The month formerly known as November is now styled

 by the portmanteau Movember:

moustache + November = Movember

For the duration of the month

men are encouraged to grow out their moustaches

to promote public awareness of prostrate cancer

and other male-related health concerns.

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Yet it seems of the moment that

men need little, if any, coaxing to

patiently grow and attentively groom facial hair.

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Moustaches,  beards,  goatees, stubble

are on trend –

a fashion statement accessory  courtesy of nature.

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A follicle of men’s facial hair history

Sporting facial hair has been in and out of fashion;

sometimes au courant at other times legislated against and fineable.

Currently,  facial hair fashion is seen everywhere.

Yet, throughout the course of history

it wasn’t always so.

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During the 15th and 16th centuries

English monarchs fluctuated in attitudes

on beard-wearing.

In 1447, the English monarch King Henry VI

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(image from wikimedia.org):

Henry VI

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decreed that moustaches were forbidden and

that every fortnight, men were required to shave their upper lip.

Why such antipathy against moustaches?

There is no clear explanation … possibly Henry VI

was annoyed that he was facial hair follicle challenged

so he wanted to deny others the right to have beards.

Maybe he simply hated moustaches or had a moustache phobia.

He did suffer from bouts of insanity.

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Continuing in an anti-facial hair mode,

King Henry VIII famous for his own

neatly trimmed ginger beard

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(image from hrp.org.uk):

King Henry VIII

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levied taxes in 1535 on men with beards.

Since courtiers slavishly followed

dress/appearance standard set by the monarch,

no doubt many wanted to have beards similar to the king.

 Henry VIII cleverly instituted means

to capitalise on the situation.

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By the 1560s all anti-beard rules were revoked.

Sporting a beard went on to become very popular.

Men scented, coloured and even curled

their beards to create distinct looks.

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Moving on to more recent times, laws may no longer

have dictated beard-wearing dos and don’ts,

but other factors certainly ‘beard’ influence.

Following WWI and WWII, American men favoured

a clean, youthful, beardless appearance:

the “all American look”.

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(image from whitepages.com):

Robert Young (centre) as the father in the TV series Father Knows Best

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The jazz scene of the 1950s/1960s

saw the soul patch gain facial hair status.

The soul patch was popular with

jazz musicians and beat generation creatives.

It was a small tuft of hair

grown below the lower lip and just above the chin.

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(image from pdxretro.com):

jazz impressario, the trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie 

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Yet by the 1960s/70s with the anti- Vietnam War Movement

and the emergence of hippie culture,

sporting full unkempt beards was

a political and “anti-establishment” statement maker:

a look which defined a generation.

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(image from americanacademy.de):

an Open Land commune in Northern California, late 1960s

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The 1980s was the decade of the ‘Miami Vice Shadow’:

facial hair that appeared barely there

as inspired by TV Detective Crockett

from the American television series Miami Vice.

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(image from fiftiesweb.com):

Don Johnson as TV detective Sonny Crockett

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During the noughties the intricately outlined goatee

was a facial hair design choice.

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(image from cnn.com):

A. J. McLean (left) of 90s boy band, Backstreet Boys

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Today sporting facial hair is fashion au courant:

worn in as many styled variations as possible.

Hair!   Hair!

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Favlook – Lookfav Focus: men’s facial hair! , hair! 

(images from nssmag.com):

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(image from Singh Street style):

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(images from Garconjon):

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(image by James Robinson):

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(image by Chicago Streetstyle Scene):

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(images from onthecornerstreetstyle.blogspot.co.uk):

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(image from Unlimited by JK):

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(image from Boy from Dagbon):

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