Today’s a day to truly bare it all, today is No Beard Day. Yup, I said it, today is a day for bare faces.

But, before I go into how you should not have a beard today, let’s refresh about some awesome beard facts. Although not quite as cool as it’s hip, older cousin, the mustache, many of history’s great men had beards – Jesus, Confucius, Sigmund Freud, Uncle Jesse, Jerry Garcia, the list could go on.

Classic beard styles include, but are not limited to:

• Full - downward flowing beard with either styled or integrated moustache
• Sideburns - a full beard with a shaved chin
• Chinstrap - a beard with long sideburns then comes forward and end under the chin, resembling a chinstrap, hence the name.
• Garibaldi - wide, full beard with rounded bottom and integrated moustache
• Goatee - A tuft of hair grown on the chin, sometimes resembling a billy goat’s.
• Royale - is a narrow pointed beard extending from the chin. The style was popular in France during the period of the Second Empire, from which it gets its alternative name, the imperial or impériale.
• Stubble - a very short beard of only one to a few days growth. This became fashionable during the heyday of Miami Vice. During this time, a modified electric razor called the Miami Device became popular, which would trim stubble to a preset length.
• Van Dyck - A goatee accompanied by a moustache
• Verdi - short beard with rounded bottom and slightly shaven cheeks with prominent moustache
•  Neck Beard - Similar to the Chinstrap, but with the chin and jawline shaven, leaving hair to grow only on the neck. While never as popular as other beard styles, a few noted historical figures have worn this type of beard, such as Henry Thoreau, LaDainian Tomlinson and Horace Greeley.
• Soul patch - a small beard just below the lower lip and above the chin. (List provided by Wikipedia.com.)

Shaving came into play around 300 BC, as the Romans began to shave do differentiate themselves from the Greeks.

So if you have a beard, time to get shavin’, and let your family and friends see what’s really under all that facial hair. Treat yourself to a new razor for the event. And find out how to get that perfect shave here. Better yet, get yourself to a good ol’ fashioned barber for a hot lather shave.

Image from health.howstuffworks.com.