Elizabethan Menswear

To women in Elizabethan England, beards were considered to be attractive. Therefore it was a largely bearded age of barbers offering their customers an extensive and often fancifully named range of styles, including pointed (van-dyke style), square, round or oblong. Starch was applied to keep the beards in place and during the daytime, men with beards brushed it to help keep it in shape and at night they fettered the beard in a special wooden press. Those men who chose to be clean shaven either had to visit a barber or have one visit them in their homes. A shave once a week or possibly once every two weeks was considered sufficient to maintain shaved status.