During the Classical period, Greek men were almost always bearded. Although fashions varied, the most popular style was a full beard with a shaved upper lip. * Shaving clean was considered effeminate—until the reign of Alexander the Great. Among the great conqueror’s many peculiarities (which ranged from an obsession with the Iliad to the conviction that he was a literal son of Zeus) was an insistence on regular shaving. We don’t know whether Alexander wished to emphasize his youth or was simply cursed with patchy facial hair. We do know, however, that his immense prestige made beardlessness trendy.3 After Alexander’s death, and despite prickly pro-beard legislation in several cities, the clean-shaven look spread rapidly through the Greek world.