A new poll indicated that Dr Ben Carson has pulled nearly even with Donald Trump among Republican primary and caucus voters. Interestingly, Carson – who sports a thin doorknocker – is the only presidential candidate with facial hair. And if elected, he'd be first president with facial hair since William H Taft, who assumed office over 100 years ago and flaunted a thick, handlebar mustache.
Carson, a retired pediatric neurosurgeon from Detroit, is well-known for his polarizing political rhetoric. But even though beards are in vogue among the general populace, our research shows that bucking the current trend of clean-shaven politicians may ultimately hurt his chances at the polls, at least among some voters.
It wasn’t always this way.
Before the 1850s, most American men and politicians were clean-shaven, but the beard became popular in both America and Europe during the Crimean War, when soldiers grew facial hair to keep warm. A number of popular public figures – Civil War General Ambrose E Burnside (namesake of the sideburn), President Lincoln, naturalist John Muir and poet Walt Whitman – would all brandish facial hair.
Then, in 1901, the first safety razor to utilize disposable blades was invented, and razors soon became cheap and widely available.
