How did Robin Hood shave?

Thoughts and input on anything related to wet shaving or men's grooming.
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churchilllafemme
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How did Robin Hood shave?

Post by churchilllafemme »

My wife and I do about 20 minutes of mindfulness meditation each evening, and last night while we were doing it with the sounds of Gregorian chants, my mind wandered (as it often does) and suddenly I was in a castle in the Middle Ages and I was Robin Hood, wearing green and carrying a bow and arrows while striding down a stone hallway. I wasn't just an actor portraying Robin Hood, I was Robin Hood. And it was great. But then later, I began to wonder how Robin could have shaved while living in Sherwood Forest... Or would he have shaved at all? A brief search of the Internet found that a large number of actors had played the Robin role in film and TV, with varying grooming styles.

For example:
Douglas Fairbanks (1922) - mustache, goatee
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Errol Flynn (1938) - pencil mustache, goatee
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John Derek (1950) - pencil mustache
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Richard Todd (1952) - shaved
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Richard Greene (TV 1955-59, film 1960) - shaved
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Sean Connery (1976) - bearded
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Kevin Costner (1991) - shaved but scrubby at times
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Cary Elwes (1993) - mustache, goatee
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Russell Crowe (2010) - trimmed beard
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So I'm left still wondering and daydreaming about it. But I guess I probably would favor the Sean Connery approach, with no shave at all. Plus, I just like him the best.
_______
John
slackskin
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Re: How did Robin Hood shave?

Post by slackskin »

How did Robin Hood shave? Carefully, of course!
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John Rose
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Re: How did Robin Hood shave?

Post by John Rose »

I suspect that with Fairbanks and Flynn they wanted to evoke another 'stache & goatee-wearing scallywag, to make him look like a badass.
Image
The rest just followed suit.

For more learned discourse about shaving in the Medieval (and earlier) period, check out Stefans's Florilegium collection of usenet messages on the topic:
http://www.florilegium.org/files/PERSON ... g-msg.html
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seikhmusab
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Re: How did Robin Hood shave?

Post by seikhmusab »

slackskin wrote: Fri Dec 06, 2019 1:21 pm How did Robin Hood shave? Carefully, of course!
Great Answer :D :D
CMur12
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Re: How did Robin Hood shave?

Post by CMur12 »

Welcome to SMF, seikhmusab!

(I'm pretty sure that Robin Hood didn't shave.)

- Murray
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