Facial hair

A well-groomed face has not always been a shaved face, nor a face with well-parted eyebrows. Depending on the time and environment, keeping, drawing or removing hair could express elegance, maturity or social belonging. These fashions are especially documented for beards, mustaches and eyebrows; they are much less so for the small hairs of the nose and ears.

In Japan and Persia, very different eyebrows

In Heian-era Japan, from 794 to 1185, some court women removed their natural eyebrows to redraw them higher on the forehead. Associated with the white powdered face and long hair, these eyebrows formed a codified aesthetic whole. It was therefore not simply a matter of removing a few hairs: we deliberately changed their position and their design.

In the Persian tradition described by the Encyclopædia Iranica, the eyebrows could on the contrary be darkened by makeup, and the hairs which connected them were preserved. The monobrow that many today choose to separate could contribute to an ideal of beauty. These examples concern feminine practices situated in their culture; they show that the space between the eyebrows was not always intended to remain empty.

In the 18th century, shaved faces in Britain

In British circles attached to politeness and elegance, the shaved face took an important place in the 18th century. The historian Alun Withey describes facial hair that had become unfashionable around 1700. Shaving then contributed to the presentation of a respectable man: a smooth face was a social choice as much as a grooming habit.

In the 19th century, the return of sideburns and mustaches

At the beginning of the 19th century, sideburns returned to the cheeks of young Britons and sparked debates about what an elegant man could wear. Their shape and location matter: keeping hair on the sides of the face does not necessarily mean growing a full beard. Fashion thus transforms the very contours that we choose to trim or shave today.

Hair then becomes particularly visible in Victorian portraits. The Victoria and Albert Museum highlights the rise of the beard after the Crimean War, from 1853 to 1856, during which British soldiers were authorized to wear it. Mustaches and beards could evoke virility and prestige; the portraits of Tennyson and Darwin bear witness to this place in public appearance.

Choose the contours you want to keep

These fashion changes explain why the same hair can be kept in one style and removed in another. Drawn sideburns are part of a cut; a few isolated hairs above the beard can blur its outline. For the maintenance proposed here, choose a shaved face or a short beard, then remove the hairs that protrude from the chosen design, without trying to erase all hair.