Facial Hair - what's your fancy?

I don't know about you, but I think the nineteenth century outdid itself for the variety of facial hair sported by the men of the day.
Let me show you...

<- This painting is reputedly of Beau Brummel, that leader of fashion in the Regency period. He sported a very nice pair of side-levers - a popular fashion item early in the 19th century.

By the time Queen Victoria married her Albert on 10 February 1840, he owned not only luxurious side-levers, but a natty moustache as well. ->

Marriage of Victoria and Albert
Painting by George Hayter

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The Young Victoria poster - 2009 movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0962736/)

Jane Eyre (2006 BBC mini-series) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780362/?ref_=ttawd_awd_tt

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<- Charlotte Bronte's popular novel, Jane Eyre, was written by August 1847. Her hero, Edward Rochester, in one well-known version of the story, had the trendy long, sharp side-levers of the time, as well as long locks.

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Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, written in the 1850s, has John Thornton as its hero from The North. In the popular mini-series of the book, actor Richard Armitage sported more restrained side-levers, and an under-shaven chin. I do wonder how common that unshaven look was amongst the well-heeled men of the time. ->

North & South (2004 BBC mini-series) (http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2981566976/
tt0417349?ref_=ttmd_md_nxt)

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General Ambrose Burnside. Photo by Mathew Brady

<- But the penultimate decade of facial hair, in my opinion, was the 1860s, when luxurious side-levers, or side-burns as they became called after General Burnside (shown left), met up with massive moustaches on many well-regarded faces of the time.

The American Civil War, as shown  in the movie rendition 'Gettysburg', was an outstanding period for facial hair. Never have I seen such an amazing array of lady-ticklers! Let me show you...

Gettysburg, 1993 movie (http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2991496960/tt0107007?ref_=ttmd_md_nxt)

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But that wasn't the end of facial hair. In 1870s Australia, Ned Kelly's flamboyant beard was a fashion many embraced. ->

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Hume Photographic Collection, University of Queensland Fryer Library.

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Ned Kelly, 1870.

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<- However, the 1880s brought a more restrained and sombre look, as these three gentlemen from the mid-1880s show...

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Throughout the next two decades the Prince of Wales led the fashion for neatly trimmed beards . This coronation picture of King Edward VII was taken in 1902, but his tidy facial hair was an already established fashion. ->

I wonder if any century before the nineteenth covered such a variety of fashions for men's facial hair? 

In this age of the hipster we certainly live in a time of  variety.

Are you similarly entertained by men's facial adornments?  Leave a comment. I would love to hear your opinion.

cheers, Isabella

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#facialhair  #beards  #moustachelife  #moustache