It’s interesting to see how fashions come and go, repeating in cycles through the decades. The current crop of full beards decorating the faces of Western men are an echo from several eras in the past, most recently the seventies, and already the same articles are appearing that were published then that will probably sound their death knell as a fashion statement. ‘Beards are unhygienic and cause skin disease.’ ‘More germs in a beard than on your toilet seat.’ ‘Food scraps linger for weeks.’ All of which cause men to feel uncomfortable enough to eventually shave off the apparently offending hair growth lest they appear dirty and unappealing. Fashion returns to cleanshaven faces until the next wave of designer stubble or soul patches.
Now imagine the Sunstrike scenario when solar storms have eliminated Earth’s technology so there are no electric razors, those with batteries have run out, and there is no longer a ready supply of disposable blades. Those beards are going to be back with a vengeance. How many men would make the effort to find and maintain a serious cut-throat razor of the kind you see in old Western movies?
My prediction is a return to the full facial fuzz of the 1900s and before with men’s faces as bushy as a badger’s bum in a matter of weeks after the event. It would be one of the most visible signs of the changes in our post-apocalyptic lives – but how often have you seen that in the Hollywood versions of an apocalyptic world where the hero remains clean-jawed and manicured throughout?
How do you feel about men with beards?
What would you miss most if technology died?
What would you miss most if technology died?
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