The Hirsute Gentlemans' Society is a body of like-minded souls, intent solely on rejoicing the glories of facial hair. Whether it be through expressive dance or the playing of bearded music to carefully selected assemblies, our aim is just and true.
Join Us
Although helpful, facial hair is not essential for memebership of The Hirsute Gentlemans' Society. An appreciation of facial hair, though, is mandatory. Send in your pictures of appreciation for our upcoming members' gallery.
Appreciation of beards through time...St Clement of Alexandria
"The hair of the chin showed him to be a man."
"How womanly it is for one who is a man to comb himself and shave himself with a razor, for the sake of fine effect, and to arrange his hair at the mirror, shave his cheeks, pluck hairs out of them, and smooth them!…For God wished women to be smooth and to rejoice in their locks alone growing spontaneously, as a horse in his mane. But He adorned man like the lions, with a beard, and endowed him as an attribute of manhood, with a hairy chest--a sign of strength and rule."
"This, then, is the mark of the man, the beard. By this, he is seen to be a man. It is older than Eve. It is the token of the superior nature….It is therefore unholy to desecrate the symbol of manhood, hairiness.†"It is not lawful to pluck out the beard, man’s natural and noble adornment."
St Cyprian
"In their manners, there was no discipline. In men, their beards were defaced."
"The beard must not be plucked. 'You will not deface the figure of your beard'."
Lactantius
"The nature of the beard contributes in an incredible degree to distinguish the maturity of bodies, or to distinguish the sex, or to contribute to the beauty of manliness and strength."
Apostolic Constitutions
"Men may not destroy the hair of their beards and unnaturally change the form of a man. For the Law says, “You will not deface your beards.†For God the Creator has made this decent for women, but has determined that it is unsuitable for men."
William Shakespeare
LEONATO
You may light on a husband that hath no beard.
BEATRICE
What should I do with him? dress him in my apparel and make him my waiting-gentlewoman? He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man: and he that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him…
Excerpt from 'Much Ado About Nothing' – Act 2, Scene I