Up your beard game: the best beard trends you must sport right now

Ancient Mesopotamian men devoted a lot of time and care to grooming their beards by oiling, curling, and bejewelling them. Egyptians considered beards a sign of nobility and women and men of the royal family wore a bejewelled gold accessory on their chin called a ‘Postiche’ or false beard.

Confusians from ancient China considered unshorn hair to be a gift from God, thus terracotta armies found in Chinese tombs all have beards. Persian kings grew their beards long and dense. In ancient India, beards were considered a symbol of wisdom, spirituality, and dignity. Infact, ancient Indians, Spartans, Saxons punished deserters and cowards by shaving their beards off. Lombardians are so named because they are the people of ‘long beards’.

Pre-Islamic Arabia had the culture of keeping short beards and thick moustaches. Prophet Mohammed maintained a beard and advised his followers to do the same, but to remove the moustaches in order to differ from non-believers. With the spread of Islam, the trend for beards also gained popularity. Signifying social status as well, beards have been an integral cultural part of this portion of the world.

Medieval Knights in England wore custom armour to display their moustaches and touching someone’s beard was offensive and grounds for a duel! In the 17th Century, the Russian Czar Peter the Great ordered men to be clean shaven and introduced a ‘Beard Tax’. This caused beards to became unpopular in Europe and America – a dislike for paying taxes is clearly not a new aversion. In fact, the first bearded US President was none other than the legendary Abraham Lincoln. Later, the Crimean war and French revolution tied beards with the idea of courage and the fashion came roaring back. The 19th century again saw a decline in the world beard trend because of hygiene concerns and the American glorification of the clean shaven, good boy image. 

Civilian prohibitions also kept this trend in check in the past. Airline pilots, firefighters are required in many countries to be clean shaven to be able to seal respiratory masks properly. Corporate culture across the world, civil services in western governments have frowned upon beards. But a lot has changed in the past decade as celebrities and influencers have affected the mass perception of facial hair. Pogonotrophy (The act of cultivating, or growing and grooming, a moustache, beard, sideburns, or other facial hair) is now popular again.