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The beard is the hair that has been most important to men throughout history. While women have grown the hair on their heads, men have styled their beards with similar doggedness. The beard has been a symbol of masculinity, wildness or elegance, strength, and maturity.

It’s not the beard that makes the philosopher means that you cannot accurately judge a person solely by appearances; a greybeard is an older, experienced man; a beard grown during November can be a Movember beard – grown to raise awareness of prostate cancer.

During the Renaissance, the men were supposed to grow long beards, since it was considered to be particularly manly. Assyrian kings wore false beards with corkscrew curls, and Egyptian pharaohs braided their long beards, while the Romans were clean-shaven. In Greece, beards were grown only by philosophers and scholars. To take by the beard is to attack determinedly, and to put something against a man’s beard is to taunt him with it. To say something to one’s beard is to say something openly, in contrast to dressing a man’s beard, which is to deceive him.