I was watching a rerun of the 1950’s game show “What’s My Line” where a celebrity panal has to guess the occupation of a random contestant. In one episode, a man with a trimmed beard comes in—his beard was well-kept and cut close to his face. Still, it surprised me when the judges guessed his occupation to be something like a big-game hunter, or a lumberjack, or several similar occupations, and they alluded to his beard to justify their guesses. (I saw this episode a few months ago...I would link it if I could find it).

It also seems that no US president has had facial hair since Taft. That’s over a century of smooth-faced presidents! Which is interesting seeing as many presidents from the late 19th century had very long beards.

I was just wondering if anyone could talk about the different attitudes regarding male facial hair throughout the history of the United States, why it changed, when it changed, and also (perhaps this isn’t the job of a historian but) why the clean-shaven look is still seen as more professional or presidential even when attitudes in other areas of the culture have relaxed.