[edit] From the Renaissance to the present day
In the 15th century, the beard was worn long. Clergymen in 16th century England were usually clean shaven to indicate their celibacy. When a priest became convinced of the doctrines of the Protestant Reformation he would often signal this by allowing his beard to grow, showing that he rejected the tradition of the church and perhaps also its stance on clerical celibacy. The longer the beard, the more striking the statement. Sixteenth century beards were therefore suffered to grow to an amazing length (see the portraits of Bishop Gardiner and Thomas Cranmer). Some beards of this time were The Spanish Spade Beard, The English Square Cut Beard, The forked Beard and the Stiletto Beard.

Strangely, this trend was especially marked during Queen Mary's reign, a time of reaction against Protestant reform (Cardinal Pole's beard is a good example). At this time the beard was very often made use of as a tooth-pick case. Brantôme tells us that Admiral Coligny wore his tooth-pick in his beard. Queen Elizabeth I, succeeding Mary, is said to have disliked beards and therefore established a tax on them.

In urban circles of Western Europe and the Americas, beards were out of fashion after the early 17th century; to such an extent that, in 1698, Peter the Great of Russia levied a tax on beards in order to bring Russian society more in line with contemporary Western Europe.

Throughout the 18th Century beards were unknown among most parts of Western society, especially the nobility and upper classes.

Beards returned strongly to fashion after the Napoleonic Era. Throughout the nineteenth century facial hair (beards, along with long sideburns and moustaches) was more common than not. Many male European monarchs were bearded (e.g. Alexander III of Russia, Napoleon III of France, Frederick III of Germany), as were many of the leading statesmen and cultural figures (e.g. Benjamin Disraeli, Charles Dickens and Giuseppe Verdi, to name just a few). The stereotypical Victorian male figure in the popular mind remains a stern figure clothed in black whose gravitas is added to by a heavy beard (or long sideburns). However, in the early twentienth century beards fell almost completely out of fashion once more; they became largely the preserve of elderly, old-fashioned eccentrics.

Beards, together with long hair, were reintroduced to mainstream society in Western Europe and the Americas by the hippie movement of the mid 1960s. By the end of the 20th century, the closely clipped Verdi beard, often with a matching integrated moustache, was relatively common, as was a stubble beard (especially on younger men). Full beards nonetheless remain a fringe phenomenon.