Whether goatees, full beards or moustaches, humans have been depicting beards of all shapes and sizes throughout 5000 years of visual culture. Beards have been worn to convey qualities such as wisdom, power, and social, religious or political allegiance in a wide range of cultural contexts: from Ancient Egypt, the Ancient Near East, Old Europe, the classical civilizations of the Mediterranean – right through to present-day Europe.

When beards have fallen out of favour, it is often because of the perception that they somehow run counter to such values as progress and modernity. So how is it that beards are once again fashionable, to the extent that young men today are more likely to be bearded than clean-shaven?