Kmflett's Blog

Beard Liberation Front

9^th June

Campaigners mark 150^th anniversary of the death of Pogonophile, Charles Dickens

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has marked the 150^th anniversary of the death of writer Charles Dickens by recalling his pogonophilia

Dickens did not grow his distinctive beard until he was in 40s but from that time became a resolute defender of facial hair.

When told that wearing a beard made him look older Dickens responded that: “the beard saved him the trouble of shaving, and much as he admired his own appearance before he allowed his beard to grow, he admired it much more now, and never neglected, when an opportunity offered, to gaze his fill at himself”

There are more details in this British Library blog post from 2012:

https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2012/02/dickens-grows-a-beard.html#:~:text=Dickens%20grows%20a%20beard,a%20man%20of%20his%20time.&text=The%201850’s%20saw%20the%20advent%20of%20the%20’beard%20movement‘.

Dickens also published in Household Words in 1853 an article by Henry Morley and W H Wills an article entitled Why Shave? In a lengthy exposition on the importance of beard wearing they describe shaving as an ‘unwholesome custom’

https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2012/02/dickens-grows-a-beard.html#:~:text=Dickens%20grows%20a%20beard,a%20man%20of%20his%20time.&text=The%201850’s%20saw%20the%20advent%20of%20the%20’beard%20movement‘.

When it came to facial hair Dickens knew what side he was on.