The beard has come and gone in terms of popularity throughout history. The feelings about beards in LDS culture has generally reflected the same trends in the general population. We hear a lot of people make statements like "Brigham Young had a beard, we should be able to as well!" Before we run too far down that road lets take a second to reflect. Yes Brigham Young had a beard for the majority of time that he spent as President of the Church. However, despite a few historical representation stating that Joseph Smith had a "beard of some three days growth" he is traditionally represented as clean-shaven (1).
So what caused the difference in appearance between Joseph Smith and Brigham Young? It's quite simple, the clean shaven look was popular in the early 1800's but this began to change in the 1840's and 1850's. In Sarah Gold McBrides article "Power is on the side of the beard" she states "between the 1850's and the early 1900's, facial hair became a standard component of the adult American male's appearance." So we can see why there is a difference in facial hair between Joseph Smith and Brigham Young.
After Brigham Young's tenure as President of the Church, the next six presidents followed suit with facial hair of their own. This continued until David O. McKay took up the Presidency in 1951. It is important to take note of the timing of this transition from bearded to clean-shaven, because it coincides with another major beard trend in American culture as we will see in part III.
So after Brigham Young, the beard was in style, in LDS culture as well as American culture. Unfortunately, the beard would fall on hard times again with the onset of WWI. The US Military prohibited beards among enlisted men, for good reason, to insure good fits of gas masks while in the trenches. However, this prohibition had some long lasting side effects. As a result of enlisted men having to shave there was a generation who grew accustomed to shaving regularly. Advances in shaving technologies with the Gillette "saftey razor" patented in 1904 and it's wide distribution due to its agreement with the US Army led to a perpetuation of clean-shaven men (2). This was a large contributing factor in the swing from the bearded appearance to the clean-shaven look.
This general transition in American culture also greatly affected LDS perception of the beard. Utah had just been granted state hood and was beginning to integrate itself into US culture. Polygamy had been banned by the Utah Constitution and many of the new leaders were looking for a way to distance themselves with this practice and beards were a very visual way to break with the former practice of polygamy(3). The break with polygamy, service of men in WWI and integration to the greater US culture all affected the LDS perception of the beard in the 1910's and 1920's. These factors influenced the younger leaders of the church who would not pick up the full mantle of leadership until the 1940's and 1950's when a slough of cultural movements in the american culture at large further affect LDS perceptions of the beard.
To be continued...
(1) Roberts, B. H. A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints 2:350. Provo, UT: Published by the Church, Brigham Young UP, 1965. Print.
(2) US Patent 775134, King C. Gillette, "Razor", issued 1904-November-15
(3)Hickman, Michael. "Mormons: A Short History on Beards." Michael A Hickman. 28 Mar. 2013. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.
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