Beards, moustaches, whiskers, and beardlessness tell us about the ways masculinity, gender, and sexuality have all shifted through time.
Steel And The Body In The Enlightenment
Dr. Alun Withey on the history of razors, knives, and steel.
The Beard: Dirty and Unsanitary or Health Promoting?
What’s the equation of health and beard length? Alun Withey discusses.
Why the Heck Should Facial Hair Interest us?
To what extent are beards a symbol of masculinity and what key attributes of masculinity do they represent?
Unhealthy Beards? Denouncing Facial Hair in History
Does the latest buzz about beards and cleanliness signal an end to the long, divisive history about men’s facial hair?
Zounds How You Scrape!
Last week, for the first time in his life, Alun Withey was the lucky recipient of a wet shave with a cut throat razor.
(Dis)ability? Living with Impairment in Early Modern Britain
Have we viewed disability in terms of what a person cannot do, as opposed to what they can?
Fart Catchers and Duck F***ers! The World of 18th-Century Slang
What does the commoners speech say about society?
Beard haters in the 1860s!
‘Rhythmical Essays on the Beard Question’
How Welsh Medicine Helped to Create America!
How is a Welsh man linked to the establishment of a global superpower?
The Heroic Sufferer
Dr. Alun Whithey looks at how two men from the 18th Century expressed their suffering.
The New York Beard Tax and Other Strange Beard Facts!
Alun Withey combs through facial hair history to tidy up our beard knowledge
500 Years of the Model Man
The trap of the man box could be leading to higher male suicide rates. But one thing is sure, the historical concept of masculinity is always changing.
Beards, Moustaches, and Facial Hair in History
Male facial grooming doesn’t just follow fashion trends. There is also history in the beard, and culture in the moustache.
Shaving in the Trenches
How did soldiers maintain a shaving and grooming regime in the Great War?
Beards and Masculinity in History
Are beards more Popular than ever? What does the answer tell us about today’s men?