Over the last two weeks, several of my family and friends have noted my beard. It came as a surprise because I wasn’t identifying as bearded. It didn’t do it on purpose. All I did was stop shaving and shift to less frequent trimming....
Anyway I’ve done some research into the topic by googling phrases including “accidental beard” and “who invented the beard” and I thought I’d share my findings.
Please don’t mind if I occasionally refer to my notes. THERE IS NO TELEPROMPTER IN THE THEATRE.
There is a WordPress blog site called The Accidental Beard, but I’m afraid this is false advertising and poor SEO. The content has nothing to do with beards or accidents. Instead, it follows the life of a retiree in the community of a Wisconsin suburb.
Don’t worry Emil and Thuong, I can’t have spent more than an hour reading it.
Evolutionary biologists suggest that the psycho-social benefits of wearing a beard must outweigh the disadvantage it poses in hand-to-hand combat. Having a beard can make it easier for your opponent to grab hold of your head. I suggest, this is why shorter beard styles are more popular today.
Anthropologists tend not to speculate on who invented the beard. We have to assume that this is because it happened ages ago. Historians on the other do note the progress of changing beard styles through the ages. All that sort of stuff is too boring but I will tell you a brief anecdote.
When I was at school, in the sixth form, a group of us went on a trip to St. Petersburg and Moscow. One of the other lads who came along was a large boy and mature for his age. He sported a bouffant pair of mutton chops. I thought they were impressive, but wherever we went - on the street, in a hotel lobby for example - Russians around us would point at him and shout, “Pushkin!”
Have a good weekend.