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Here at The Takeaway,we normally focus on substantive issues in our political coverage. So last month when we covered the history of pantsuits with a look at Hillary Clinton's shifting wardrobe, many of you said we'd never cover a male political figure that way. We took that as a challenge. And today, and we're diving into the history of another kind of political fashion statement: The beard. In the mid-1800s,beards were the norm in American politics. After Abraham Lincoln took office in 1861, all but one president in the next five decades sported one. But with the advent of the Gillette safety razor in 1903, or beards fell out of fashion. The U.
S. hasn't seen a beard in the Oval Office since William Howard Taft left office in 1913. The dearth of beards in politics has made House Speaker Paul Ryan’s decision to sport a full face of hair a tall-profile one. Ryan's beard has been covered by The current York Times,The National Review, GQ, and The current York Post.
So what's the tall deal about the decision to wear facial hair in politics? Chris Oldstone-Moore,author of “Of Beards and Men," has observed some historical trends in the public's regard of facial hair.
Source: wnyc.org