Nowadays, every man decides on his own how to look his best: to be with a beard or clean-shaven. Many people prefer to look like a cultural, friendly, rather than aggressive and pretending to male superiority person. And the classic version of the beard can now be considered as a rather rare phenomenon.
Why do we need a beard?
In the era of primitiveness, the lower part of the face, overgrown with hair, was the main sign of the difference between a person and primacy and indicated the male gender.
With the onset of puberty in men, the cheeks and chin are covered with hair that grows quickly. If you do not shave for several years, then the beard will reach an impressive length.
For many years discussions have been going on: why should a man have a beard? Many believed that she protected the primitive male hunters from the cold in the winter, and helped to hide from the heat in the summer. This hypothesis looks true only on one side: a beard can be a means of cooling, but not warming. In fact, facial hair is a sign of sex.
Sign of authority
The beard was once considered a symbol of strength and masculinity, even sacred. The ancient Egyptian pharaohs had to impose them in order to appear magnificent and wise at ceremonies. The stronger sex could have sworn by his beard.
The ancient rulers spent a lot of time on her decoration and care: they dyed, braided and curled, decorated with gold threads or gold dust, which indicates the importance they attached to her.
Is it possible to be beardless?
Once, most men could not imagine themselves without a beard, the thought of parting with her seemed simply tragic. Shaving her means offending God or being terribly shameful.
But from the midst of passionate bearded defenders, already in ancient times, clean-shaven men stood out. The first razor was made of flint, later iron began to appear, and the Aztecs, who lived in the center of the American continent, made them from volcanic rock.
About the beard in ancient Egypt, even a conflict arose. Estimating as a symbol of a man, the Egyptians gave her great importance. Representatives of the ancient Egyptian elite often shaved with gilded razors adorned with precious stones. Signs of animals were considered priests hair growing on any part of the body. But at important events, Egyptians from the upper class put on beards.
As a military style, shaving was introduced for the ancient Greeks and Romans. As a sign of complete obedience to God, priests and followers of the foundations of different religions sacrificed their beards.
Alexander of Macedon ordered his soldiers to shave their beards before the battle to prevent the enemy from taking an active capture. The shaved Roman warriors thus distinguished their soldiers from the bearded barbarian enemies in battle.
Fashion and rules
Gradually in Rome, shaving became a fashionable phenomenon, due to the lack of barbers, they had to be brought from the island of Sicily. The barbers were in great demand among the Roman inhabitants. The famous commander Scipio shaved three times a day, and the great Julius Caesar did it on his own, afraid to trust the servants.
People for a long time adhered to fashion differently: some supported the appearance of a shaved face, others - on the contrary. After the split in the 11th century of the Christian church, in order to differ from the Orthodox, Catholics left their faces without a beard.
It even happened when the fashion for this male affiliation could change by decision of the ruler. For example, once the French, respecting their king, who covered a terrible scar on his chin, also grew beards. And the Spanish subjects went shaved, because one of their masters did not succeed in growing a beard.
Religious shaving orders over time began to introduce rules that imposed penalties if they were not respected. Someone was forbidden to shave, others were punished for violating the established requirements for the regularity of this procedure.
There were times when only people who paid a considerable tax for it could boast a beard. Thus, in the era of the English Queen Elizabeth, she was a symbol of prosperity. And it happened that men who wished to wear a beard had to show courage and obstinacy.
And yet, over time, shaving has become a habit for the stronger sex. Beards remain in societies that hold a patriarchal view of men, or groups of religious fanatics that control the appearance of a person.
