No Beard Day

What the day is

No Beard Day is observed on October 18. The suggestion is to shave, temporarily, and find out what is underneath.

Its timing is contrary, which may be the joke. Mid-October is when beard-growing campaigns start gathering momentum for November, so the day sits directly against the season's prevailing direction.

Origin and background

The origin of the observance is not documented.

Facial hair has swung in and out of favor for as long as there are records of it, and the swings are usually about signalling rather than grooming. Beards marked philosophers in classical Athens and were taxed by Peter the Great in Russia, who wanted his nobility clean-shaven in the Western style and charged those who refused. Victorian Britain treated a full beard as a mark of maturity and authority; the decades after the First World War treated it as unkempt, partly because gas masks needed a seal against bare skin.

The practical case for and against is narrower than either fashion suggests. Beards genuinely reduce sun exposure on the lower face and remove the daily irritation of shaving, which matters considerably for anyone prone to ingrown hairs, a problem that affects people with tightly curled hair disproportionately. Against that, a beard needs washing and conditioning like the hair on your head, and neglecting it is what produces the itching people blame on the beard itself.

One thing worth saying plainly: for a great many people a beard is a matter of faith, culture or identity rather than style, and a novelty day is not an argument for removing it.

How to take part

• Trim down in stages rather than going straight to the razor. It is a better way to discover a shape you prefer.
• Soften first: hot water, a few minutes, and a proper lather. Most shaving irritation is dry skin rather than a dull blade.
• Go with the grain on the first pass, and accept a slightly less close result in exchange for not tearing your neck up.
• Moisturize afterward. Freshly shaved skin has just been exfoliated whether you intended it or not.
• Photograph it, since it will be back within a fortnight.