If that jolly red-suited fellow who hands out toys and goodies to children every December wanted to enroll at Brigham Young University, he’d have to shave that lovely white beard.
Beards on BYU students and faculty have been barred since the 1960s, when they were seen as a symbol of anti-authoritarian rebellion.
Five decades later, beards are in again. Nowadays, though, they are worn by establishment figures: Wall Street bankers, fashion icons, superstar athletes and suave pop singers as well as run-of-the-mill lawyers, doctors, ad executives, teachers and all manner of other professionals. They’re more hip than hippie.