# Was there a reason for the Amish Look becoming popular in the late 1850s? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 17, 2009, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-reason-for-the-amish-look-becoming-popular-in-the-late-1850s/486240 "2009-02-17T06:01:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-reason-for-the-amish-look-becoming-popular-in-the-late-1850s/486240/1 "2009-02-17T06:01:58Z")
By “Amish look” I’m referring to men growing beards without moustaches. Lincoln was far from the originator of it, he actually adapted it after [Brigham Young](http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/fts/images/saltlakecity_200602A18_07_lg.jpg) and [Horace Greeley](http://blogs.westword.com/demver/HM%20horacegreely%20explore%20PA%20history.jpg) and others did (they grew their beards around 1859), though Lincoln may be the reason most of his[Cabinet members](http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/floor2/lincoln-bedroom-1862-lincoln-cabinet.jpg) with facial hair adopted the look. I recognize that fashion can be arbitrary (green’s in this year, out next year, I remember when razor parts came in and went out, etc.), but is there any reason that this was considered stylish? A royal personage perhaps (Victoria would have gone through menopause around this time but I doubt that was the reason)? Or a popular Amish musical perhaps? According to a tour guide I asked in Lancaster, the reason Amish men adapted this look was as a protest. When some of their men were forcibly conscripted into the Prussian military in the early 18th century the military style for Prussian officers was mustaches with clean shaven faces so the Amish wore exactly the opposite facial hair as a form of protest. Amish men only grow beards after marriage however. To my knowledge there’s no connection twixt the Amish and Victorian era fashions, but who knows. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-reason-for-the-amish-look-becoming-popular-in-the-late-1850s/486240/2 "2009-02-17T22:08:30Z")
I have heard it claimed that the fashion comes from the Crimean War. According to folklore, supply shortages made soap and razors rather scarce. When the troops returned home, they all had beards. And they decided they liked the look, even when they returned to civilian life. Whether that is true, or just an after-the-fact rationalization, I have no idea. In the 18th Century, most men were clean-shaven. Maybe the 19th Century men were just rebelling against their parents. ---
**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:** [February 17, 2009, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-reason-for-the-amish-look-becoming-popular-in-the-late-1850s/486240/3 "2009-02-17T22:23:33Z")
> [@](#): > > According to folklore, supply shortages made soap and razors rather scarce. When the troops returned home, they all had beards. And they decided they liked the look, even when they returned to civilian life. Whether that is true, or just an after-the-fact rationalization, I have no idea. But razor shortages would have meant growing moustaches, too. The explanation I’ve heard, from a Mennonite man, for the lack of moustache is that their wives express a preference for a smooth upper lip in the man they kiss. But of course, who knows if that’s the original reason. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-reason-for-the-amish-look-becoming-popular-in-the-late-1850s/486240/4 "2009-02-17T22:32:52Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > In the 18th Century, most men were clean-shaven. Maybe the 19th Century men were just rebelling against their parents. I read a theory that the resurgence of facial hair in the 19th Century was a reaction to the Industrial Revolution. Men, particularly those of the aristocracy, felt emasculated by an age of machines and merchants, and big, shaggy mustaches and beards were a way of reconnecting with their supposed medieval warrior pasts. According to this theory - which may be utter bollocks - it’s no coincidence that significant facial hair was first spotted in Great Britain, where the industrial age began. The no-mustache style was an American thing, though, and I have no idea where it came from. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-reason-for-the-amish-look-becoming-popular-in-the-late-1850s/486240/5 "2009-02-17T22:56:00Z")
If anyone ever develops an explanation for the soul patch, I’d be curious. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-reason-for-the-amish-look-becoming-popular-in-the-late-1850s/486240/6 "2009-02-17T23:24:40Z")
I’ve always assumed that the fashion for beards was inspired by the Civil War, not the Crimean. No idea about the Amish beard, tho… ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-reason-for-the-amish-look-becoming-popular-in-the-late-1850s/486240/7 "2009-02-18T00:10:44Z")
> [@](#): > > though Lincoln may be the reason most of his Cabinet members with facial hair adopted the look. Given Lincoln’s cabinet, it’s more likely that they would have unadopted the look because Lincoln had adopted it. Edwin Stanton, for one, had such a beard long before Lincoln grew his: > **[Edwin Stanton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_M._Stanton)** > > Edwin McMasters Stanton (December 19, 1814 – December 24, 1869) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 27th United States secretary of war under U.S. president Abraham Lincoln during most of the American Civil War. Stanton's management helped organize the massive military resources of the North and guide the Union to victory. However, he was criticized by many Union generals, who perceived Stanton as overcautious and a micromanager. > After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln,... Smaller picture dated between 1852 and 1855. (picture dated between 1852 and 1855) ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2009, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-reason-for-the-amish-look-becoming-popular-in-the-late-1850s/486240/8 "2009-02-18T00:54:04Z")
Re: The Crimean War. Rather than a moustacheless beard, a popular look among cavalry of that era was the massive moustache merged into massive sidewhiskers with a clean shaven chin. Modeled here by Lord Cardigan, probably some time after the war: > **[James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Brudenell,_7th_Earl_of_Cardigan)** > > Lieutenant-General James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, KCB (16 October 1797 – 28 March 1868), styled as Lord Cardigan, was an officer in the British Army who commanded the Light Brigade during the Crimean War, leading its charge at the Battle of Balaclava. > Throughout his life in politics and his long military career, he characterised the arrogant and extravagant aristocrat of the period. His progression through the Army was marked by many episodes of extraordinary incompetence, but ... If somebody popularized that, it might have been Franz Josef I of Austria: [![](http://www.rumormillnews.com/images/Kaiser%20Franz%20Josef.jpg) ](http://www.rumormillnews.com/images/Kaiser%20Franz%20Josef.jpg)