ITALIAN BEARD STYLES FOR MEN TO TRY THIS YEAR 2023!

ITALIAN BEARD STYLES 

You’ve probably seen many famous Italian actors and just like myself have admired their well groomed hair and beard. 

Well welcome to our world where we talk about everything about male grooming. Today you will join us on exploring the world of Italian male grooming.

The Italian culture has a rich history of male grooming which we will be exploring in this blog. Believe it or not but a lot of the most popular male grooming techniques and styles actually stem from Italy!

 

HISTORY OF ITALIAN BEARD STYLES 

Beards and facial hair are a huge part of Italian culture where Italians believe that facial hair is a symbol of their masculinity, wealth and power. Let’s explore the Italian beard and facial hair trends: 

14th-17th Century: THE RENAISSANCE PERIOD 

You will see that during the Renaissance times many paintings of men were seen with full beards. That is because during the Renaissance times, it was believed that men with full beards were a symbol of wealth and power.

This is because during that time period, having the time, the resources and the dedication to spend towards growing and grooming a full beard was rare and not as accessible unlike modern times.

The Renaissance artworks portrayed heroic men with beards as beards were a sign of virility and masculinity

18th century: BEARDS FALL OUT OF FASHION 

As you can see in the 18th Century Italian artworks, men are portrayed as clean shaven. That is because Italian fashion was becoming more influenced by French fashion where the French were more interested in the clean shaven, well groomed, clean look. The clothes and fashion has also changed as well as the clothes were becoming more form fitting which meant that a beard would have interfered with the clothes. 

Just like everything in the world, fashion and trends are highly dictated by the upper class. At this time the upper class were the ones who could afford the beautiful well tailored clothes (as mentioned above), the upper class ditched the beards and traded them with form fitting French clothes. Since the rich ditched the beards, beards became automatically associated with the lower class. 

Hygiene habits also changed where the Italians began to be more concerned with hygiene which is also why the clean shaven look was associated with cleanliness and hygiene

1914-1918: WORLD WAR I 

During World War 1, in order for the italian soldiers to differentiate themselves from other soldiers they grew a mustache. They were fighting against the Germans and the Hungarians which had strict clean shaven rules. The Italians instead decided to grow a mustache as a symbol of patriotism and military service. 

1950s-1960s: HOLLYWOOD ERA

With the rising fame and influence of actors such as Vittorio Gassman and Marcello Mastroianni, Italians were quickly influenced to be clean shaven!

1970s: CULTURAL SHIFT

The western worlds were experiencing a huge cultural shift, including Italy. Young Italians were also experiencing a cultural shift, attempting to push conservative boundaries including button up shirts and being clean shaven. So the beard was a symbol of the counterculture movement. This was paired with more rugged and natural clothing. The counterculture movement was also heavily influenced and inspired by the Renaissance times where a lot of young Italians turned to Renaissance styles as inspiration. 

PRESENT TIMES

Italian men nowadays have a wide range of beard choices to choose from. Being well groomed and looking clean and suave is still deeply rooted in Italian culture but modern men nowadays have different facial hair styles based on their own personal styles. 

THE DIFFERENT BEARD STYLES YOU DID NOT EXPECT WAS ITALIAN

There are many popular beard styles in modern day society that you may not realize stem from Italian culture. Here are just a few examples

  1. DESIGNER STUBBLE

This is the most popular style amongst present men and most popular beard style amongst women as well!

  1. CLASSIC BEARD

  1. CHINSTRAP BEARD

  1. GARIBALDI BEARD

  1. THE MOUSTACHE 

  1. ITALIAN GOATEE 

Hope you guys enjoyed this blog on Italian beard styles. The diverse Italian beards remain timeless and classic despite the long beautiful history of these styles. Italians have had a huge rich history of male grooming techniques and styles which still remain popular today! 

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