The Perfect Gentleman Issue 9 - Christmas | Page 13

Despite the risk of stating the obvious, facial
hair is a predominantly male feature,
associated with puberty, virility, sexuality and
leadership. Since the human ape lost the
majority of its body hair to evolution, the
remaining hair has become both a symbol of
social, religious and political status and the
icon of rebelliousness against it all. From
megalomaniac Pharaohs and insatiable Khans,
ancient Philosophers and legendary Prophets,
fearless generals and ruthless tyrants,
medieval kings and groundbreaking
visionaries, activists and revolutionaries, men
have treated their collection of chin and cheek
hair with outmost significance.
From a religious perspective, hair in general
and facial hair in particular has played a big
part in cementing the relationship between
man and God. The Sikhs view hair as a gift
from God, a symbol of love for Him and the
respect for everything He has given them.
Muslims believe that a true follower should
have a beard because the Prophet had one,
while the Jews believe, according to Rabbi
Aron Moss, that just as hair that grows down
from the head to the rest of the body, the
beard represents a bridge between mind and
heart, thoughts and actions, theory and
practice, good intentions and good deeds. So
the beard thus, allows a direct flow from the
ideals and philosophies of our minds into our
everyday lifestyle.
My initial thought was that the reason the
modern day politicians are keeping a clean cut
is because the beard covers or hides part of
their face, and therefore, in their attempt to
appear more open and honest ...they take it
off. Yet, as it is often happens in politics, it is
more about what they are trying to hide
rather than the opposite. Sure enough, within
less then and hour in to my research I
stumbled on to a letter, published in the online Nature magazine by an anonymous
scientist.

The letter was titled “Effects of Sexual
Activity on Beard Growth in Man”. In short,
the essence of his observations, were based
around him spending time on a remote
island in virtual isolation. As weeks went on,
this self deposed Robison Crusoe, noticed
that his beard growth diminished, while
reaching unusually high rates during the first
day or two on the mainland... Intrigued by
these initial observations, he has carried out a
more detailed study concluding that the
stimulus for increased beard growth is
related to the resumption of sexual
activity....I thought it was note worthy ... The
idea itself that facial hair is associated with
male sexuality is hardly revolutionary, yet in
the political context, the opinion that a
politician would not want to wear his
sexuality on his face made perfect sense.
Before I went on to study political science
and diplomacy I have studied the History of
Art and one of my favourite things in the
writing process was always the research. I
got to put down my laptop and walk over to
my personal library, my pride and joy, my
endless fountain of inspiration, my one true
material love... spending hours going
through my old art books. As I was piling up
my treasures, one of the books slipped
through my fingers and fell on my bare foot,
opening at a picture of a sculpture of Zeus at
Olympia. Excellent! I thought to myself
through the excruciating pain of a hard
bound 500 page book landing on my toe.
The first thing I have noticed after the tears
of agony dried up, was that the giant seated
figure of King of Gods and the ruler of
mankind had a beard...and so did all the most
powerful Greek Gods; Poseidon, Hades as did
their Roman counterparts Jupiter, Neptune,
and Pluto while the youthful Mars and Ares,
Cupid, Apollo, Dionysus and Hermes were
clean shaven.

Groomed Gentleman

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