Presidential portraits at the National Portrait Gallery indicate significant changes in fashion, especially regarding facial hair. Initially, early presidents displayed clean-shaven faces. John Quincy Adams and Martin Van Buren introduced mutton chops in the early nineteenth century. Abraham Lincoln grew a beard after a young girl's suggestion, helping him win the election. The late nineteenth century saw a rise in beards with presidents like Rutherford B. Hayes and Chester Arthur. However, the trend shifted back to clean-shaven faces in the early twentieth century, with William Howard Taft being the last president to have any facial hair.
In the beginning, not a whisper of a whisker-not on Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, or Monroe. In the early nineteenth century, John Quincy Adams and Martin Van Buren change things up with fluffy muttonchops that drift like snow from ears to laugh lines.
Abraham Lincoln adopted a beard after Grace Bedell, an eleven-year-old girl, urged him to let his whiskers grow, believing it would help him win the election.
Moving into the late nineteenth century, you notice a post-Lincoln efflorescence of beards. Rutherford B. Hayes rocks a glorious russet-and-gray fur bib.
J. D. Vance is the first Vice-President since the nineteenth century to wear a beard while in office, marking a notable historical shift.
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