Victorian Beards and Highgate Cemetery: A Local Grooming History
Walk through Highgate Cemetery and you are walking through the great age of the British beard. When the cemetery opened in 1839, most respectable men in London were clean-shaven or wore only side whiskers. Within twenty years, full beards had become ordinary, helped along by soldiers returning bearded from the Crimean War, new ideas about manliness and health, and a few influential faces. By the end of the century the fashion was fading again, and the First World War finished it off. The bearded busts and portrait medallions on the cemetery’s monuments are a record of that whole arc, a short walk from our chairs on Archway Road.
A cemetery built for a growing city
Highgate Cemetery was one of a ring of large private cemeteries built around London from the 1830s, when the old churchyards could no longer cope with the city’s dead. Its terraces, catacombs and Egyptian Avenue made it fashionable from the start, and it was later extended across Swain’s Lane to what is now the East Cemetery. Its most famous resident, Karl Marx, lies in the East Cemetery under a large bronze bust that makes his beard almost the whole monument.
The cemetery is still a working cemetery and a charity. The West Cemetery is generally visited by guided tour and the East Cemetery is open to visitors; check Highgate Cemetery’s own website for current opening times and tours before you go.
Why the Victorians grew beards
In the early part of Queen Victoria’s reign, a full beard on a gentleman was unusual and could look eccentric or radical. That changed remarkably quickly in the 1850s. Several things came together:
- The Crimean War. British troops in the Crimea in the mid-1850s often went unshaven in the cold, and the returning soldier with a full beard became a heroic image. Civilians copied it.
- Ideas about manliness. Writers of the period presented the beard as natural, vigorous and properly masculine, and shaving as a fussy, unnatural habit.
- Health arguments. Some Victorian writers argued that a beard protected the throat and filtered the air. These claims were not based on good evidence, but they helped make beards respectable.
- Shaving was a chore. Shaving with an open razor was slow and required skill, a strop and hot water. Not shaving was a genuine convenience.
Our short history of the cut-throat razor in British barbering explains just how much work a daily shave involved.
The styles, and what they were called
| Style | What it looked like |
|---|---|
| Full beard | Beard and moustache grown together, often long and broad |
| Mutton chops | Wide side whiskers down to the jaw, chin shaved |
| Dundreary whiskers | Very long, flowing side whiskers, named after a comic stage character, Lord Dundreary |
| Newgate fringe | A band of beard under the chin and along the jaw, face and upper lip shaved |
| Chin curtain | Beard along the jawline with no moustache |
| Moustache and side whiskers | A favourite of military men, with the chin kept clean |
Several of these have quietly come back. The chin curtain is essentially what we would now call a beard without a moustache, which we cover in our guide to wearing a beard without a moustache.
How Victorian men looked after their beards
A large Victorian beard was not low-maintenance. Men used:
- Oils and pomades. Macassar oil was so widely used on hair that households put cloths on chair backs to protect the upholstery, which is where the word “antimacassar” comes from.
- Waxes to shape and point moustaches.
- Combs and brushes, often carried in the pocket.
- The barber. Men who could afford it visited regularly for trimming and shaping, and to have the shaved parts of the face done properly.
- Moustache cups, which appeared later in the century with a small ledge inside to keep a waxed moustache out of the tea.
Why it ended
By the 1880s and 1890s, younger men were trimming beards shorter or going back to just a moustache. Several later changes sped the move away from beards:
- Germ theory. As ideas about hygiene changed, a large beard began to look less healthy, not more.
- The safety razor. Disposable-blade safety razors in the early twentieth century made daily shaving at home quick and far less risky.
- The First World War. Soldiers were generally kept clean-shaven, and the British Army dropped its long-standing requirement for moustaches in 1916. See our piece on the army moustache rule.
By the 1920s the clean-shaven face was the respectable norm again, and it stayed that way for most of the century.
What a Victorian beard teaches a modern one
The history is a good reminder that no beard style is permanent, and that the ones that last share a few principles:
- Shape is deliberate. Even the wildest Victorian whiskers were trimmed to a plan. A good beard is a grown beard plus a cut.
- The shaved parts matter. Mutton chops only work if the chin is clean. Modern beards rely just as much on a clean cheek line and neckline.
- Proportion beats length. A beard should balance the face and the haircut, not just be as big as possible.
- Maintenance is part of the style. Oil, combing and regular trims were standard then and they work now.
If you fancy a nod to the era without the full commitment, a well-shaped full beard kept to a sensible length, or mutton chops paired with a short haircut, can look very good. At Highgate Cuts every visit starts with an assessment, where the barber looks at your growth, face shape and what you want, then recommends how to shape it. Beard work and hot towel shaves are both on the barber menu; a hot towel shave takes 20 to 30 minutes and is about as close as you will get to the Victorian barbershop experience.
Visiting, then visiting us
If you are walking in Highgate, the cemetery and the village make a good afternoon. Allow time for a tour, wear proper shoes for the uneven paths, and respect that it is still a place where families visit graves. Highgate Cuts is on Archway Road, about five minutes from Highgate tube, if you want to finish the walk with a beard trim. Details are on our Highgate barber page.
Questions we get asked
Why did Victorian men have beards?
A mix of fashion after the Crimean War, ideas about manliness and health, and the sheer effort of shaving with an open razor.
What are mutton chops?
Wide side whiskers that run down to the jaw, usually with the chin shaved. They were a popular Victorian style.
Can a barber shape a Victorian-style beard today?
Yes, provided you have the growth. Bring a picture and the barber will tell you honestly whether it suits your face and how long it will take to grow.
How much does beard work cost?
Barber prices are not published yet. See the barber menu or email us.
Book with The Highgate House
Ready for a proper cut? Email us at [email protected] with the service and the day that suits you, and we will come back to you with times.
Visit The Highgate House · The barbers
The Highgate House, Archway Road, Highgate, London N6.
