Growing A Beard – A Look Back Through The Ages
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Many fashions and styles come and go, growing a beard is no exception. What was once an unusual sight, even in our lifetime has now become the new ‘norm.’
And if you’re growing a beard now or thinking of growing one, this look back through history might interest you…
Some people think that beard oil is a little decadent, but go back through the centuries and you’ll see that men of the past lavished a great deal of time, money and effort on growing a beard and maintaining it. From weaving fragrant herbs and spices into them, fashioning them into luscious perfumed ringlets with curling tongues, adorning them with jewels, beads, ribbons and flowers to powdering them with sparkling gold dust. Beard care is nothing new
The history of beards is fascinating, changeable and ambiguous.
In some cultures growing a beard was regarded as a symbol of masculinity, wisdom or wealth, whilst in others, they were frowned upon and seen as unhygienic, heathen and barbaric.
The Ancient Egyptians were fastidious when it came to personal hygiene. The privileged might take as many as three baths a day! The temperatures in Ancient Egypt would have been high and hard to bear and it’s for this reason, as well as the threat of lice infestations, most men of the time were clean shaven.
However, some noble men, (and women), would don a fake metal beard called a postiche which they’d strap to their ears with golden thread as a way of emulating their powerful bearded deities. Syrians of the same era cultivated beards which (along with their eyebrows) they dyed black, whilst the Persians dyed their beards with henna paste which resulted in beards in vivid shades of orange.
Growing A Beard Could Cost You Money
It is said that in 1535 the tight bearded King Henry VIII introduced the ‘beard tax’ to Britain which was graduated depending on your income.
And later, in Russia around the year 1698, as an attempt to westernize Russian culture, Tsar Peter the Great also introduced the ‘beard tax’. Once you’d paid for the privilege of sporting a beard, you were given a special coin, a sort of token called a ‘beard kopek’, as proof of your payment.
Peter’s tax on beards continued until 1772 after which the defunct tokens were melted down to create new currency. One or two of these tokens, embossed with the image of a beard and the words ‘money paid’ managed to escape the melting pot and in 2016 a rare copper ‘beard kopek’ was un-earthed during an archaeological dig in the Russian city of Pskov.
As well as aesthetic reasons, there were practical reasons for growing a beard, or the lack of one. In prehistoric times beards provided protection from the elements as well as offering a little hirsute padding to soften possible blows to the face during times of combat.
However, in 345BC Alexander the great decreed that all his soldiers be clean-shaven, believing that beards could be used to the enemies advantage as something to pull, grab and manipulate during a fight.
Here, during WWI, British soldiers were required to be clean-shaven so that the efficacy of the seal on their gas masks was not compromised by the presence of facial hair.
Growing A Beard Made You Look Like A Hero
Prior to that, soldiers who fought in the Crimean war were encouraged in to growing a beard. Shaving equipment would have been hard to come by at the time, also facial hair helped a little to protect the men from the extreme Crimean winters.
When the bearded troops returned home from the trenches, beards became a symbol of heroism.
Everyone wanted one and this triggered what has been described as ‘The Victorian Beard Craze’ which harboured some weird and wonderful trends (including the ‘Mutton chop beard’ and the ‘Doorknocker’ beard) which we’ll explore in depth in a future blog post…