Just as Movember is about to start you might be asking yourself, well hell yeah I’ll grow a beard but how should I fashion it once it has had it’s full months growth?
You’ll be in good company sans beard as most of London’s most fashionable have taken to hairy faces over the last couple of years. Luckily we are on hand to give you our suggestions too and a little run down of facial hair through the ages.
Beards are generally linked with wisdom, spiritualism, sexual virility or masculinity from reasons like Celt army manly men through (masculinity) to Einstein (mad scientists & wisdom).
The first ‘fashionable’ way to wear a beard it seems started in Ancient Egypt when some men would grow and dye hair on their chins. Royalty would wear a false beard made of metal called a postiche, which was held in place by a ribbon which was tied over the head.
In Ancient Greece beards were often curled with tongs and one would only shave their beard as a sign of mourning. In 323 BC Alexander the Great introduced clean shaven faces and ordered that his soldiers were smooth cheeked fearing that their beards would be used against them in battle (grabbed and tugged).
The Romans introduced the barber and as many began to shave beards begun to be looked upon as slovenly and squalid.
When it came to the celts, it was considered dishonorable for a man to not have a beard. The fashion here was a long and fully grown beard. Young men were only allowed to trim their facial hair once they had killed in battle.
In the middle ages holding somebody else’s beard was a serious offence that had to be righted in a duel.
By the 16th Century beards needed to be long and bushy. Styles were the English square cut beard, the forked beard (below), and the stiletto beard (above).
In the 1850s beards were fashioned by that of Abraham Lincoln after a period where many men became clean shaven.
The 1920s and 1930s saw the popularity of the goatee and moustache come into play.
1950s saw the beatnik style that was associated with literary movement.
In the 1960s hippie beards came about, long and unkempt.
And today we can see a complete resurgence of almost all of these styles after, thank god, we have moved away from designer stubble, patterned beards and George Michael’s Goatee efforts.
So pick a style above ready for the end of November when you will have so much facial hair you won’t know what to do with it. We promise you there is not a single beard now that would be deemed unfashionable. Note we say beard not goatee or stubble, or swirly stubble.
