I am currently reading Ernst Junger's Copse 125, a German account of a period in the trenches in 1918. In it, he claims that early in the war a lot of soldiers wore full beards in homage to their grandfathers of 1871 (translations are my own, from the Spanish translation, Bosquecillo 125, that I am reading), but that the practice was abandoned when gas masks were issued. In fact, a lean, clean shaven face below the shadow of the steel helmet is emblematic of the WW1 warrior for the author.

During the mid-20th century, beards seem to have been massively out of favour. My grandmother, born in 1919, stills considers them (including mine) to be awful, although her sense that beard-wearers are inherently untrustworthy has diminished. I remeber similar sentiements from childhood literature including books by Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl.

So, is there a connection? Was the decline of the beard really affected by the need for gas masks to seal?

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