According to Alun Withey, a historian at Exeter University, this happened at a time of growing worry that “British men were becoming weedy as more and more of them were working in offices”.
埃克塞特大學的歷史學家艾倫·威西表示,這種情況發生的時候,人們愈發擔心“越來越多的英國人在辦公室工作,他們變得越來越瘦弱”。
Nothing could be more manly than facial hair.
沒有什么比胡子更有男子氣概了。
Many also believed that not shaving offered health benefits.
許多人還認為不剃須對健康有益。
In 1854, more than 400 members of the Dublin police force petitioned to be allowed to join the beard movement on the ground that “almost all, if not all, diseases of the respiratory organs are in great part, if not altogether, caused by the practice which obtains of shaving off the beard.”
1854年,400多名都柏林警察請愿加入蓄胡子運動,理由是“幾乎所有(如果不是全部的話)呼吸器官疾病在很大程度上(如果不是全部的話)都是由刮掉胡須的做法引起的。”
Beards were even thought to bring productivity gains.
人們甚至認為留胡子能提高生產率。
An article in the British Medical Journal in 1861 calculated that America lost 36m working days each year to shaving.
1861年《英國醫學雜志》上的一篇文章計算出,美國人每年因剃須而損失3600萬個工作日。
Prior to the 1850s beards had been a rarity in Britain.
在19世紀50年代之前,留胡子在英國很少見。
Now bristles sprouted everywhere.
現在到處的人都留了胡子楂。
The full-bodied “cathedral” or “patriarch” beard, of the kind sported by late Victorian statesmen, was the favoured style of the elites.
維多利亞晚期政治家所蓄的那種濃郁的“大教堂式”或“族長式”胡須,是精英們所青睞的風格。
Beard fashion spread to the lower social classes, too.
留胡子的風尚也傳到了下層社會。
For a research project, Dr Withey studied the photographs of prisoners at three Victorian jails, taken soon after their arrest, and found that 58% had some form of facial hair.
在一個研究項目中,威瑟博士研究了維多利亞三所監獄的囚犯在被捕后不久拍攝的照片,發現58%的人有某種形式的面部毛發。
Almost three-quarters of their beards were “chin straps”—long sideburns meeting underneath the chin, without a moustache.
幾乎四分之三的人的胡子都是“下巴帶”式的長鬢角,長在下巴下方,沒有小胡子。
The beard craze petered out in the 1890s as fashions shifted, better razors became available and doctors took to warning against facial hair (a damp beard was thought to spread germs).
19世紀90年代,隨著時尚的轉變,更好的剃須刀出現了,醫生們開始警告人們不要留胡子(潮濕的胡須被認為會傳播細菌),對胡須的狂熱逐漸消退。
Beards became the preserve of older men as the young rejected the fashions of their fathers.
當年輕人拒絕父輩的時尚時,留胡子成了老年人的專利。
The army was slower to adapt.
軍隊的適應速度較慢。
The requirement for moustaches lasted until 1916; some regiments maintained a stockpile of artificial ones for those unable to grow their own.
對胡須的要求一直持續到1916年; 一些軍團為那些無法自己留胡須的人儲備了人造胡子。
Only the recruitment of ever younger men during the first world war, and fears about the close fit of gas masks, led to the regulations being reversed.
只是因為在第一次世界大戰期間越來越年輕的男性被招募,以及對防毒面具緊密貼合的擔憂,才導致了這一規定的逆轉。
A decision on whether to allow beards again is expected soon.
預計很快就會做出關于是否允許留胡子的決定。
Mr. Shapps thinks it is “ridiculous” that the army is turning away potential recruits because of facial hair.
沙普斯先生認為軍隊因為面部毛發而拒絕潛在的新兵是“荒謬的”。
The Victorians would agree.
維多利亞時代的人會表示贊同。