[Sam Gordon Campbell]

I've seen many a manly folical displayed in the art throughut the age's and culture of the globe, but my question is this;
Why did you choose a beard that Harold Bloodaxe would be proud of, a mo' that Vercingetorix would be astounded by or a berzerk bedazzled? Is it part and parcel of you as a person, or merely some facial fluff, or perhaps part of you re-enctor persona? Who inspired your face fuzz, Charlemagne or perhaps Octavius? Is there a story behind it?
And remember, a picture is worth a thousand words (hint, hint)!

[Jean Thibodeau]

I've had a beard since around 1974 and only shaved it off about 3 times and grew it back right away: Seeing one's chin disappear or at least seem to when one has had a beard for years and one's face just looks strange without the beard.

The beard does work for a lot of periods and depending on how long or trimmed it is it can go from Barbarian to Renaissance Prince.

[M. Eversberg II]

Makes me look older. People take me more seriously then.

M.

[Eric Allen]

I did the facial hair thing for a while in undergrad. Got tired of it.
But the hair on my head ranges from "short" to "Frodo Baggins"

[Nat Lamb]

Well, here in the land of freaky animals, it seems that re-enactors are compelled to have at least 3 of the following
1) long ( talking Jimmy Page here) hair
2) Beard
3) No front teeth
4) Distinct beer (ale, whatever) gut
5) 6'2 height
6) Be called Steven (or Stephan)

I don't know why this is, but it seems to hold.

[Gavin Kisebach]

It's hard to say because facial hair is in style right now, but it does seem a lot of history buffs like goatees in particular. At least, here in Washington state.

[B. Stark]

Goatees are professionally exceptable these days...anyhow it seems most eras run the gammut of facial hair depending on the culture era and social class being portrayed. Elizabethan era...goatees or the 'van dyke' are almost ubiquitous for the upwardly mobile types. Early 1500's beards and handle'bar 'staches as well as goatees occur frequently in art. Amongst the Roman legions...facial hair was proscribed until the later Empire seemingly.

Still, there seems to have been ALOT of clean shaven men. This is striking to me as razors were extremely sharp edged devices with no safety measure other than the hand using it...call me a chicken but I would have a well trimmed beard.

[Gabriele A. Pini]

I have a beard for two reasons:

- My father had it when I was young, and at the time it was rare in my city.

- Without it I seem to be three or four years old.

I think that a well shaved face could be a status symbol in the medieval age: only a person with lot of time, or some menial under him, can be shaved every day. If you have to go up at six everyday, and like me you have to shave everyday to maintain a clean face, you give up very early...

[Jeroen Zuiderwijk]

No facial hair here, though I've had a moustache for around 18 years. It took some getting used to when it was gone, but I'm really happy without it. It was just constantly in the way, gave a mess while eating and I do look better without it. Aside from that, it's much more accurate for the periods I portray (bronze age, early iron age), where it seems it was common practice that men were clean shaven. Only the hair on my head is still too much for pretty much any period. Bronze age the hair was generally shoulder length at most, and in the early iron age people were completely bald. Not quite the picture most people have of prehistoric people

[Gabriele Becattini]

it'a an interesting questions,
i'm not a reenactor but mainly a WMA student,
but having a "correct" look for the historical period of fencing i study, add a certain flavour.
since my main area has been, till now, the late reinassance i'm full bearded and with the cropped hair style
that you can see in many mid-late XVIth century portraits ( add the fact that i'm italian and i look like a Moroni painting
)

gabriele

[Mat Billings]

Mine comes and goes. It goes away when I get motivated, usually once every 3 or 4 weeks.

Haircut? Buzz cut every few months. It takes 5 minutes and BAM! Done. I should get that done tomorrow...starting to feel like a sheepdog again.

I had hair to my shoulders 5 years ago (my welding logbook picture is awesome! It looks like a mafia mugshot. ) Long hair is a pain.

[Dan P]

I'm keeping my beard. For 75% of the year around here it just feels too cold to go without.

[Joshua Connolly]

[Eric Bergman]

I'd like to go for the Victorian era with the huge mutton chops. That would be too cool.

[M. Eversberg II]

I think I fail your requirements

1) long ( talking Jimmy Page here) hair -- mine goes past the shoulders.
2) Beard -- At the moment, just stubble.
3) No front teeth -- I've got all 36 teeth
4) Distinct beer (ale, whatever) gut -- Food gut D:
5) 6'2 height -- 5'3" :|
6) Be called Steven (or Stephan) -- M.

Yer, I fail

M.

[Craig Shira]

.

I have noticed that facial hair comes in and out of style throughout the ages. From my personal surveys, a lot of faces in the 1400s are clean shaven, beards become popular in the 1500s and 1600s, clean shaven comes back in the 1700s, beards come back big time in the 1800s, and fall out of favor in the 1900s.

Doing Landsknecht reenactment during their golden age, I have taken attention to the styles of the 1530s and found that, although beards were popular, being clean shaven was common. If you break things down to clean shaven versus non-clean shaven, non-clean shaven wins. However, if you break things down to individual styles, clean-shaven is about as common as a guy with a mustache, which is as common as a guy with a full beard, which is as common as a guy with the beard without sideburns. In fact, with the exception of three or four images of guys with massive mutton chops, sideburns were not as commonly seen in the 1530s.

http://www.st-max.org/ae-hair.htm

Personally, I've done a lot of styles while doing reenactment: clean shaven, mustache and mutton chops, beard without sideburns, and trimmed beard. Right now I'm rocking the clean-shaven look.

As with everything, the source material (woodcuts, paintings, tapestries) are the inspiration for the look.

(Craig)

.

[Hunter B.]

I'll man up and admit it:

One, I hate shaving. And two, my girlfriend likes it.

I keep it neat and close cropped.

[Michael Ahrens]

Well I stopped shaving on FEB.18,1983. happens to be the day that i was released from active duty. in that time i have shaved 1 time in 1985. My wife and children have never seem me without a beard. so i say facial hair now, facial hair tomorrow, and facial hair forever.

[David E. Farrell]

At one point in college, I got lazy and stopped shaving. My girlfriend at the time (now wife) 'helped' me trim it ... i ended up with a goatee. For some reason, they always seemed cool to me even though I had previously been clean shaven, so I went with it (much to the joy of my wife). About 9 years later, I am still doing it - though I did shave it off for a summer a couple years back.

Compared to being clean shaven, I think that it is actually *more* work to keep a goatee looking nice since you still have to shave around it and then trim it lest it get ragged.


Now - I could work on one of those crazy forked beards like shown in Fiore Dei Liberi's fighting manuscripts, but that's too much work :P

[Paul Kenworthy]

I try to grow my hair in a fashion appropriate for the period I'm re-enacting. Hair cuts and facial hair are as distinctive for a time and place as any other aspect of fashion. Unfortunately, many re-enactors think that "long" and "unshaven" works for any historical period. Sort of like thinking a Granny dress is actually a Victorian fashion. I do a lot of American Civil War re-enacting and there is actually a cliche among ACW re-enactors, "PBG," which stands for Pudgy Beared Guy, 'cause they are so prevalent.

One generalization that I think is valid in a lot of times and places, especially among soldiers, is that more hair is indicative of higher social station. Dragging a razor across your face and head is a pain, but it is less of a pain than lice, fleas, and ticks. The less dirt you have to wallow in, the more likely you are to favor fashion over function.

At the moment I'm able to share an Imperial (so named after Napoleon III) for American Civil War with a van Dyke for early 17th-century English colonial. The problem I have is with late 15th-century Burgundian, for which it is totally inappropriate.

Best Regards,

Paul