“THE BEARD IS BACK” by natural hair design extraordinaire Shanti Walker of Madame Walker’s Braidery
It’s not often that men’s beauty or grooming habits are discussed. For years, women’s beauty trends and secrets have been the main source of attention when it comes to the cosmetic industry. Today, men’s grooming and fashion has come a long way as an industry, and its’ growth goes to show that today’s man is more fashion and style conscious than men in past decades.
The business of barbering has been around for many years. We all know that looks come and go. We have seen hair worn both long and short by men throughout history. Trends for hair length have changed from decade to decade, and this stems from what society as a whole gravitated toward during that particular period in time. It’s interesting how as styles changed and progressed, trends dictated a bandwagon affect that makes that trend popular for that time.
Long hair and full beards date back as far as history itself. Jesus and men of that era wore full beards and long hair. This was the norm for many decades. Fast forward to the 1800’s, shorter hair and clean shaven looks came about, but with greater attention to shaping and sculpting of facial hair. Remember seeing photos of men from that era with the elaborate mustaches curled up on the ends? During time periods after that, hair stayed shorter and the clean shaven facial hair was the look of the day for many decades. Time progressed and long hair and beards were seen as un-kept, unprofessional, or something that undesirables or rebels wore. Moving forward through time, beards and facial hair were shaved off and hair was cropped short for a clean cut more military style. This neat and well groomed look would become the standard appearance that employers and society deemed more acceptable or professional.
Men’s grooming made a big change during the late 60’s, the 70’s and the 80’s. People were living in a time of self-expression and rebellion in the late 60’s thru the 70’s. People of all nationalities started wearing their hair longer and growing beards and facial hair. Entertainers such as Barry White, Marvin Gaye, Michael McDonald and many others made having a beard sexy and masculine. The 80’s also saw big hair, the jheri curl and thick full mustaches. How many of us have pictures from the 80’s that we want to burn?
The 90’s saw a decline in the big hair and mustaches and brought back that clean cut professional military look as it once again, seemed more professional and acceptable to society. Appearance with regards to facial hair was streamlined to short mustaches and goatees or no hair at all.
The 2000’s have been a mix when it comes to grooming as we move thru the 21st century. The cleaner look of the 90’s has its’ place still, but more and more we are seeing the huge beard surface and a lot of men are jumping on that bandwagon. Nowadays, walking down the street you can see everything from men with bald heads and no facial hair, to men with hair down their backs and extremely long full beards. It’s interesting to see what the future holds for men’s grooming habits and choices, but for now it appears that the beard is back!!
(First row: Carlos, Shanti, Reggie and Garry. Second row: Mike, Shanti and Garry)
