Peak beard

The concept of peak beard gained wider popularity following the publication of an academic paper from a team based at University of New South Wales, which suggested that there was a long term cyclic variance in the prevalence of beards in Western culture due to the role that scarcity of physical attributes plays in sexual selection in heterosexual men and bisexual and heterosexual women.

[1][2] They suggested that as facial hair becomes dominant, clean-shaven faces become a more desirable trait in partner selection due to their scarcity.

[3] It was suggested the growth of beards may have been triggered by the financial crisis in 2008, and that a similar pattern may have occurred following the Wall Street Crash in the 1920s.

Researcher Rob Brooks theorized that this may be a result of high unemployment, with men seeking to emphasize other aspects of their masculinity to compensate for lack of work.

[3][4] The beard during this period became associated with emergence of the contemporary hipster subculture, which itself had been suggested to be a reaction to growth of the metrosexual male.