1. Facial hair that does not exist on the face, but instead on the neck. Almost never well groomed. 2. Talkative, self-important nerdy men (usually age 30 and up) who, through an inability to properly decode social cues, mistake others' strained tolerance of their blather for evidence of their own charm.
Horace Greeley probably offers an example of both definitions. The wikipedia page about him notes: "Greeley was noted for his eccentricities. His attire in even the hottest weather included a full-length coat, and he was never without an umbrella; his interests included spiritualism and phrenology." And add his neckbeard to his list of eccentricities. Even by nineteenth-century standards, it was an odd fashion choice. The National Archives blog describes it as a "neard", as well as "neck hair run amok". In 1872 Greeley ran for president against Ulysses S. Grant (who had a normal beard) and suffered a landslide loss. His neard may have played a role in this.
A Scottish child and a Native-American child pour hair tonic on the head of an elderly Anglo man and massage it in, while a child soldier out of some European comic opera stands by with sword upraised in tribute.
The only sensible part of this weird iconography is the Scottish kid. Once upon a time, right up to, oh, the 1960s, "anything Scottish = cheap and economical" was standard advertising shorthand.
It used to be that you had to go to circus sideshows to find women with beards on display, but apparently "chick beards" are now the hot new trend in the world of fashion. via Trend de la Creme
Category: Politics, Hair and Hairstyling