All About Beards Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pogonology

There are people who study beards professionally! The study encompasses a broad field and many of these pogonologists find employment with cosmetic firms and firms that make shaving equipment.

Answer: The rate of his sexual activity

This is because the rate of beard growth is linked to the hormone testosterone. Recently this was shown to be the case by a physicist who carried out a series of several sojourns alone on an isolated island. Over each time period, his rate of beard growth grew less and less the longer he spent on the island.

However, each time the day arrived for him to be removed from his self-imposed isolation, his beard growth dramatically resumed again, especially on the first couple of days back in human society when he resumed, um, conjugal activities. I will never look at a bearded man the same way again.

Answer: Cows

There is a link between this and religious belief. The worship of cows has played a major part in many ancient cultures stretching from Egypt to India, arising originally from the vital role that cattle played in the continuance of life for ancient peoples.

Indeed, the Israelite leader Moses had a great deal of trouble with his people when they left Egypt. After dwelling in that country for several hundred years, they had absorbed many of the Egyptian religious beliefs - including that of the worship of cattle.

Answer: Ringlets

These were created with the use of tongs and curling irons especially made for this purpose. In many of these ancient societies, beards were associated with wisdom, knowledge, leadership skills and virility. Elaborately decorated and curled beards were a visible manifestation of these abilities.

Some leaders even had gold thread and fine jewellery interwoven through their beards to further enhance these perceptions.

Answer: Adultery

Eastern nations in particular were known for this particular punishment, and because of the high regard in which beards were held, this was punishment indeed. It takes a long time for a fine beard to grow again. Those men who had been shorn of these locks were constantly mocked and laughed at in society for their lack of same. Such was the values of beards that a desperate man might even pledge his own as collateral when taking out a loan - or forfeit it in payment of a debt.

Answer: As a sign of mourning

Such was the importance in which a full beard was held in this society, that this practice of shaving it off as a sign of mourning was quickly replaced. The beard remained intact on the face of the mourner - but it was left untrimmed, uncurled and unadorned instead. One of the main reasons for this was that a beardless face was associated with effeminacy.

Answer: To prevent enemies grabbing it in battle

Apparently it was considered easier to kill a soldier in battle if one could grab hold of his beard. I should imagine it would prove somewhat distracting at that, if not downright painful. All levels of male society consequently followed this fashion trend set by Alexander, and only philosophers insisted on retaining their beards as a mark of their profession.

Answer: Transition from boyhood to manhood

The first time a boy had a shave was quite an occasion in ancient Rome and it was celebrated in much the same way a 21st first birthday party is celebrated today - and with probably just as much alcohol. Unlike other societies when beards were removed as a sign of mourning, men in Roman times grew a beard instead to show their sorrow.

They also grew beards to mark some great public disaster, though how they thought that could help is beyond me.

Answer: Killed his first enemy

This belief was held by the Germanic tribes in particular. If you presented yourself in society as clean-shaven, it meant you'd successfully become a murderer. How jolly. However, the Lombards preferred very long beards instead of the clean shaven chins favoured by their neighbours, and were commonly referred to as the Longbeards. That didn't mean they were any less murderous though.

Answer: Pay tax on them

This was not so much a matter of a fashion statement by Peter the Great, but a case of his bringing Russia into line with the rest of Europe where men generally went beardless. By England's Queen Victoria's time however, beards and moustaches were back in fashion again. And over in America, right up to President Taft's time, only two of that country's Presidents were seen without a bushy face.