# Beards on young men (unexceptable?) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 2, 2000, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800 "2000-09-02T19:15:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800/1 "2000-09-02T19:15:55Z")
I recall seeing a t.v. comercial for 'Lectric Shave where a father scolds his son (late teens/early 20’s) “Growing a beard sonny? NOT in this house!”. Then he gives him a bottle of 'Lectric Shave and insists the kid shaves. Has it ever been unexceptable in this country for a guy (especially young men) to have a beard? ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800/2 "2000-09-02T19:18:12Z")
Maybe I should have asked if it was ever un-ACCEPTABLE, not exceptable. ---
**Author:** ![\_Enery\_the\_VIII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/5e9695/32.png) [@\_Enery\_the\_VIII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Enery_the_VIII)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800/3 "2000-09-02T19:30:41Z")
That too. It was very unacceptable during the 50’s. You were a beatnik. In the 60’s, antiwar. ---
**Author:** ![Booker57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Booker57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Booker57)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800/4 "2000-09-02T19:45:48Z")
Since the time of the Pharos, Men have shaved. Look at the Sistien Chapel, Adam is clean-shaven (G\_d has a beard thou!) Peter the great had a tax on beards to compel men to shave. Since the 1900’s no American President has had a beard. T.R. had a mustache. Yes I have a beard and I am proud of it.MTS ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800/5 "2000-09-02T22:04:45Z")
My mom didn’t let me grow any facial hair until the summer before I was going off to college, in '95. I had thought that she didn’t like it, but later she said that she was just concerned that I wouldn’t keep it well-groomed, and run afoul of my school’s dress code. No beard, but I do sport a rather bushy 'stache. ---
**Author:** ![Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6de8d8/32.png) [@Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilgore_Trout_1)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800/6 "2000-09-02T22:22:57Z")
did the commercial have anything to do with the fact that beards on young folk often look ridiculous? young males seem to think that the moment a hair appears on their face they should grow a beard. this results in the strangest looking things imaginable. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800/7 "2000-09-02T22:39:15Z")
You want a reason that young guys shouldn’t attempt a beard? Maynard G. Krebs. ---
**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2000, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800/8 "2000-09-02T23:52:11Z")
I have _never_ understood why beards were so unacceptable/fraught with symbolism during the 50’s and 60’s. Just 50 years before, damn near _everyone_ had a beard or ‘stache!! Look at some old history books with photos from the turn of the century or a little earlier. Beards and mustaches all over the place! I think we have the marketing genius of King Gillette to thank for the switch. The same goes for hair on womens’ armpits and legs. I was fifteen years old before I realized women even _grew_ hair there. I think it’s too bad our society has been tricked into forcing its members to change their natural appearance to look “normal.” On the flipside, can anyone imagine what it was like to sleep with a woman in the Middle Ages, when women never shaved **anywhere**?? At least you wouldn’t get cold in winter. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2000, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800/9 "2000-09-03T01:15:34Z")
Hey Lizard–You still can find a women who don’t shave, you know. (just in case you want to answer your own question) ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2000, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800/10 "2000-09-03T01:46:11Z")
Come to think of it, there was only one presidential primary candidate in recent times that I remember that wasn’t totally clean-shaven. That would be The Rev. Jesse Jackson. ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2000, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800/11 "2000-09-03T02:16:35Z")
I remeber when I lived in Utah for a while, I asked one of my LDS friends about BYU’s ban on facial hair. I asked him if that meant that Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and Jesus all couldn’t attend Brigham Young University…He didn’t have an answer. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Sheepshead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@Mr.Sheepshead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Sheepshead)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2000, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800/12 "2000-09-03T04:00:26Z")
Gotta go with **Kilgore** on this one. The reason I don’t have a beard is they look pretty damn dorky on a 22-year-old. I do, however have sideburns and I vary the length/cut. I think that’s pretty standard amongst my friends as well. I mean, Christ (or Chr\_st as **Booker** would say I guess), our _dads_ have beards - why would we want that?! ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2000, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800/13 "2000-09-03T04:08:13Z")
I’m 18 and I have a goatee. There were several other guys my age in high school who also did, and a few with goofy little moustaches (but none with a beard and moustache, I think). No one ever seemed to complain, and I never got the idea that it wasn’t accepted. ---
**Author:** ![Teach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/47e85d/32.png) [@Teach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teach)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2000, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800/14 "2000-09-03T04:15:10Z")
I had a full beard when I was 17 and it looked good and people told me so. No one ever said it was unacceptable. That was in 1984. It also helped me to buy booze without getting carded. That probably wouldn’t work today, though. ---
**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2000, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800/15 "2000-09-03T05:35:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Green Bean \* > \*\*Hey Lizard–You still can find a women who don’t shave, you know. (just in case you want to answer your own question) \*\* That would be interesting. I’ll bet the nearest such women are in Russia or something though. I think I would definitely try it if I could. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2000, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800/16 "2000-09-03T05:43:46Z")
I think it has to do with the old boot camp concept that you must conform. I’ve mostly seen old retired military guys have problems with their son having beards. And like the Disney prohibition, if you’re clean shaven than you’re a good boy. (Now for a psychobable moment, excuse me.) Perhaps some parents have a problem with it in the sence that they’re afraid to let their kids grow up. As a traditional symbol of “manhood” maybe some parents just see it as their son becoming independant. As a personal side note for evidence, I never got along with my dad very well, but one summer I came home from college with a full beard. My dad looked at me with a new look in his eye and said “It looks good”. At that moment he realized that I was an adult, and from that moment we have had a good relationship, so I think it really does mean something. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Zero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Saint\_Zero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Zero)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2000, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800/17 "2000-09-03T18:56:43Z")
Wimps. 😃 I grew full beard and mustache at 15. had to shave the beard, kept the mustache ever since. (It could drive in a lot of states by now). I’ve had beards off and on since. I’ve had my beard for 3 years now. I truly ticked off the guys in HS. I was the _only_ guy a mustache and beard didn’t look dorky on. I agree, on some guys they shouldn’t even bother, but then if I didn’t grow it, I’d shave twice a day. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2000, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800/18 "2000-09-03T19:34:04Z")
I hate guys who just start growing facial hair, and then just let this tiny bit of fuzz grow…it just looks nasty… ---
**Author:** ![Angkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@Angkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angkins)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2000, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800/19 "2000-09-03T19:39:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \* > \*\*I hate guys who just start growing facial hair, and then just let this tiny bit of fuzz grow…it just looks nasty… > \*\* Not to mention it’s all uneven with bald spots!! ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2000, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800/20 "2000-09-03T19:40:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lizard \* > \*\*That would be interesting. I’ll bet the nearest such women are in Russia or something though. I think I would definitely try it if I could. 😃 \*\* Lizard, head over to MPSIMS, where I recently introduced one. They aren’t extinct, they just don’t see the big deal with not shaving. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beards-on-young-men-unexceptable/31800.md?page=2)