http://i.imgur.com/dZg6FeJ.png

I heard that the decline of the facial hair begun in the trenches of WWI as it was considered
a hindrance to the effectiveness of the gas masks.

IIRC the iconic small moustache that Hitler had came to be from the necessity to trim his large Prussian moustache
to fit his respirator.

Found the article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1550768/Hitler-was-ordered-to-trim-his-moustache.html

Some poeple say the sideburns are coming back I wonder if we will return to the days people had things like this:Image

Really?

I guess it hasn't caught up to me!

If I don't shave every other day, I get scruffy looking and my 4 year old daughter won't even kiss me or hug me.

She says Daddy tickles. I don't like it!

My kids hate it when i get all scruffy as well. 4-5 days is all i am allowed.

I believe the last US President to have facial hair while in office was Teddy Roosevelt.

Back in the seventies we all had it. My full beard merged right into my shoulder-length hair.

Fashion has changed, maybe because "military-chic" became the go...cammo clothes and short hair...just a thought.

I shaved my beard off when I went grey...made me look too bloody old.

Its coming back. More and more of it. Not for me... but hairy is on the return.

Poor William Howard Taft gets no respect. lol


Party Beard Moustache Sideburns Color
6 John Q. Adams
(1767�1848) 1825�1829 Whig No No Yes Dark brown
8 Martin Van Buren 1855-58
(1782�1862) 1837�1841 Free Soil No No Yes White
12 Zachary Taylor 1843-45
(1784�1850) 1849�1850 Whig No No Yes Gray
16 Abraham Lincoln November
(1809�1865) 1861�1865 Republican Yes No N/A Black
18 Ulysses Grant 1870-1880
(1822�1885) 1869�1877 Republican Yes Yes N/A Brown
19 President Rutherford Hayes 1870 - 1880
(1822�1893) 1877�1881 Republican Yes Yes N/A Black
20 James Abram Garfield
(1831�1881) 1881-1881 Republican Yes Yes N/A Blonde
21 20 Chester Arthur
(1829�1886) 1881�1885 Republican No Yes Yes
22 & 24 Grover Cleveland
(1837�1908) 1893�1897 Democratic No Yes No Brown
23 Benjamin Harrison
(1833�1901) 1889�1893 Republican Yes Yes N/A
26 Theodore Roosevelt
(1858�1919) 1901�1909 Republican No Yes No Brown
27 William Howard Taft
(1857�1930) 1909�1913 Republican No Yes No Brown

That's arbitrary. Facial hair has come and gone as trends ebb and flow. It's more popular and more trendy right now than anyone has been alive to remember.

A couple hundred years ago, it was very fashionable to be clean shaven, then sideburns and beards were in, then in the 20th Century only mustaches were in, then beards came back as they were associated with counter-culture: beatniks, hippies, bikers, now it's everywhere without question.

I'd be interested to see that chart up to present day. Lots of goatees and sideburns in the 90's, beards the last few years. In fact about a year or so ago I shaved my beard simply because everywhere I looked, everyone else also had a giant bushy beard. Although to be fair, ever since I could sprout facial hair of any worth I did, from Elvis side burns to well, here's and old DL photo to illustrate

I had a mustache for the bulk of my military career.

My first section chief was a real piece of work (I almost didn't reenlist because of him), and one day I showed up to PT without having shaved first.

"Trying to grow a mustache?" he sneered.
"Um, yes, Sergeant, I am," I answered automatically (give a Private an excuse and he'll grab it quicker than a stripper's rear end).
"I'm not going to let you."

Well, there's nothing in the regs about rank and mustaches, so just to annoy him I grew one. He actually had the nerve to write me up for disobeying a lawful order by growing one (and was dumb enough to write it up truthfully)...which of course I pursued, appealing to the Platoon Sergeant and the First Sergeant, asking it to be elevated to formal UCMJ and a courts-martial.

He was quietly told to stop being a jerk and I got two days extra duty for being a smart ass.* But I grew and kept the mustache as a reminder that if one knows the rules one can't be screwed with too hard and to hell with stupid stuff.

* This was back in the days when they handed out extra duty informally, without paperwork, and we all went along with it. I'll paint any number of rocks so long as pen never goes to paper. We also had NO SMOKING areas (meaning that if it didn't specifically say one couldn't smoke, one could), our own Battery bar, and IV's hung after PT to head off the hangover. Jeeps and M113's in the motor pool, which supported M60 tanks.

Yikes I'm old!

Seems like beards have made a huge comeback in recent years. Sadly, trimming and grooming them hasn't. I see tons of scuzzy, too-long, crappy beards on people that simply look horrible.

I just started a beard about a month ago. I keep it trimmed and neat and I'm surprised at the compliments I've received.

I hated the look of the Boston Red Sox beards that they wore for good luck in their 2013 World Series winning season - Millionaires looking like homeless bums.

Badly maintained beards are very much in style.

I'm not allowed. I get two days max. Then my wife comes at me with a razor in my sleep.

If she's coming at you with a razor in your sleep, well I wouldn't risk it either. Currently when the beard starts getting "too bushy" I'll let her complain about it for a week or 2. After such time I will trim it down a bit to essentially the same length it was when she started nagging me about. But since I trimmed it she's happy and at most I lose 1-2 weeks of beard growth, or however long I can stand her nagging. That buys me about another month or so before I get nagged again, she still hasn't caught on to this after all these years haha

I was never a hippy in the seventies...far from it. I grew hair because I was often weeks away from town in the tribal areas in Botswana and other places.

This has been one of those winters that I have kept some face cover for a couple weeks at a time. About that time I start beard-stroking which drives me nuts so I shave it off and start all over again. Way too much gray in it to look good. Looks all streaky.

Just how, exactly, was this data arrived at, and
for what population does it apply? I'm not aware
of any organization going around surveying the
state of men's facial hair anywhere. Maybe some
poor shlep assigned the job of analysing all
the faces in 130 years of magazines and newspapers,
for some specific locality. But the chart predates
the widespread use of photography, so the first
30 years or so would have been all hand drawn
illustrations. The data must be regarded as
highly suspect, at any rate.

My GF loves a bit of beard on me and gets those sad puppy eyes when I DO shave myself. Because then I'm not "scratchy" anymore...

So, for a couple of years I've been cultivating a (trimmed) 3-4 days beard now.

Over here the hipsters are sporting beards that make Gimli look well groomed.

Highly groomed but large beards are the fashion amongst metro 'hipsters' here with many sporting WW2 pilot-type handlebars.
Interesting that the 'hipster' fashion movement seems to be confined to late 20's-30's; unusual for a fashion trend which are usually the forte of teens over here.

I was an original London 'Mod', backcombed hair, tab-collar shirt, Two-tone suit with 15inch vents, Cuban heel Chelsea boots and a Lambretta with 24 mirrors and lights.
If i still had all that clobber it would be worth a fortune on vintage sites!