Facing Up to Facial Hair.

• Author: KREYCHE, GERALD F.
• Position: Brief Article - Column

FOR MANY MEN TODAY, clean-shaven days and the "five o'clock shadow" are passe. Shaving always has been a bother, and one now has an excuse to forgo this morning ritual. Those who chickened out due to various pressures and shaved off a longtime beard tell us they feel naked, so accustomed were they to the bearded look.

Beards, of course, have had a checkered history. Their reputation was sullied by Blackbeard the pirate and the folkloric Bluebeard, but, despite this, beards retain a symbolism that has taken on various meanings. There is Father Time, for example, who regularly shows up around New Year's Eve. Here, the beard reflects a tired old man, glad to leave his post governing the last year, letting the New Year babe take over. Then there are the white whiskers of a jolly old fellow named Santa Claus. Even women who play that role today wear the beard lest kiddies think Santa is an out-and-out fake. No question, Santa without a beard is unthinkable. When it comes to long beards, though, sleepy Rip Van Winkle has no equal.

In earlier times, beards served as a sign not only of maturity, but of the wisdom which is supposed to come with an extended life. One often read the snide phrase of "beardless youth," referring to those innocent of a knowledge of life. This is one reason teenage boys are so proud of the few chin hairs they are developing, believing they reveal a coming of age. Pharaohs who were too young to have full-grown beards wore fake ones, and even the giant statue of Ramses II at Memphis, Egypt, is carved with a fake beard. Among other things, the beard represented authority.

Nature's purpose

Philosophers have pondered over the fact that, ordinarily, women do not have beards, although mustaches on them are embarrassingly common. What possible portent does this suggest? What was nature's purpose in giving men beards? Was it to serve as a napkin or perhaps to keep the throat warm while wearing an open-collar shirt in winter? Was it to give men a sinister appearance? Who knows? One advantage of a beard, though, is that, when stroked, it gives the appearance of one being deep in thought, although the reason may simply be that it itches. In the days of Barnum and Bailey, circuses always drew crowds at the sideshow when it featured "The Bearded Lady." Often enough, she turned out to be a man.

There are beards and there are beards. A longtime favorite was the Van Dyke triangular (goatee-type) model, as worn by the Three Musketeers. It...