Why shave under the chin?

Subject: RE: Why shave under the chin?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 28 Jul 10 - 08:42 PM

Perhaps, it was a gesture of solidarity, ie., We'll all shave the same way to show the cap'n that we are united. In other words, it may have been a statement of labor solidarity.

Subject: RE: Why shave under the chin?
From: GUEST,Big Ballad Singer
Date: 28 Jul 10 - 03:09 PM

I was told that the Amish didn't grow mustaches because English soldiers wore high-maintenance, highly waxed handlebar and other mustaches and so the Amish considered them vain and showy.

Makes sense.

There are pics of me with my dearly-departed 6-inch long black Grizzly Adams beard... I look like a cross between a gnome and a terrorist.

Regards,

BBS

Subject: RE: Why shave under the chin?
From: GUEST,fogie
Date: 28 Jul 10 - 07:07 AM

I noticed that when I shaved inder the chin my jowls were less noticable ie my face looked slimmer and ? younger. What I couldn't see the reason for was when men used to shave their faces and leave their neck beards long!

Subject: RE: Why shave under the chin?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 27 Jul 10 - 04:52 PM

"Religious connotations" ~ I'm pretty sure that the Amish generally follow the custom of shaving the face down to the jawline and leaving the neck unshaven...

Subject: RE: Why shave under the chin?
From: semiotic
Date: 27 Jul 10 - 07:43 AM

OK...so I guess everyone is as ignorant as me :))

it just seems odd to me that there are so many paintings of sailors with clean shaven faces but beards under their chins plus the reference in Paddy Doyle (and somewhere else that I can't remember) to shaving under the chin as though it has a particular significance to sailors yet none of my sporadic researches have turned up any explanation. I know that it was a 19th century fashion but wondered if it had some sort of religious connotation (quite a lot of Nantucket, Quaker whalers seem to have it) or a mark of marital status (like yellow hose centuries earlier).

Subject: RE: Why shave under the chin?
From: Newport Boy
Date: 27 Jul 10 - 04:21 AM

Mine is still a mixture of brown & grey. My moustache is a year younger - Anne didn't like moustaches, so I shaved it for the first year, until even she said The beard-only looked odd. I usually get want I want by patience!

Phil

Subject: RE: Why shave under the chin?
From: PHJim
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 07:16 PM

I last shaved my beard 31 years ago, but my upper lip hasn't seen a razor since '67. The beard has gone from dark brown to white over the years.

Subject: RE: Why shave under the chin?
From: Tootler
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 06:19 PM

Newport Boy, you've beaten me by nine years but I only trim mine occasionally. At least the beard, that is. I trim the moustache more often or I get hairs trapped in my harmonica :-(

Subject: RE: Why shave under the chin?
From: Gurney
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 04:54 PM

I always thought that a chinstrap beard was a neat affair where the throat and face was shaved, leaving just a band going around the edge of the jaw.
I have seen old pictures of guys who didn't shave under the chin, and dozos they looked, too. But using a cut-throat razor on your throat at sea..... Naah!

Subject: RE: Why shave under the chin?
From: MikeL2
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 02:58 PM

hi

On the same theme, my son wore what was fashionably called "designer stubble" for about two years.

One day at week-end when he always called I noticed he was clean shaven.

I commented on this. He laughed and said that it had been months since he began shaving again. I just hadn't noticed !!


My wife still won't let me forget it cos I always said that she never notices anything....lol

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: Why shave under the chin?
From: Nicholas Waller
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 02:13 PM

@ Don Firth "She hadn't even noticed that I'd kept the moustache"

My brother had a beard for several years, and then one day shaved it off (and the moustache). The main reaction in his office was "are you all right, you're looking a bit pale today".

Subject: RE: Why shave under the chin?
From: gnu
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 02:12 PM

At uni, I shaved the left half of mm beard off. Amazing how many people didn't notice right away.

Subject: RE: Why shave under the chin?
From: frogprince
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 02:08 PM

How far under the chin are we talking about here?

Subject: RE: Why shave under the chin?
From: Don Firth
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 01:57 PM

The beard I had was fairly full. But I have the kind of face that could wear a Van Dyke pretty well.

The problem would be the upkeep. Trying to keep the chin part more or less symetrical, and one end of the moustache from crawling up a nostril while the other insists on pointing toward magnetic north.

Plus, I could do without the fancy horse collar. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Why shave under the chin?
From: Don Firth
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 01:34 PM

Clean-shaven here.

I had a beard for about a year and a half. I'd shampoo the thing every day or two, but it was still getting itchy. Tried several types of shampoo, but it still didn't help much.

Then, one morning at breakfast, having pancakes, the third time I managed to drizzle maple syrup into it, I said, "Okay, that's IT!!" and I shaved it off.

No wonder it was itchy. My skin was all red. Took a few days for the redness to go away.

I did keep the moustache, however.

A year and a half later, at work, my boss looked at me funny and asked, "When did you grow the moustache?"

She hadn't even noticed that I'd kept the moustache after shaving the beard a year and a half before.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Why shave under the chin?
From: Newport Boy
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 01:08 PM

Stop wondering! I haven't shaved since 1967. I trim my beard about weekly, including under the chin.

Phil

Subject: RE: Why shave under the chin?
From: PHJim
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 12:42 PM

I've often wondered, "Why shave at all?"

Subject: RE: Why shave under the chin?
From: Green Man
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 10:04 AM

It wears the front edge of me guernsey jumper which then unravells. I imaghine it wore the front of the 'jumper' worn by sailor men of the period.

Subject: RE: Why shave under the chin?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 08:47 AM

I can only guess, sorry - wary of cutting their throat on rocky waters, maybe..?

Subject: Why shave under the chin?
From: semiotic
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 08:37 AM

In Paddy Doyle there is the line "We'll all shave under the chin" and in many early 19thC paintings of sailors they have what I believe is called a Chinstrap beard, clean shaven on the face but not the neck and under the chin. Does anyone have any knowledge of where the fashion came from and why/when a sailor would "shave under the chin"?