As pointed out above, in order to have a beard a male needs to do nothing whatsoever, but in order to not have a beard he must scrape his face with a piece of sharp metal every day. So the real question is: why do some men not have beards?

So here's the answer. Shaving became popular among the soldiers of Alexander the Great because he was the greatest leader any of them knew about and they were his followers. Alexander shaved because he was queer as a three-dollar bill and wanted to have a more femminine face. (My theory, anyway.) So shaving became "femminine" (submissive.)Since shaving became a mark of submission, willing to abide by the rules, beards, then, became symbols of rebellion and outlawry. The word "Barbarian" means hairy-face and indicates one who lives outside civilised society.

Beards also indicate masculinity, or agression.In medieval times serfs were clean shaven, knights had a mustache, princes a short beard and kings a large woolly growth, being the most masculine, virile, s.o.b. on the block. (See portraits of Henry VIII.)

All that carries over into today's world. Beards around the corporate conference table are exceedingly rare, but fairly common among mountain men, outlaw bikers and folkies. Yah?

(Except for my time in the Army, I have always had a beard - it never occurred to me not to.)

O'Meara