# https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvoVc0O9rbM
# @DanDavisHistory

2024-11-29

@JorgeStolfi
2 months ago
Shaving the beard makes adult males look younger, like teenagers.  Which has obvious advantages for attracting young women and for obtaining posts where the vigor implied by youth would be an advantage, such military promotions.  That may have been the main motivation for beard shaving in most cultures.

Shaving the head has the opposite effect -- makes the man look more mature.  Which may be an advantage in other contexts, such as one wishing to impose himself as leader of a band, or just to get treated with more respect than a younger person would get.

Another motivation for shaving and combing could have been simply to get rid of lice, fleas, and other insects that could their make home in tangled and greasy beards and hair.  Especially before the invention of soap.