How to Wear the Beard.

As the mysteries of dress should not be all left to the ladies, now that the equality of sexes is becoming popular doctrine, let us say a few words on the proper manner of wearing the beard.

With very trifling differences in the dressing of the natural mask of hair about the man's mouth, the whole character of his personal presence is changes. It is wonderful indeed that for so obvious and universal a want as the wearing of the beard, artists have never yet given us a manual of the first principles, illustrated with drawings. It is a book that would be eagerly bought up and studied. With daily study of the beards of our friends and acquaintances, becoming and unbecoming, we have of course learned here and there an incidental lesson on the subject, and this, in the lack of more artistic authority, we propose now to jot down.

Where the beauty of a face consists mainly in the fine formation of the jawbone and chin, a man loses by growing his beard over this portion. Better wear only the mustache.

There is now and then a man whose severity or sharpness of eye is redeemed by a good-natured mouth—the animal character of the person being kindlier than the intellectual—and a covering of the lips, in such a case, is of course a mistaken hiding of Nature's apology, and needless detriment to the expression. Better wear only the whiskers.

A small or receding chin, and a feeble jaw, may be entirely concealed by a full beard, and with great advantage to the general physiognomy. So may the opposite of too coarse a jawbone, or too long a chin.

Too straight an upper lip can be improved by the curve of a well-trimmed mustache. So can an upper lip that is too long from the nose downward, or one that is disguised by the loss of some of the upper teeth. Washington, in the prime of life, suffered from the latter affliction, and (artistically speaking) his face, as represented to posterity, would have been relieved of its only weakness if he had concealed the collapsing upper lip by a military mustache.

A face which is naturally too grave can be made to look more cheerful by turning up the corners of the mustache—as one which is too trivial and inexpressive can be made thoughtful by the careful sloping of the mustache, with strong lines downward.

The wearing of the whole beard gives, of course, a more animal look ; which is no disadvantage if the eyes are large and the forehead intellectual enough to balance it. But when the eyes are small or sensual, and the forehead low, the general expression is better for the smooth chin, which, to the common eye, seems always less animal.

What is commonly call an “Imperial” (a tuft on the middle of the chin) is apt to look like a mere blotch on the face, or to give it an air of pettiness or coxcombry. The wearing of the beard long or short, forked or peaked, are physiognomical advisabilities upon which a man of judgment will take the advice of an artist as well as of an intimate friend or two ; but having once decided upon the most becoming model, he should stick to it. Alteration in the shape of so prominent a portion of the physiognomy give an impression of unreliableness and vanity.

Middle-aged men are apt to be sensitive with the incipient turning gray of the beard ; but they are often mistaken as to its effect. Black hair, which turns earliest, is not only picturesquely embellished by a sprinkling of gray, but exceedingly intellectualized and made sympathetically expressive. The greatest possible blunder is to dye such a beard. There is one complexion, however, of which the grizzling is so hideous, that total shaving, dyeing, or any other escape, is preferable to “leaving it to nature.” We mean the reddish cloud, of which the first blanching gives the appearance of a dirty mat. It was meant to be described, perhaps, by the two lines in Hudibras:

“The upper part thereof was whey,
The nether, orange mixed with gray.”

A white beard is so exceedingly distinguished that every man whose hair prematurely turns should be glad to wear it ; while for an old man’s face it is so softening a vail, so winning an embellishment, that it is wonderful how such an advantage could be thrown away. That old age should be always long bearded, to be properly vailed and venerable, is the feeling we are sure, of every lover of nature, as well as every cultivated and deferential heart.