction when in 155 BCE three philosophers arrived in Rome as Greek diplomats: [[Carneades]], head of the [[Platonic Academy]]; [[Critolaus]] of [[Aristotle]]'s [[Lyceum (classical)|Lyceum]]; and the head of the [[Stoicism|Stoics]], [[Diogenes of Babylon]]. "In contrast to their beautifully clean-shaven Italian audience, these three intellectuals all sported magnificent beards."<ref name="Sellars">{{cite book |title=The art of living: the Stoics on the nature and function of philosophy |first=John |last=Sellars |year=1988 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing Limited |location=Burlington, VT}}</ref> Thus the connection of beards and philosophy caught hold of the Roman public imagination.

[[File:Epicteti Enchiridion Latinis versibus adumbratum (Oxford 1715) frontispiece.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Epictetus]] stated he would embrace death before shaving.]]

The importance of the beard to Roman [[philosopher]]s is best seen by the extreme value that the Stoic philosopher [[Epictetus]] placed on it. As historian John Sellars puts it, Epictetus "affirmed the philosopher's beard as something almost sacred...to express the idea that philosophy is no mere intellectual hobby but rather a way of life that, by definition, transforms every aspect of one's behavior, including one's shaving habits. If someone continues to shave in order to look the part of a respectable Roman citizen, it is clear that they have not yet embraced philosophy conceived as a way of life and have not yet escaped the social customs of the majority...the true philosopher will only act according to reason or according to nature, rejecting the arbitrary conventions that guide the behavior of everyone else."<ref name="Sellars"/>

Epictetus saw his beard as an integral part of his identity and held that he would rather be executed than submit to any force demanding he remove it. In his [[Discourses of Epictetus|Discourses]] 1.2.29, he puts forward such a hypothetical confrontation: {{"'}}Come now, Epictetus, shave your beard'. If I am a philosopher, I answer, I will not shave it off. 'Then I will have you beheaded'. If it will do you any good, behead me."<ref name="Sellars"/> The act of shaving "would be to compromise his philosophical ideal of living in accordance with nature and it would be to submit to the unjustified authority of another."<ref name="Sellars"/>

This was not theoretical in the age of Epictetus, for the Emperor [[Domitian]] had the hair and beard forcibly shaven off of the philosopher [[Apollonius of Tyana]] "as punishment for anti-State activities."<ref name="Sellars"/> This disgraced Apollonius while avoiding making him a martyr like Socrates. Well before his declaration of "death before shaving" Epictetus had been forced to flee Rome when Domitian banished all philosophers from Italy under threat of execution.

Roman philosophers sported different styles of beards to distinguish which school they belonged to. [[Cynicism (philosophy)|Cynics]] with long dirty beards to indicate their "strict indifference to all external goods and social customs";<ref name="Sellars"/> Stoics occasionally trimming and washing their beards in accordance with their view "that it is acceptable to prefer certain external goods so long as they are never valued above virtue";<ref name="Sellars"/> [[Peripatetic school|Peripatetics]] took great care of their beards believing in accordance with Aristotle that "external goods and social status were necessary for the good life together with virtue".<ref name="Sellars"/> To a Roman philosopher in this era, having a beard and its condition indicated their commitment to live in accordance with their philosophy.

====Celts and Germanic tribes====
[[File:Charles IV-John Ocko votive picture-fragment.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor]]]]

Late Hellenistic sculptures of [[Celts]]<ref>Examples (both in Roman copies): ''[[Dying Gaul]]'', ''[[Ludovisi Gaul]]''</ref> portray them with long hair and mustaches but beardless. [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]] reported the [[Celtic Britons|Britons]] wore no beard except upon the upper lip.

The [[Anglo-Saxons]] on arrival in Great Britain wore beards and continued to do so for a considerable time after.<ref>''The National Cyclopedia of Useful Knowledge'', Vol III, (1847) Charles Knight, London, p. 46.</ref> Among the [[Gaels|Gaelic]] Celts of Scotland and Ireland, men typically let their facial hair grow into a full beard, and it was often seen as dishonourable for a Gaelic man to have no facial hair.<ref name="Connolly-prologue">{{cite book |title=Contested island: Ireland 1460–1630 |last=Connolly |first=Sean J |year=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=7 |chapter=Prologue}}</ref><ref name="Gerald">[http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/topography_ireland.pdf ''The Topography of Ireland'' by Giraldus Cambrensis] (English translation)</ref><ref>Macleod, John, ''Highlanders: A History of the Gaels'' (Hodder and Stoughton, 1997) p. 43</ref>

[[Tacitus]] states that among the Catti, a [[Germanic people|Germanic]] tribe (perhaps the [[Chatten]]), a young man was not allowed to shave or cut his hair until he had slain an enemy. The [[Lombards]] derived their name from the great length of their beards (Longobards – Long Beards). When [[Otto the Great]] said anything serious, he swore by his beard, which covered his breast.

===Middle Ages===
In [[Middle Ages|Medieval Europe]], a beard displayed a [[knight]]'s virility and honour.
The Castilian knight [[El Cid]] is described in ''[[The Lay of the Cid]]'' as "the one with the flowery beard".
Holding somebody else's beard was a serious offence that had to be righted in a duel.
The punishment for pulling off someone else's beard was the same as for castrating him.<ref name="Larraín">{{cite journal |last1=García Larraín |first1=Federico |title=El Honor En El Poema De Mío Cid |journal=Revista de Humanidades |date=2014 |issue=30 |pages=103 |url=https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=321232867005 |access-date=3 May 2023 |trans-title=Honor in the Lay of the Cid |language=es |format=PDF |issn=0717-0491 |quote=Lacarra nota que el castigo por mesar la barba era equivalente al castigo dado al que castraba a otro}}</ref>

While most noblemen and knights were bearded, the Catholic clergy were generally required to be clean-shaven. This was understood as a symbol of their celibacy.

In pre-Islamic Arabia, Arabian men would apparently shorten their beards and keep big mustachios. Muhammad encouraged his followers to do the opposite, to grow their beards and trim their moustaches, to differ with the non-believers. This style of beard subsequently spread along with Islam during the Muslim expansion in the Middle Ages.

===From the Renaissance to the present day===
{{Original research section|date=June 2009}}

Most Chinese emperors of the [[Ming dynasty]] (1368–1644) appear with beards or mustaches in portraits.

In the 15th century, most European men in both the church and the nobility were clean-shaven. In the 16th-century beards became fashionable, particularly following the [[Reformation]] where many rulers, nobles and religious reformers grew long beards to distinguish themselves from the usually clean shaven Catholic clergy. By the mid 16th century most Catholic clergy also adopted beards. [[List of popes|Every pope]] from [[Pope Clement VII|Clement VII]] (pope 1523–1534) to [[Pope Innocent XII|Innocent XII]] (pope 1691–1700) would also sport facial hair. Some other beards of this time were the Spanish spade beard, the English square cut beard, the forked beard, and the stiletto beard. In 1587 [[Francis Drake]] claimed, in a [[figure of speech]], to have [[singed the King of Spain's beard]].

During the Chinese [[Qing dynasty]] (1644–1911), the ruling [[Manchu]] minority were either clean-shaven or at most wore mustaches, in contrast to the [[Han Chinese|Han]] majority who still wore beards in keeping with the Confucian ideal.

In the beginning of the 17th century, the size of beards decreased in urban circles of Western Europe with the shape also becoming more pointed. By the middle of the century men usually wore a mustache or a pointed goatee. In the later part of the century, being clean-shaven gradually became more common again amongst the upper classes, so much so that in 1698 [[Peter the Great]] of Russia ordered men to shave off their beards, and in 1705 levied a [[beard tax|tax on beards]] in order to bring Russian society more in line with contemporary Western Europe. Throughout the 18th century essentially all upper class and most middle class European men would be clean shaven.<ref>[http://www.answers.com/topic/beard-tax Beard Tax: Information from]. Answers.com. Retrieved on 3 January 2011.</ref>

At the end of the 18th century, after the [[French Revolution]], attitudes began to turn away from the upper class fashions of the previous century particularly among the lower classes. During the early 19th century most men, particularly amongst the nobility and upper classes, went clean-shaven. However the shifts which had begun during the revolutionary period began to creep their way into first the middle and then the upper classes and this included the gradual return of facial hair. This is seen in the 1810s and 1820s with many men adopting [[sideburns]] or side whiskers which gradually grew in size in the ensuing decades. Facial hair also became more common amongst western armies during this period with the 'regimental mustache' becoming a common association with the soldiers of the time. 

This was followed by a dramatic shift in the beard's popularity following the [[Crimean War]] during the 1850s, with it becoming markedly more popular.<ref name="Jacob Middleton 2006">Jacob Middleton, 'Bearded Patriarchs', History Today, Volume: 56 Issue: 2 (February 2006), 26–27.</ref> Consequently, beards were adopted by many monarchs, such as [[Alexander III of Russia]], [[Napoleon III]] of France, [[Franz Joseph I of Austria|Franz Joseph I]] of Austria and [[William I, German Emperor|William I]] of Germany, as well as many leading statesmen and cultural figures, such as [[Benjamin Disraeli]], [[Charles Dickens]], [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]], [[Karl Marx]], and [[Giuseppe Verdi]]. This trend can be also recognised in the United States of America, where the shift can be seen amongst the [[List of presidents of the United States#Presidents|presidents during and after the Civil War]] in the period of 1861 - 1913. Before [[Abraham Lincoln]], no President had a beard;<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Z6vCGbf66YC&pg=PA59 |title=Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History | publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |author=Sherrow, Victoria |year=2006 |pages=59 |isbn=9780313331459 }}</ref> after Lincoln until [[William Howard Taft]], every President except [[Andrew Johnson]] and [[William McKinley]] had either a beard or a moustache. Since 1913 when [[Woodrow Wilson]] became president all presidents have been clean-shaven.

The beard became linked in this period with notions of masculinity and male courage.<ref name="Jacob Middleton 2006" /> The resulting popularity has contributed to the stereotypical Victorian male figure in the popular mind, the stern figure clothed in black whose gravitas is added to by a heavy beard. [[File:Gillette advert in the Literary Digest, June 9, 1917.jpg|thumb|upright|Gillette advert in the Literary Digest, 9 June 1917]]

In China, the revolution of 1911 and subsequent May Fourth Movement of 1919 led the Chinese to idealize the West as more modern and progressive than themselves. This included the realm of fashion, and Chinese men began shaving their faces and cutting their hair short.

By the early-twentieth century, beards began a slow decline in popularity. Although retained by some prominent figures who were young men in the Victorian period (like [[Sigmund Freud]]), most men who retained facial hair during the 1920s and 1930s limited themselves to a moustache or a [[goatee]] (such as with [[Marcel Proust]], [[Albert Einstein]], [[Vladimir Lenin]], [[Leon Trotsky]], [[Adolf Hitler]], and [[Joseph Stalin]]). In the United States, meanwhile, popular movies portrayed heroes with clean-shaven faces and "[[crew cut]]s". Concurrently, the psychological [[mass marketing]] of [[Edward Bernays]] and [[Madison Avenue]] was becoming prevalent. The [[The Gillette Company|Gillette]] [[Safety razor|Safety Razor]] Company was one of these marketers' early clients. The phrase ''[[wikt:five o'clock shadow|{{visible anchor|five o'clock shadow}}]]'', as a pejorative for stubble, was coined circa 1942 in advertising for Gem Blades, by the American Safety Razor Company, and entered popular usage. These events conspired to popularize short hair and clean-shaven faces as the only acceptable style for decades to come. The few men who wore the beard or portions of the beard during this period were usually either old, Central European, members of a religious sect that required it, or in academia. This case of affairs would last all the way until the mid to late 1960s.

The beard was reintroduced to mainstream society by the counterculture, firstly with the "[[beatnik]]s" in the 1950s, and then with the [[hippie]] movement of the mid-1960s. Following the [[Vietnam War]], facial hair exploded in popularity. In the mid-late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, beards were worn by hippies and businessmen alike. Popular musicians like [[The Beatles]], [[Barry White]], [[The Beach Boys]], [[Jim Morrison]] (lead singer of [[The Doors]]) and the male members of [[Peter, Paul, and Mary]], among many others, wore full beards or mustaches. The trend of seemingly ubiquitous facial hair in American culture subsided by the beginning of the 1980s.
[[File:Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Charles Evans Hughes]], 11th [[Chief Justice of the United States]] from 1930 to 1941]]
By the end of the 20th century, the closely clipped [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]] beard, often with a matching integrated moustache, had become relatively common. From the 1990s onward, fashion in the United States has generally trended toward either a goatee, [[Van Dyke beard|Van Dyke]], or a closely cropped full beard undercut on the throat. By 2010, the fashionable length approached a "two-day shadow".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2010/03/28/latest-in-facial-hair-the-two-day-shadow/ |work=Chicago Tribune |title=Latest in facial hair: The two-day shadow | first=Alexia |last=Elejalde-Ruiz |date=28 March 2010}}</ref> The 2010s decade also saw the full beard become fashionable again amongst young [[Hipster (contemporary subculture)|hipster]] men and a huge increase in the sales of male grooming products.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://scotsman.com/news/careless-whiskers-why-beards-are-back-in-fashion-1-3224369 |title=Careless whiskers: Why beards are back in fashion |work=scotsman.com |access-date=5 April 2015 |archive-date=8 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150408131506/http://www.scotsman.com/news/careless-whiskers-why-beards-are-back-in-fashion-1-3224369 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

One stratum of American society where facial hair was long rare is in government and politics. The last [[President of the United States]] to wear any type of facial hair was [[William Howard Taft]], who was in office from 1909 to 1913.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://qz.com/914048/presidents-day-when-was-the-last-time-a-us-president-had-facial-hair-not-in-100-years/ |title=It's been more than a century since a US president had facial hair |last=Kopf |first=Dan |website=Quartz |date=19 February 2017 |language=en |access-date=10 April 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Stories Behind Everyday Things |publisher=Reader's Digest |year=1982 |isbn=0-89577-068-7 |location=United States of America |pages=36}}</ref> The current [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] JD Vance wears facial hair, but he is the first to do so since [[Charles Curtis]], who served from 1929 to 1933. All aforementioned men have had moustaches, but the last President of the United States to wear a proper beard was Benjamin Harrison; he was in office from 1889 to 1893. The last member of the [[United States Supreme Court]] with a full beard was Chief Justice [[Charles Evans Hughes]], who served on the Court until 1941. Since 2015 a growing number of male political figures have worn beards in office, including Speaker of the House [[Paul Ryan]], and Senators [[Ted Cruz]] and [[Tom Cotton]]. JD Vance is also the first member of a presidential ticket to wear facial hair since [[Thomas Dewey]] in 1948.
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<gallery mode="packed" widths="200" heights="200">
File:Friedrich Engels portrait (cropped).jpg|[[Friedrich Engels]] exhibiting a full moustache and beard that was a common style among Europeans of the 19th century
File:Johann Strauss II (3).jpg|[[Johann Strauss II]] with a large beard, moustache, and [[sideburns]]
File:Thomas Swann of Maryland - photo portrait seated.jpg|Maryland Governor [[Thomas Swann]] with a long [[goatee]]. Such beards were common around the time of the [[American Civil War]].
File:Black and white portrait of emperor Meiji of Japan.jpg|[[Emperor Meiji of Japan]] wore a full beard and moustache during most of his reign.
File:Johannes Brahms portrait (cropped).jpg|alt=|[[Johannes Brahms]] with a large beard and moustache
File:Walt Whitman edit 2.jpg|[[Walt Whitman]] with a large beard and moustache
File:Tolstoy Leo port.jpg|[[Leo Tolstoy]] with a large beard and moustache
File:WG Grace c1902.jpg|English cricketer [[W. G. Grace]] with his trademark beard
File:CheyFidel.jpg|Cuban revolutionaries [[Che Guevara]] (left) and [[Fidel Castro]] (right) with patchy beards
File:Ned Kelly in 1880.png|The [[Ned Kelly beard]] was named after the bushranger, [[Ned Kelly]].
</gallery>