The majority of men who had held the position of President of the United States had been clean shaven and it’s been more than a century since the last president with facial hair served in office.
The last president to wear facial hair was William Howard Taft who sported a mustache during his term in the White House from March 1909 to March 1913. No sitting president has worn facial hair since Taft.
The 2016 election will mark exactly 100 years since a presidential candidate had any facial hair and although facial hair is back in style, that’s not the case for the Presidents.
Around the 1960’s, beards became extremely popular among the hippie counterculture and this notion made them grow even more unfashionable in the political world.
Being clean-shaven wasn’t always the norm, though 12 of all the US Presidents sported some sort of facial hair while in office. What’s even more interesting, every US President with a beard has been a Republican.
Here is a list of US Presidents that sported some sort of facial hair.
1. John Quincy Adams (1825–1829)
John Quincy Adams is the first US president with facial hair. He served as the 6th President of the United States from 1825 to 1829. John Quincy Adams was the son of former President John Adams. He is be remembered as a diplomat who shaped U.S. foreign policy in line with his ardently nationalist commitment to US republican values.
After he was not reelected as President, he was elected to serve in the House of Representatives until his death on 23rd February, 1848.
2. Martin Van Buren (1837–1841)
Martin Van Buren is the 2nd President with facial hair. He served as the 8th President of the United States from 1837 to 1841. He was not so popular as a President of the US and was blamed for the depression in 1837. Van Buren opposed the increment of slavery, and because of that he blocked the annexation of Texas so that slave territory wouldn’t expand. He died in July 1862 at the age of 79.
3. Zachary Taylor (1849–1850)
Zachary Taylor is the third President with facial hair. He was the 12th President of the United States serving from March, 1849 until his death in July, 1850. He was an officer in the United States Army and a national hero as a result of his victories in the Mexican – American war. His status as a national hero won him an election to the White House.
Preserving the Union was his top priority as a president but he died 17 months into his term.
4. Abraham Lincoln (1861–1865)
Abraham Lincoln is the 4th President with facial hair and the first bearded President of the United States. Lincoln is one of the most popular Presidents of the United States. He served as the 16th President of the United States. He might had entered office clean-shaven in March, 1861 if he didn’t receive a letter from the 11-year-old Grace Bedell of New York who didn’t like the way he looked without facial hair in the 1860 campaign trail. He will be remembered as the President who abolished slavery.
Lincoln served as president from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865.
5. Ulysses S. Grant (1869–1877)
Ulysses S. Grant is the 5th President with facial hair. He was the 18th President of the United States serving from 1869 to 1877. He prosecuted the Ku Klux Klan and stabilized the nation during the turbulent Reconstruction period.
In 1880, Grant was unsuccessful in obtaining a Republican presidential nomination for a 3rd term. He died of a throat cancer in 1885.
6. Rutherford B. Hayes (1877–1881)
Rutherford B. Hayes is the 6th President with facial hair. He was the 19th President of the United States serving from 1877 to 1881. He reportedly wore the longest beard of all bearded presidents. Hayes restored popular faith in the presidency and prompted the initiatives which led to civil service reform.
He died of a heart attack in his home on 17th January, 1893.
7. James A. Garfield (1881-1881)
James A. Garfield is the 7th President with facial hair. He was the 20th President of the United States serving as president from 5th March, 1881, until 19th September, 1881. During his extremely short time in office, Garfield attacked political corruption and brought back the prestige that the Presidency had lost during the Reconstruction period.
On 2nd July, 1881 Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau. On 6th September, Garfield was taken to the New Jersey seaside. For a few days he seemed to be recuperating, but on 19th September, 1881 he died from an infection and internal hemorrhage.
8. Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885)
Chester A. Arthur is the 8th President with facial hair. He was the 21th President of the United States from 1881 to 1885. He tried to lower tariff rates so the Government would not be embarrassed by annual surpluses of revenue and enacted the first general Federal immigration law. President Arthur died of cerebral hemorrhage on 18th November, 1886 at the age of 57.
9. Grover Cleveland (1885–1889, 1893–1897)
Grover Cleveland is the 9th President with facial hair. He was the 22nd and 24th President of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. As the First Democrat elected after the Civil War, Grover Cleveland had been the only President to leave the White House and return for a second term four years later.
After leaving the White House, Cleveland lived in retirement in Princeton, New Jersey. He died in 1908.
10. Benjamin Harrison (1889–1893)
Benjamin Harrison is the 10th President with facial hair. He was the 23rd President of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He wore a beard for 4 years being in the White House. Harrison conducted one of the first “front-porch” campaigns, delivering short speeches to delegations that visited him in Indianapolis. He died from pneumonia at his home on Wednesday, 13th March, 1901, at the age of 67.
11. Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909)
Theodore Roosevelt is the 11th President with facial hair. He was the 26th President of the United States serving as president from 1901 until 1909.
He is the youngest President in the nation’s history. He won the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the Russian-Japanese War, reached a Gentleman’s Agreement on immigration with Japan, and sent the Great White Fleet on a goodwill tour of the world. He enormously added to the national forests in the West, reserved lands for public use and fostered great irrigation projects.
Roosevelt died in his sleep on 6th January, 1919.
12. William Howard Taft (1909–1913)
William Howard Taft is the last US President who had facial hair. He was the 27th President of the United States from 1909 to 1913. He was a poor politician and spent 4 uncomfortable years in the White House. Unlike Roosevelt, Taft did not believe in the stretching of Presidential powers.
Taft, free of the Presidency, served as Professor of Law at Yale University until President Harding made him Chief Justice of the United States, a position he held until his death in 1930.