Drat - I hit the "enter" key again!

Dunno about the hirsute audience. I think that dates more from the sixties influence on the genre than on any historic reason. When I was performing, in the '50's and early '60's, most of us were bald faced, with an odd moustache or beard thrown in. There was always a group of folks with a more tweedy, philosophical bent, often seen with bulldog pipes and chess sets in front of them. More often than not, they were not the performers, but the daily denizens of a given coffee house or bar, usually seated in the background. It may also be a product of place.