The evolution of the beard
I’m sure anyone who’s decided to grow a beard has at some point thought about the origin of the beard itself. That’s quite an odd way of putting it, as obviously the beard has been around as long as man has, but it’s sometimes interesting to look back at the evolution of the beard and pin point times in history where having one was acceptable and times where having one wasn’t particularly popular.
As far as we can get date back to, and certainly amongst pretty much all male biblical figures, beards appeared to be commonplace. In Ancient Greece too, it seemed as if every man had one. Just look at Plato – his was enormous!
It wasn’t until Alexander the great came about until things began to change. He decided that all of his soldiers were not allowed them. This idea of beardlessness began to spread. From what we can see, it appears that the majority of roman men did not have them.
So what can we deduce from what we’ve talked about so far? It appears that the growth of facial hair seems to have peaks and troughs throughout time. There are periods where a lot of people seem to have them, and others where hardly any do.
We’re not going to try and figure out why this is in this post. Perhaps we come back to that at some point in the future.
Continuing through time it seems as if they weren’t particularly widespread for quite a long period. For instance, if you look at all of the previous presidents of the united states, only a small number of them have them. And just look at the prime ministers of England. I’m not sure whether there has ever been one that has ever sported a beard.
Perhaps for a long period beards were associated with lower class citizens, and thats why they became unfavourable. That’s all changed now though. They’re definitely back in fashion now with your average hipster constantly grooming his. All of them seem to have a litany of products they apply to them too. Finding the best beard oils available can be tricky but if you look around you can always find a good deal.