What do all these men have in common, except of course being related in one way or another?
That’s right. There is not one mustache, beard, goatee, van dyke, soul patch or even a serious pair of sideburns among the lot of them.
Throughout most of the 18th century facial hair was almost unheard of. As the National Portrait Gallery of Australia put it “wearing a beard was likely to cast one into the category of eccentric, insane or otherwise unreasoned and ungoverned. “
Most men shaved at least once or twice a week. Some went to barbers for their shave, others took care of it in the privacy of their own homes. Razors were more readily available and cheaper than they had been in the past, but that still doesn’t totally explain the sudden turn away from what had been and would be again seen as a sign of manliness, virility, and downright coolness.
The fact is no one knows. Dr. Alun Withey speculates that it may have something to do with the coming of the enlightenment and the spreading of knowledge. According to Withey, “men stopped wearing beards and, more than this, the beard even became socially unpopular. The eighteenth-century culture of politeness certainly played a part in this. The ‘man of letters’ was clean-shaven; the beard was seen as hiding the face, whereas shaving it left it clean and smooth and, therefore, more aesthetically pleasing. Having an ‘open countenance’ was also a metaphor for an open mind – the keystone of the enlightened thinker.”
Even men you might expect to be bearded, like soldiers in George Washington’s always short on supplies army were clean shaven. Orderly books from across the army convey repeatedly that the men were expected to be shaved and clean when they reported for duty.
American prisoners of war, being held in brutal conditions, aboard prison hulks in New York Harbor, trimmed their beards as short as possible whenever the British deigned to give them access to a set of clippers. These were men who were dying of starvation and disease at the time.
It wasn’t until the 1800’s that facial hair would begin to make its reemergence. Its been said that Abraham Lincoln was the first president with facial hair, and while I will grant him the title of first president with a beard, Martin Van Buren’s massive mutton chops have to be in the running for first presidential facial hair.
So. no matter what you see on tv, in the movies or in video games, I’m looking at you Caleb Brewster from Turn: Washington’s Spies, beards were not common among men in the 18th century. They were seen only among the truly broken dregs of society. Any man with a stitch of self-respect was as clean shaven as possible.
Clermont State Historic Site 
Leave a comment