BEARDS TO RESCUE MALE MORALE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 661, 14 January 1933, Page 17 (Supplement)

BEARDS TO RESCUE MALE MORALE.

NEW YORK, December 2. fJEARDS ARE COMING BACK! Or aren’t they?.

From Paris comes word that young men in France once more favour the beard. One school of thought holds that the beard will return because the modern miss has usurped so many masculine prerogatives of late. Smoking, for instance, playing a golf game good enough to beat her best beau, holding down jobs which pay more than his. Or this business of going fifty-fifty on the costs when he takes her dining or dancing. “ We had to do something the girls couldn’t copy, and growing beards

Something Individual Needed to Keep Ahead of Women.

seemed about the one thing left,*' one young advocate of the beard explained. “ It's the present-day styles in women’s clothes,” said another. “ Don't you think these fancy sleeves and little hats call for a bearded escort? We’re just trying to fit into that Gay 90’s atmosphere the girls have been creating.” At that, beards are becoming to some men. Even the most undistinguished youth, equipped with a natty Van Dyke, will suddenly appear quite imposing, even important.

Male Morale Endangered by Female Invasion.

You’ll be bound to treat him with respect, to listen to his opinions with that mixture of awe and absorbed interest which is balm to the soul of the man-who-isn’t-so-sure-of-himself or the man-who-is. There’s the question of colour, however. This new fad is all very well for the chap with black locks, or rich broAvn ones. Even a conservative auburn would be “ nice.” But what of the really red-haired boys? Pink whiskers won’t be becoming to many men, it is feared. You may think this vogue for the beard is just a revolt against the daily tyranny of shaving, but barbers say that caring for a beard is even more trouble. "Whiskers, it seems, are temperamental. One portion grows fast, another hardly at all. So that to keep a really decent-looking beard the boys are going to have to take it to the barber at least once a week for an expert trimming. The spade type is conservative, but involves a certain amount of shaving, the upper cheeks being left smooth. Similar to this in the amount of shaving involved is the parted-in-the-middle beard. The goatee is well thought of, too, long or short. The latter style is known as the modified goatee. Did you know that this style was inspired by the goat, as the name implies? Branigans haven’t popped up yet, and really aren’t expected to. This style involves a face shaven down to the chin and jaw line, with luxuriant fringe sprouting from there. Whiskers at the side of the face have possibilities. They may be grown down to about the bottom of the ear, and kept closely cropped, which gives the muttonchop. Or they may grow a bit farther down and be left long enough to produce the dundreary. This business of beards seems the best opportunity for individuality which has been offered the male sex for many years. With suits and topcoats clinging tenaciously to such unimaginative colours as blue, brown, black and grey, and hats the same, a fellow hasn’t much chance. So why not beards, to bolster up the failing male morale? (Copyright, 1932, by the North American Newspaper Alliance, Inc.).