Get your looks into shape
Well-groomed skin and hands and a fashionable haircut and beard have been the best calling cards of gentlemen throughout the ages.
Men have taken care of their looks for thousands of years
because a person’s appearance has always been an important means of
communicating messages.
At one time, a person’s position or class could be seen in
the style and length of their hair and beard. High-ranking
Egyptians shaved their heads completely and polished the top of
their head in order to cover it with an impressive wig made from
real hair. A beard was a symbol of rank, so rulers used a false
beard at official events. The skin was treated with essential oils
and creams.
The habit of regularly shaving started as far back as the Roman
war camps. Shaving also spread to present-day Europe. During the
Early Renaissance hair length varied, but beards were styled to be
tapering or into two braids. To maintain the right shape, the beard
was brushed with egg white.
In the 1570s, Henry III of France, who loved dressing in
splendid clothes and wearing jewellery, grew a groomed beard, which
the court copied. Beards were powdered into different colours:
violet was reserved exclusively for the sovereign, whereas dark red
was an intense and salacious sexual signal.
Coloured cosmetics is not a novelty for men. The Rococo period men wore wigs that were powdered white. White make-up and powder were used on the face, the eyebrows were highlighted black, the lips red. Only with the French revolution did men’s face make-up become lighter.
World War I put issues about appearance on the back burner.
During the 1920s, men did not dare to even comb their hair in
public for fear of being labelled effeminately vain. Taking care of
one’s looks focused for decades on cleanliness and grooming the
hair and beard.
It has only been in the last two decades that men have again
been able to take care of their appearance without the vanity
label. Nowadays, a clean and groomed appearance is sought and
valued.
