tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/facial-hair-26385/articles
Facial hair – The Conversation
2018-11-23T12:03:18Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/107126
2018-11-23T12:03:18Z
2018-11-23T12:03:18Z
Beards, business and a history of facial hair in the workplace
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246921/original/file-20181122-182062-8iqj8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/vintage-beard-man-1900-style-fashion-310332725?src=6jI5evJHP4durUuJXOERzw-2-22">By Ysbrand Cosijn / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recording the human face in art is a long-held tradition, from the Roman Bust to the 15th century Dutch painting. The portrait signals power, prestige and wealth. Corporations have also used portraits to depict their leaders. For example, UK retail banks have been collecting images of their founders and chairmen since the 18th century. These paintings remain on proud display in London head offices.</p>
<p>For a company, the portrait provides a public face and identity to an impersonal institution. But portraits can also reveal interesting trends and attitudes towards appearances. Research I carried out on portraits with my colleague Victoria Barnes revealed some interesting results. </p>
<p>One article <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/enterprise-and-society/article/constructing-corporate-identity-before-the-corporation-fashioning-the-face-of-the-first-english-joint-stock-banking-companies-through-portraiture/DE8AB45BFEB81F97E3BB93C8C24A1FA1">published in the journal Enterprise and Society</a> analysed the commissioning of bank managers portraits in the early 19th century. The research showed that, from a very early stage, newly formed joint-stock banks realised the value of such art works and used them to successful create a corporate identity and signal their place in the market. </p>
<p>Another article, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17449359.2018.1431552">published in the Journal of Management and Organisational History</a>, examined how Lloyds Bank began collecting portraits of past bank chairmen in the 1960s and put them on display in their head offices. One thing that stood out to us in this research is the changing patterns in men’s facial whiskers over the decades. Recent fashion has embraced all forms of facial hair, but it has not always been so well accepted. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246915/original/file-20181122-182062-1aqs1sx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246915/original/file-20181122-182062-1aqs1sx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246915/original/file-20181122-182062-1aqs1sx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246915/original/file-20181122-182062-1aqs1sx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246915/original/file-20181122-182062-1aqs1sx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246915/original/file-20181122-182062-1aqs1sx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246915/original/file-20181122-182062-1aqs1sx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bears were an important part of the Viking warrior uniform.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/vikings-their-konung-traditional-warrior-clothes-663600733?src=Z3fFo6fhL5ePxOIbbgnrQw-1-52">Nejron Photo / Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Ancient Egyptians believed shaving was associated with cleanliness. Greeks were proud of their beards, which symbolised authority and wisdom. Roman whiskers tended to be less luxurious and neater, while Vikings sported large beards and moustaches, their fearsome appearance adding to their formidable reputation in combat. Conversely, later armies often discouraged facial hair as beards could be seized in battle by the enemy to incapacitate a soldier. </p>
<p>Beards thrived in the UK in the Medieval and Tudor periods. Most of Elizabeth I’s key advisers have beards in their portraits. Charles I (1600-1649) famously sported a small and neatly trimmed beard, combined with a moustache. His whiskers may have been famed but they did not prevent his execution. Then, the late 17th and 18th century witnessed the return of the clean shave in Europe, providing abundant work for barbers. </p>
<p>In the early 19th century, beards returned with a flourish. But they were associated with left-wing, anti-capitalist revolutionaries. Just picture Karl Marx.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246910/original/file-20181122-182068-6aqylc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246910/original/file-20181122-182068-6aqylc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246910/original/file-20181122-182068-6aqylc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246910/original/file-20181122-182068-6aqylc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246910/original/file-20181122-182068-6aqylc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246910/original/file-20181122-182068-6aqylc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246910/original/file-20181122-182068-6aqylc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, authors of the Communist Manifesto.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikipedia</span></span>
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<p>Fashions changed again from the 1850s. As revolutions across Europe were extinguished, in Britain the Victorians enthusiastically embraced beards and muttonchops – big long side burns that connect with a moustache. For them, the beard signaled power, masculinity and status. This was an age when British trade, commerce and industry were in the ascendance. Masculinity was therefore on display during a period of supreme confidence and economic success. This really was a time of “peak beard”. </p>
<h2>Beards and business</h2>
<p>Within companies, the beard has a mixed history, usually depending on contemporary fashions. From 1850 to 1900, British businessmen usually had some form of facial hair. Visit the halls of many UK institutions with a history back to the 19th century and you’ll see a line of portraits of men with beards.<br>
The Edwardians at the turn of the 20th century, in contrast, rejected the full facial hair of their forebears and adopted the moustache. At a practical level, those fighting in World War I shaved off their beards to ensure their gas masks fitted properly. But they often retained their moustaches. The preference for a smooth shave with only a moustache followed thereafter during a period of mixed economic fortunes for British business, interrupted by two world wars and disrupted by the loss of Empire. </p>
<p>As successive generations attempted to move away from the one before them, the beard found favour again in the hippy-influenced 1960s and 1970s. The Beatles led this trend. Facial hair fell out of fashion in the 1980s and 1990s, when trustworthiness in business was signalled by a clean shave. Indeed, companies such as HSBC even had a “clean shave” policy at this time, according to archivists I’ve spoken to there. This was an era of Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and free-market capitalism. And, of course, more women were visible in both politics and business. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246912/original/file-20181122-182044-s79m7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246912/original/file-20181122-182044-s79m7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246912/original/file-20181122-182044-s79m7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246912/original/file-20181122-182044-s79m7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246912/original/file-20181122-182044-s79m7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246912/original/file-20181122-182044-s79m7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246912/original/file-20181122-182044-s79m7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Charles Geach (1808-1854), founder of the Birmingham and Midland Bank, sporting some serious side burns.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">HBSC Group Archives, 1850. J. Partridge.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Reflecting the face of corporations, company portraits reflect trends in the appearance of businessmen and women. More recently they also reflect changes in the way that companies project their identity. They are no longer merely a procession of middle-aged, white, senior male managers with beards, as seen in the portraits of 19th-century bankers. Banks now display images that are more diverse – of people from various levels of the company, of women and different ethnicities. Thus, the company portrait survives but reflects progression in the society in which it is embedded.</p>
<p>Changing fashions in facial hair also opens opportunities for business. Barbers’ services and beard products allow men to groom in style. This reinforces the growing trend for men to spend more time and money on their appearance, a trend which shows no sign of abating. A growing popularity of beards is, obviously, less good for those producing razors.</p>
<p>Facial hair has traditionally signalled masculinity. As 21st-century businesses are, of course, gender diverse, facial hair will never be the essential work accessory, but rather a style choice and positive vehicle for charity fundraising through initiatives including <a href="https://uk.movember.com/">Movember</a> and <a href="http://decembeard.co/">Decembeard</a>. </p>
<p>After recent <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jeb.12958">research in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology</a> found that all women questioned preferred men with facial hair, there may be more than just a business case for men to keep their whiskers. Whatever the motivation for hair growth, it looks like the beard will always be with us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107126/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucy Newton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Ancient Egyptians believed shaving was associated with cleanliness but Greeks were proud of their beards, which symbolised authority and wisdom.
Lucy Newton, Associate Professor in Business History, Henley Business School, University of Reading
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/104096
2018-10-05T13:32:38Z
2018-10-05T13:32:38Z
Frida Kahlo to Rihanna: there’s a reason eye-catching brows are front and centre
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238916/original/file-20181002-85632-1pacqqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C102%2C586%2C508&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Frida Kahlo: self-portrait with Bonito.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Irina via Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is the subject of a major exhibition at London’s V&A museum, which has been running since July and <a href="https://fashionunited.uk/news/culture/inside-the-frida-kahlo-exhibition-at-the-v-a/2018061430221">tells the story of her life</a> through more than 200 artefacts and clothing. Among the items on display is the eyebrow pencil she used to accentuate the monobrow which – along with her instantly recognisable colourful costumes and the flowers with which she habitually dressed her hair – became her trademark, with which she stressed her indigenous heritage.</p>
<p>I am a specialist in Mexican studies, so Kahlo’s life and work are important to me. So too is the work of another famous Mexican woman of the period, María Félix. An unlikely friend of Kahlo’s, Félix was more conventionally glamorous, and was the biggest film star of Mexican cinema’s “golden age”. Her defined eyebrow arch and its predominance in her performances led me to consider the significance of the brow on screen. </p>
<p>As a Liverpool-based academic, my attention has also been drawn to the “Scousebrow” – a term bandied about on social media. It’s a product of the scripted reality show <a href="https://www.channel4.com/programmes/desperate-scousewives">Desperate Scousewives (2011-12)</a> and, shortlived as the series was, the term has lasted. A Scousebrow describes a brow that is arched, highly structured, tinted or drawn above the brow line, darker than the wearer’s natural hair colour and clearly artificial. This stylised look is not unique to the Scousebrow, but it has led to an unjustified level of abuse and mockery.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"141284202686578688"}"></div></p>
<p>Ironically, just as the <a href="https://brewsnbrows.wordpress.com/2018/04/16/where-did-scousebrow-originate/">Scousebrow</a> was being <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2074240/Kate-Middletons-Scouse-Brow-Why-Duchess-Cambridge-got-WAGs-eyebrows.html">ridiculed by the press</a>, model Cara Delevigne’s <a href="https://www.marieclaire.com/beauty/hair/a9511/cara-delevingne-eyebrows-tutorial/">thick, groomed brows</a> were being <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/cara-delevingne-actress-july-2015-cover">celebrated as natural</a> by high-end fashion magazines. Just like Kahlo’s monobrow, Delevigne’s carefully cultivated brow is presented as “natural”, while the Scousebrow (like Félix’s) is erroneously read as “false”. So, when it comes to eyebrows, it seem that beauty is being defined by social class.</p>
<p>So, in April 2018 we launched the “<a href="https://brewsnbrows.wordpress.com/">Brews and Brows</a>” project, a collaboration between the University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University, Edge Hill University and Manchester Metropolitan University which aimed to develop a new way of looking – and talking about – eyebrows. As people came into our Brow Booth, or had 3D scans done of their brows, multiple stories emerged about how people feel about their brows.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"989161744596598789"}"></div></p>
<p>There’s no doubt that brows are a big thing: last year the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/35cc5a98-00d2-11e6-99cb-83242733f755">Financial Times estimated</a> that the eyebrow “industry” in the UK was worth more than £20m – and, when Scottish comedian Gary Meikle recorded a vlog in September about his daughter’s obsession with her eyebrows and asked: “When did eyebrows become the most important part of a woman’s body?” it went viral. The vlog attracted more than 15m views (“three times the population of Scotland”, as one of his Twitter fans noted).</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1042102577951846401"}"></div></p>
<p>Meikle’s vlog is part of a wider conversation taking place around the brow that is gradually getting more attention beyond the beauty pages. It is also about a broader question about how women’s beauty is perceived and policed. </p>
<p>So it was interesting to see the reaction when British Vogue began to promote its September fashion" issue with Rihanna on the cover. Her skinny brows provoked an <a href="https://www.racked.com/2018/8/1/17640286/rihanna-skinny-brows-vogue">enormous debate</a> in the media. As a vocal advocate of black beauty, her skinny brows are a shift away from her “natural” fuller brows and a return to the artifice and thinness of the 1990s more associated with white actors, such as, Courtney Cox as Monica in Friends during its heyday. </p>
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<h2>Brows and brews</h2>
<p>The “Brow Booth” was modelled on a photography booth, where participants could sit in and tell us their brow stories individually or in pairs. Mothers interviewed daughters about their practices or shared what they learnt from one another. Friends prompted one another about funny stories from the past. We heard poignant stories of loss and pragmatic solutions to ageing (considerable hair growth in most men and thinning for women). One such story came from a woman fed up with plucking and grooming who got her brows micro-bladed (temporary tattoo) “to save on all that faffing around”. </p>
<p>From the men and women who have visited our “Brow Booth” we’ve heard stories of evolving fashion trends and practices, plucking and growing back, hair loss and surgical intervention. As one contributor said, “I used to check my mascara before I left the house, now it’s all about the eyebrows”. While we have gathered and analyse significant data, our project continues and the stories are still emerging. But the eyebrow is clearly a micro-detail that reveals much about how we feel about ourselves and an awareness of how we groom (or don’t groom) is read by others. Our findings support research into early human cultures about how our brows are <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-evolutionary-advantage-of-having-eyebrows-94599">integral to us</a> as social beings – we use them to express emotion, recognition, belief or disbelief – but what is clear it that, within this evolutionary function, there are constant shifts and changes in what we like in a brow. </p>
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<p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-evolutionary-advantage-of-having-eyebrows-94599">The evolutionary advantage of having eyebrows</a>
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</em>
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<p>For some years now the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2018/feb/27/power-brows-bold-eyebrows-perfect-instagram-five-steps">Instabrow</a>” has been in fashion – a well-tended, arched, clearly defined brow structured through carefully artistry and use of specialist products (which explains that £20m industry). And the brow has gradually evolved from thin to thick – although, who knows, Rihanna might change all that, such is her power as an “influencer”. </p>
<p>But what we are hearing through our research is how telling a detail the eyebrow can be and how it challenges assumptions about beauty. From Kahlo’s monobrow to the Instabrow to, perhaps, a return to the sculpted brow championed by Rihanna, fashions change – even if what we convey with our eyebrows doesn’t. So, to answer Meikle’s question: eyebrows have always been one of the most important parts of a woman’s body, even if we haven’t paid enough attention to them before. If you’ve never thought about your brows, you are one of very few – and if you’ve never talked about them, we are keen to listen and share.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104096/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Niamh Thornton's Brews and Brows project receives funding from the University of Liverpool discretionary fund and Liverpool John Moores University QR fund. She also receives support from the AHRC Student Cohort Fund and the ESRC via Methods North West and <a href="mailto:engage@Liverpool">engage@Liverpool</a>.</span></em></p>
Monobrow, Instabrow, Scousebrow: here’s one facial feature that deserves more attention.
Niamh Thornton, Reader in Latin American Studies, University of Liverpool
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/101996
2018-08-31T14:39:56Z
2018-08-31T14:39:56Z
Ragged beards or smooth skin: the changing face of men’s cosmetics
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234407/original/file-20180831-195316-eoino.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Wellcome Collection</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Personal grooming has perhaps never been so important, so popular and so well-served by “product”. For men at least. Male grooming products are now part of a huge industry, worth <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/382089/mens-grooming-market-value-united-kingdom-uk/">hundreds of millions of pounds</a>, with a bewildering array of skin care products on offer, from moisturisers and eye creams to makeup. </p>
<p>Although it has ballooned, the market for men’s cosmetics isn’t just a modern phenomenon. In fact, over the past three centuries or so, shaving soaps, paste and scents have often been linked to contemporary ideas about what men should look like. In the 17th century, for example, men valued their beards as tokens of their sexual potency and power. At this time, the use of cosmetics was largely limited to repairing damaged skin after shaving. </p>
<p>By the 1700s, new ideas about <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3133532?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">polite manliness</a>, and the need to create a “public face” saw neatness, elegance and cleanliness being championed. Rough, ragged beards were out, and smooth, soft faces were in. For the technologically-conscious Victorians, however, things like utility and function and hygiene became important. </p>
<p>A glance through the advertising of these products can often tell us much about contemporary attitudes towards male appearance.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234409/original/file-20180831-195310-oliba3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234409/original/file-20180831-195310-oliba3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234409/original/file-20180831-195310-oliba3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234409/original/file-20180831-195310-oliba3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234409/original/file-20180831-195310-oliba3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234409/original/file-20180831-195310-oliba3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234409/original/file-20180831-195310-oliba3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Barber’s shaving bowl, Netherlands, 1701-1750.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ks3a79wc?query=shaving+powder">© Wellcome Collection</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>17th-century skincare</h2>
<p>In Tudor and Stuart periods there was little commercially available shaving product. Indeed, the use of cosmetics by men was <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/A_Cultural_History_of_the_Human_Body_in.html?id=6nvbYgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">strongly discouraged</a> on religious, moral and even sexual grounds. Also, men didn’t usually shave themselves. Instead, the barber was largely responsible for men’s skincare, as well as other types of minor bodywork, including pulling teeth, scraping ears and lancing boils. </p>
<p>According to the 17th-century author Randle Holme, the barber would first wash the customer’s face with warm water, soap and scented washballs (orange and rose were popular), before removing the beard and washing the face once more to remove the soap. Afterwards, soothing lotions such as “Agyptiacum” were applied, along with “sweete waters”. In case of a nasty shaving rash, many remedies for skin conditions were available to “take the fier out of the burn” – including rubbing a raw egg on the afflicted area. Thus debarbed and sweetly-smelling, our Tudor gentleman could sally forth about his business.</p>
<p>But by the end of the 18th century, men were beginning to shave themselves, and there was a surge in new products from innovative perfumers to help them. Between 1751 and 1850 there were at least 50 competing brands of shaving soap, 18 shaving powders and 20 pastes. Somewhat surprisingly, given popular Georgian fears about effeminacy, softness and luxury were common advertising themes. Many products claimed to make shaving “easy and pleasant”. One Georgian perfumer even styled his product “the Mellifluous shaving soap”.</p>
<p>Scent was another important element. Some, like the “Royal Chymical wash balls” allegedly smelled “more pleasant than any perfume”. Along with scent, advertisers talked up the supposed medical properties of their products. One 1745 liquid soap claimed to cure smallpox, ringworm, pimples and scurf, as well as improving shaving. Yet others promised to make shaving tolerable for men with “tender faces”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234415/original/file-20180831-195316-1mnggd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234415/original/file-20180831-195316-1mnggd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234415/original/file-20180831-195316-1mnggd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234415/original/file-20180831-195316-1mnggd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234415/original/file-20180831-195316-1mnggd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234415/original/file-20180831-195316-1mnggd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234415/original/file-20180831-195316-1mnggd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234415/original/file-20180831-195316-1mnggd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A sequence of eight images showing men shaving. Coloured etching, 1796.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/f5u2qpqw?query=shaving">© Wellcome Collection</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The age of the beard</h2>
<p>Around 1850, though, <a href="https://theconversation.com/sex-object-germ-killer-battleground-the-wonderful-history-of-the-beard-37931">beards</a> returned spectacularly to British men’s faces. The archetypal Victorian male is usually portrayed with a heavy patriarchal beard, matching his austere manliness. Surely no self-respecting Victorian patriarch would have slathered on the cream, or puffed on the scent? There is indeed some evidence that the “beard movement” did have an impact for a time, with an apparent drop in the numbers and types of products available in the 1850s and 60s.</p>
<p>Instead, with beards swiftly becoming the essential mark of the Victorian male, many products emerged to help beardless boys and “smock-faced” men grow their own crop. Products like “Russia Oil” claimed to make hair “grow thick and long, even in bald places, whiskers, eye-brows”. Atkinson’s “Curling Fluid” nourished the hair “as it grows on the whiskers and mustachios, with the most beautiful luxuriance”. Others played on the fears of men who couldn’t grow beards. The makers of “Crinutriar” reassured the doubtful that since using their product, “thousands … who were once utterly destitute of Beard or Whiskers now have these attributes of manhood”. </p>
<p>Unsurprisingly too, beard combs and clippers became part of the toilette requisites of a gentleman. A number of manuals schooled men in how to properly attend to their beards, which should be: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Carefully and frequently washed, well-trimmed and well combed, and the hair and whiskers kept scrupulously clean, by the help of clean, stiff hair brushes, and soap and warm water.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The Victorian gentleman</h2>
<p>But not all Victorian men wore beards, and many popular facial hair styles still required at least some of the face to be shaved. Brands like Price and Gosnell of London, and Guerlain of Paris, continued to advertise their products throughout the period. As beards reached their peak though, advertisers temporarily dropped both the language of luxury, and the emphasis on scent, concentrating instead on utility and improving the process of shaving.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234408/original/file-20180831-195310-qmhysr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234408/original/file-20180831-195310-qmhysr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234408/original/file-20180831-195310-qmhysr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234408/original/file-20180831-195310-qmhysr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234408/original/file-20180831-195310-qmhysr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234408/original/file-20180831-195310-qmhysr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1170&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234408/original/file-20180831-195310-qmhysr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1170&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234408/original/file-20180831-195310-qmhysr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1170&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">19th-century Pears soap ad.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Wellcome Collection</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This was short-lived. By the 1870s, younger men began to return to shaving. This time, amid popular fears about public health, advertisers turned to hygiene and cleanliness to promote their wares. Where once a pleasant fragrance had been the thing most desired, safety and protection were now the order of the day. </p>
<p>Cuticura’s “Medicinal Shaving Soap” and “Dr Nichol’s Sanitary Shaving Soap” were popular as was, rather troublingly, “Mackenzie’s Arsenical Toilet Soap” – a highly toxic substance, originally used by taxidermists. From the 1870s, gentlemen also began to splash on one of the ever-growing number of male colognes and scents. Should you wish to smell like a Victorian, citrus, lavender and “woody” scents were very popular.</p>
<p>Just as each age has brought its own fashion in facial hair styles, then, so products have emerged to accompany them. If anything, the pace of change has accelerated over the past 30 or so years, with the ever-expanding range of male cosmetics. Predicting what might come next is always difficult, but many fashions involve a reaction against the preceding one. As we gradually move out of the current sculpted beard trend, perhaps one day we’ll see a return to a more “natural”, ungroomed style for men.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101996/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alun Withey receives funding from Wellcome Trust. My research on facial hair is funded by a Wellcome Trust postdoctoral fellowship, for my project 'Do Beards Matter? Facial Hair, Health and Hygiene in Britain, c. 1650-1900', at the University of Exeter.</span></em></p>
Although it has ballooned in recent years, the market for men’s cosmetics isn’t just a modern phenomenon.
Alun Withey, Associate Research Fellow in History, University of Exeter
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/56784
2016-04-14T05:07:27Z
2016-04-14T05:07:27Z
Hirsutes you sir: but that beard might mean more to men than women
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117209/original/image-20160403-6790-1iu7xja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Research suggests beards evolved to help men impress other men rather than attracting women.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ezume Images/shutterstock </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What is the point of a beard, evolutionarily speaking? Children, women, and a whole bunch of men manage just fine without one. But take a walk down some streets these days and you’ll be confronted with all sizes and shapes of groomed (and less groomed) facial hair – from designer stubble to waxed moustaches and hipster beards.</p>
<p>When we see men paying attention to their appearance, it’s easy to assume that they’re just angling for partners. But our research on beards and voices <a href="http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/content/27/2/512.full">shows</a> that beards probably evolved at least partly to help men boost their standing among other men.</p>
<p>Compared to males and females of many other primates, men and women on average <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10532528.2005.10559826">look very different</a> from each other – partly thanks to men’s facial hair. And when we see differences between males and females, the explanation often boils down to evolution through <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/5522.html">sexual selection</a> – the process that favours traits that boost mating opportunities.</p>
<p>But interestingly, women don’t seem that interested in beards. While some studies have found that women like <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513813000226">a bit</a> or even <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1974-00999-001">a lot</a> of facial hair on men, <a href="http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/01/12/beheco.arr214.short">other studies</a> have reported that <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0162309595001301">they prefer the clean-shaven look</a>. The lack of consistent evidence means we can’t conclude that beards evolved because women were attracted to them. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117211/original/image-20160403-6825-nar0aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117211/original/image-20160403-6825-nar0aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117211/original/image-20160403-6825-nar0aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117211/original/image-20160403-6825-nar0aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117211/original/image-20160403-6825-nar0aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117211/original/image-20160403-6825-nar0aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117211/original/image-20160403-6825-nar0aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Can’t stop looking at it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">zeljkodan/shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Researchers have therefore suggested that a second type of sexual selection may hold the answer. To reproduce, it’s often not enough to simply be attractive. You also have to compete with the same sex for mating opportunities. The funny, shy guy at the back of the bar isn’t going to stand a chance when competing with his bolshier brothers otherwise. And there’s evidence that beards evolved to help men do just that.</p>
<p>A man’s ability to grow a fulsome beard <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.1330920205/abstract">isn’t actually neatly linked</a> to his testosterone levels. Despite this, a number of studies have suggested that both men and women perceive men with beards as <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1974-00999-001">older</a>, <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1989-39917-001">stronger</a> and <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1989-39917-001">more aggressive</a> than others. And dominant men can get more mating opportunities by intimidating rivals to stand aside.</p>
<p>This is something that holds true both in <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513813000615">modern times</a> and throughout <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002929707605874">human history</a>. Dominance can provide a staggering short-cut to mating opportunities: genetic evidence indicates that about 8% of the male population of Asia today is a descendent of Genghis Khan and his family. </p>
<p><a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1012515505895">A study</a> by the appropriately-named Nigel Barber linked British facial hair fashions between 1842 and 1971 to the ratio of men to women in the marriage market. It found that in times with a greater proportion of single men competing for fewer women, beards and moustaches became more fashionable. </p>
<h2>The experiment</h2>
<p>Beards aren’t the only feature that can convey dominance – voices do too. People tend to <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513811001024">vote for leaders</a> with lower-pitched voices, and during competitive tasks men lower the pitch of their voice if they <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513805000966">think they are more dominant than their opponent</a>. Like facial hair, voice pitch also easily distinguishes men and women.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117207/original/image-20160403-6825-bmcglk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117207/original/image-20160403-6825-bmcglk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117207/original/image-20160403-6825-bmcglk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117207/original/image-20160403-6825-bmcglk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117207/original/image-20160403-6825-bmcglk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117207/original/image-20160403-6825-bmcglk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117207/original/image-20160403-6825-bmcglk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Does tash beat beard?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Luis Molinero/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To help trace the evolutionary origin of beards and voices, we <a href="http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/content/27/2/512">tested</a> whether they were seen as attractive, dominant or both. We asked 20 men and 20 women to rate the dominance and attractiveness of six men who were video-taped on four occasions as they let their facial hair grow. We then used computer software to create four versions of each video where the men’s voices had been changed to sound higher and lower-pitched.</p>
<p>We found that male voices that sounded deeper than average were rated as the most attractive. Really deep or high pitches weren’t as popular. In contrast, men’s voices were perceived as increasingly dominant the lower they were. Beards didn’t affect a man’s attractiveness rating consistently, but those who let their facial hair grow were perceived as more dominant than others – in line with previous research.</p>
<p>The tension between attracting a mate and competing with others doesn’t just apply to beards and voices. Men on average also think their body should be more muscular <a href="http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/10910794">than women report that they want</a>, while women on average believe they <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/abn/94/1/102/">need to be thinner</a> and <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17470218.2014.908932">wear more make-up</a> than men report that they want. We’re not always that great at judging what the other sex finds appealing, but maybe that’s in part because our instincts are to out-compete our peers as well as attract a partner.</p>
<p>Of course, most of this research has been carried out within western populations. Make-up use, average body composition, and even the very ability to grow facial hair all differ enormously across the world – meaning we could get different results elsewhere.</p>
<p>But the point is that, whether it’s facial hair or something else, we often see this pattern of competing requirements leading to differences in appearances. Think you can please everyone all of the time? You can’t.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56784/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tamsin Saxton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Do women prefer ‘manly men’ with thick beards and deep voices? Science reveals all.
Tamsin Saxton, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Northumbria University, Newcastle
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.