One morning, you look in the mirror and it hits you. You basically like your face, but it’s time for a change. (We’re not talking plastic surgery.) You’ve always been Mr Clean-Cut.
You’re starting to look more and more like your dad (and nice as he is, that’s not what you’re aiming for). You’re feeling like a corporate drone. Or maybe your trademark goatee is going grey and your dentist (who just charged you $933 for a filling) has the exact same growth on his chinny-chin-chin.
You have a low-cost, all- empowering option, but it’s time for a decision: You can either drop the razor or pick it up. And you don’t have to ask anybody for permission (though everybody will have an opinion!). Men just like you the world over now change their fa- cial hair whenever they like, and for all kinds of reasons.
You may want to look older (or younger), more laid-back and playful (or more macho), or show that you’re in some kind of transition (think of Al Gore’s beard after he lost the election, or the one on your recently divorced buddy). Whatever your fuzzy (or clean-cut) motivation, this fine volume will help you pick a look, maintain or modify it, and then eradicate it (in style) so you can start all over.
Beardies and Babyfaces unite! We are one and the same. Your face is your canvas—now go to town! History 101: Why Men Grow Fuzz Why have men grown (or removed) their facial hair? The answer was fairly simple until the twentieth cen- tury.
Cavemen really had no choice because shaving hadn’t been invented. From the Neanderthals onward, once a guy hit puberty, something bristly started sprout- ing on his face. Shaving (or at least plucking hairs out with clamshells) began about 2,000 BCE.
Thereafter, whether Egyptian, Greek, Roman, or Judeo-Christian, you had to grow a beard to indicate your religion, class, and allegiance to your king. You sometimes removed it if your clergyman told you it was Satanic (rather than saintly), or if, like Oscar Wilde, you rebelled and took it off (so as not to look like all those bushy Victorians).
Mustaches were popular in the military, but aside from that, and de- pending on the time and place, could be interpreted as foppish, fiendish, or foreign. Basically, you took your cues from those in charge. The twentieth century is when things really started to get interesting. King Camp Gillette started producing his disposable razor blade in 1903 and revolutionized shav- ing forever.
After both world wars, men became con- vinced that clean-shavenness signified godliness, patriotism, and modern life. A male grooming industry was born, and razors (both blade and electric) with accompanying foams, tonics, and aftershaves became big business.
Our fathers, grandfathers, and great- grandfathers wouldn’t have been hired with beards and mustaches (unless they were orthodox clergy or univer- sity professors). Between 1900 and 1950, men were (apart from a few “commies” and mustachioed Holly- wood types) essentially hairless, but thereafter every decade brought its own furry expressions. Western civi- lization increasingly began to trumpet individualism over communal identity. The fifties gave us beatnik beards, daddy-o Soul Patches, and Elvis sideburns.
The sixties brought long-haired, wild-bearded hippies. The seventies brought swinger/bi/porn-star mustaches. The eighties brought designer stubble. Modern men were no longer taking their cues from politicians (who never have facial hair) and clergy (who usually don’t) and instead looked to rock stars, movie actors, and athletes for what was cool, playful, and rebellious.
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