 "Beards, fashion")
Kabir Bedi in his highly readable autobiography, Stories I Must Tell, recounts how he got selected to play the role of Sandokan by the Italian producers. And how his beard played a critical part: “… were touring Asia to find a tall, athletic, preferably bearded actor to play the role of Sandokan… my name came up when they asked around…. It helped that I’d grown a beard for my first Bollywood hit… My beard was deemed ‘Lucky’ and became my trademark.” It probably helped that very few Bollywood actors sported a beard in the mid-1970s. Today it will be difficult to find one who is clean shaven when not in a “role”!
Not just Bollywood, even in cricket the beard has become a part of the “kit”. If you look at the World Cup winning team of 1983, only Syed Kirmani and Balwinder Sandhu had a beard. Check out the team today. But for a few, almost all of them sport a beard. Some interesting variants, too.
What is the reason for the increasing popularity of the beard?
Sociologists point to the Vietnam war and the hippie culture to explain the rise of the beard culture in the US. Sporting an unkempt beard was a sign of showing your disrespect to the establishment. Or exhibiting your free spirit.
When I joined advertising in 1979 straight out of a B School, I had a boss who had a beard. I rationalised that having a beard would make me look older (and hopefully wiser). So, I too grew a beard. Those were the days that you just let your beard grow. No fragrant beard oils or fancy beard trimmers.
Come 1982, I joined a British multinational, Boots Company. It had a dress code (ties compulsory for officers) but I did not realise it also had a grooming culture. Soon after I joined, the managing director bumped into me in the executive washroom and politely pointed out, “Parameswaran, a beard is okay for advertising, but not in a British pharmaceutical company.” Off went my beard, something that never failed to amuse my then boss.
Was I alone at this? In an article in the Time magazine (February 18, 2008), I spotted a law student’s quote that I empathised with: “I should have a right to wear my own facial hair as I please…. But I am not going to risk my job over it.” In the US, most police departments outlaw beards, claiming that it made the officers look unprofessional. New York Yankees, the baseball team, also refuses to let players wear facial hair below their upper lip.
The article reports that there is a trend towards recognising facial hair as an essential accessory for would-be chic men, just as oversized totes are for their female counterparts. There is even a term for a beard scholar: “Pogonologist”. Allan Peterkin, the author of the book One Thousand Beards, observes: “Beards are back. It is an act of rebellion. Men are trying to prove that they are no longer a corporate slave.”
Not just Bollywood, even in cricket the beard has become a part of the “kit”. If you look at the World Cup winning team of 1983, only Syed Kirmani and Balwinder Sandhu had a beard. Check out the team today. But for a few, almost all of them sport a beard. Some interesting variants, too.
What is the reason for the increasing popularity of the beard?
Sociologists point to the Vietnam war and the hippie culture to explain the rise of the beard culture in the US. Sporting an unkempt beard was a sign of showing your disrespect to the establishment. Or exhibiting your free spirit.
When I joined advertising in 1979 straight out of a B School, I had a boss who had a beard. I rationalised that having a beard would make me look older (and hopefully wiser). So, I too grew a beard. Those were the days that you just let your beard grow. No fragrant beard oils or fancy beard trimmers.
Come 1982, I joined a British multinational, Boots Company. It had a dress code (ties compulsory for officers) but I did not realise it also had a grooming culture. Soon after I joined, the managing director bumped into me in the executive washroom and politely pointed out, “Parameswaran, a beard is okay for advertising, but not in a British pharmaceutical company.” Off went my beard, something that never failed to amuse my then boss.
Was I alone at this? In an article in the Time magazine (February 18, 2008), I spotted a law student’s quote that I empathised with: “I should have a right to wear my own facial hair as I please…. But I am not going to risk my job over it.” In the US, most police departments outlaw beards, claiming that it made the officers look unprofessional. New York Yankees, the baseball team, also refuses to let players wear facial hair below their upper lip.
The article reports that there is a trend towards recognising facial hair as an essential accessory for would-be chic men, just as oversized totes are for their female counterparts. There is even a term for a beard scholar: “Pogonologist”. Allan Peterkin, the author of the book One Thousand Beards, observes: “Beards are back. It is an act of rebellion. Men are trying to prove that they are no longer a corporate slave.”
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