Online search results for "famous beards" are dominated by pictures of celebrities or screen idols who cling to the glare of publicity by deciding to grow their facial hair, marketing it as such a novel and ingenious idea to just not shave for a few weeks. To their credit, it seems to work for them. But who are some famous people, genuinely significant historical figures, who sported beards before they became a gimmick? Whose beards were, and still are, noteworthy in their own right?
Here are just a few of them. Some of them are famous people, iconic because of their beard, others are famous people whose beard is iconic because of the person, some are both. Their impressive facial forests remain forever as icons for beardies to aspire to live up to, and non-beardies to bask in their splendour.
How many can you name?