The new bearded labor force is opening new economic opportunities for businesses.
The Bearded History of the Labor Movement
Contemporary businesses are, of course, more progressive than their 19th and 20th-century predecessors. Capitalism has advanced at a steady pace with a work force that has become more inclusive and diverse, but its attitude towards facial hair has not had the best tract record. In the face of the Industrial Revolution, the burgeoning working class was forced to band together – demanding fair wages, reasonable hours, and better working conditions. However, that’s not to say that the beard didn’t have its own role to play in the growing Labor Movement.
Robert Koch
19th Century – Victorian Era & Industrial Revolution
As manufacturing exploded in the early in the Industrial Revolution, the beard was regarded as an “respirator” of sorts, filtering out harmful dust, germs and soot. It was seen as protection from extreme hot and cold. But in 1882 – during the height of America’s tuberculosis outbreak – Robert Koch discovered the tubercule baccilum revealing that the disease was not genetic, but rather highly contagious. He also found that tuberculosis was also somewhat preventable through good hygiene.
By the 1890s, nurses had started shaving patients’ beards to bring down their risk of transmitting disease. In 1895, Gillette introduced the disposable razor. For the first time men could shave their own beards at home without the needing of a barbershop. Between the mounting health concerns and the arrival true flu pandemic, the popularity of beards was facing a sharp decline.
Just a couple of years before the first disposable razor hit the market, waiters in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago went on strike. In the summer of 1893, waiters from across the racial divide and varying backgrounds rallied around the common demand for higher wages, better working conditions, and regulations that required workers to show for their shifts with no facial hair. Their success was mixed. While some men lost their jobs to women, strikers in Chicago had better leverage from the financial pressure of the 1983 World’s Fair. Bosses needed to settle the labor disputes to capitalize on the unprecedented tourist dollars that were rolling into the city.
20th Century – The Modern Era
Just after the turn of the century, high-end waiters in Paris walked out of their jobs demanding better pay, more time off, and the right to grow mustaches in what would become known as the Great French Mustache Strike of April 1907. According to historian Gil Mihaely, who wrote extensively on French masculinity, contends that the desire to regulate facial hair in France has its roots in the era of colonialist expansion and the Industrial Revolution. Restaurants of the era required their servant staff to retain the appearance of domestic valets. Wearing a mustache at the time was a sign of station reserved for the upper class and patron were “paying to humiliate people in an almost institutional way”. The clientele “paid for an experience. And the experience was to be the master.” By the end of May, the waiters had won the right to wear their mustaches, but only at the expense of their other demands.
Clean shaven Parisian waiters
WWI soldier and dog in gas mask, c. 1940
Despite a few early successes, the acceptability of facial hair in the workplace continued to decline for most of the remaining 20th-century. In 1901, the New York Board of Health led by Dr. William H. Park, banned bearded men from working directly with milk supplies claiming, “there is real menace to the milk if the dairyman is bearded.”
In April of 1910, the California Health Board announced it would require male teachers to be clean shave. They believed that ““mustaches and other beards are lurking places of disease germs and hence are likely to cause disease to spread.” The health concerns of the anti-beard movement carried well into the last major pandemic – the 1918 Spanish Flu.
During the following two World Wars, soldiers would need to shave their beards to ensure their gas masks would have a proper seal. By the 1930’s the prominence of the British and American beard had almost completely receded. Through the 60’s and 70’s beards would become associated with beatniks and hippies – hardly the epitome of business attire.
21st Century – The Age of Information
It would not be until the end of the 20th-century that beards would again become part of the social order. In 1999, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of two Muslim police officers who objected to shaving their beards on religious ground in Police v. City of Newark. Eight years later, TV host Conan O’Brien grew his infamous strike beard as part of the Writers Guild of America protest. O’Brien was later joined by David Letterman and other TV personalities/writers as a show of solidarity. In February of the following year, the Writer’s Guild announced a new contract had been ratified.
Strike beards made another appearance in 2010 when dozens of Androscoggin County workers – dispatchers, jail guards and a few patrol officers – began to protest their lack of a labor contract. Because public safety workers are prohibited from striking, they took to growing beards instead to express their frustration.
The most recently, the grocery chain Publix had to change course on their facial hair ban after 12,000 employees campaigned to end the policy. Following widespread media coverage, the grocery chain’s staff can now work with a neatly trimmed beard.
Bearded Conan O’Brien
In today’s labor market, beards and mustaches are generally accepted so long as they are presented in a clean, tidy manner. The growing trend towards relaxed facial hair policies has also proven to be a positive vehicle for charity fundraising through initiatives including Movember and Decembeard. The new bearded labor force is also opening new economic opportunities for businesses. Beard care products and barbershops across the country are on the rise, allowing men for to groom in style. This reinforces the growing trend for men to spend more time and money on their appearance, a trend that at present shows no sign of abating.
shop executive beard care
