Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/331

 Let no style be chosen simply because it is the fashion, or out of a foolish desire to imitate somebody else. Moustaches are much in vogue now, but, as we have hinted, they are far from suiting every face. Neither need our young friends think, as they so often do, that such an ornament enhances their powers with the other sex. We don't acknowledge, in this country, the German proverb, that ''Ein Kuss ohne Schnurrbart, ist wie ein Ei ohne Salz''. The play of the features, variety of expression, often beauty of outline, are concealed by the beard, and frequently a smooth face sets off even manly charms to the best advantage.

THE CARE OF THE BEARD.

A handsome beard is a boon rarely granted by nature to the men of our stock. It requires assiduous cultivation, as a rule, and how to give it this is our present theme. Undoubtedly the most efficacious stimulus known is frequent shaving, for several years after the beard begins to sprout. The earnest desire to sport a beard, so common to young men, usually leads them to neglect this, and the consequence is, they never obtain a vigorous growth. Properly, until about the age of twenty-five, the razor should be unsparingly used.

We frequently see nostrums advertised "to cause the beard to grow." All of them are utterly useless. Some of them are at least harmless, but of many of