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[WHY] Where did all the beards go? Korean men's style and the fall of facial hair.

Published: 18 Oct. 2025, 07:00 Updated: 29 Oct. 2025, 14:50

LEE SOO-JUNG
[email protected]

Four Korean baseball players are clean-shaven in a screen capture of footage from MBC Sports. Two American players, Cody Ponce, far left, and Ryan Weiss, fourth from left, have beards. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Boy bands such as BTS, Stray Kids and NCT all have one thing in common: the members don't grow their facial hair. No beards, and no mustaches are present. Instead, a hairless upper lip and jawline free from fuzz show off a clean-cut face.

Hyungwon of boy band Monsta X confessed that he underwent multiple rounds of laser hair removal on his face in 2021. He said he endured tear-bursting pain, and numbing cream offered little help. However, what came in the end was a porcelain-smooth chin and satisfaction.

A cleanly shaved face is not only essential among Korean male celebrities — it has become an aesthetic code across Korean society.

In 2014, a Korean pilot from Asiana Airlines was grounded because of his beard. The company accused him of being “not tidy enough” to serve customers — even though only worked at the cockpit. Some three years later, the Seoul High Court ruled that the airline’s grooming policy was "discriminatory" because Korean pilots were ordered to shave, while foreign pilots were allowed to have beards as a gesture of cultural respect.

Monsta X member Hyungwon speaks about his experience of receiving laser facial hair removal during a livestreaming session in 2021. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

These days, bearded Korean men are rarely seen on the streets — but this wasn't always the case.

About two centuries ago, being clean-shaven was rather eccentric in Korea. Nearly all men had beards that flowed down from their chins, with their hair coiled into buns atop their heads.

Despite being the norm in the past, why has modern Korea chosen to dislike male whiskers?

Once one's pride and charm

Portraits of Yi Seong-gye, left, founder of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) who lived between 1335 and 1408; O Myeong-hang, center, a high-ranking official who lived between 1673 and 1728; and Shin Im, a high-ranking official who lived between 1638 and 1725. [KOREA HERITAGE SERVICE]

Beards were once the epitome of masculinity in Korea — at least until the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910).

“Whenever praising a man’s appearance, compliments about his beard should come first,” Yi Kyu-gyong, a 19th-century scholar, wrote in an encyclopedia.

Literature highlighting the importance of a beard also exists.

A self-portrait of the Joseon painter and scholar Yun Du-seo (1668-1715) [NOGUDANG HOUSE]

In a novel by Park Doo-sae, believed to have been written in 1678, a male lead character was taunted by a passerby who said, “It seems like you'd have no chance at marrying someone because you don't have a beard.”

During the Joseon Dynasty, marriage was a societal factor distinguishing adulthood from childhood. It meant that an unmarried male was deemed immature. In this context, those without a beard were considered incapable of getting married and acting as fully grown men, according to the National Folk Museum of Korea.

The Joseon Dynasty — Korea’s last feudal era before modernization — was governed by Confucian values, which viewed one's bodily features as being inherited from their parents. A phrase from the era suggests: Filial piety starts with not harming the body and hair given by one's parents. Jang Suk-man, a historian at the Korea Institute for Religion and Culture, wrote that Joseon people treated hair grown from the scalp and facial hair as “objects to preserve” in his academic journal.

Yet, the modernization reform in 1895 rendered beards a vestige of the past. Beard shaving was one of the key modernization initiatives.

Emperor Gojong and his crown prince were the first to comply on Dec. 30, 1895. Government and military officials were ordered to cut their hair and beards the following day, and civilians were to do so on Jan. 17, 1986.

“Beards once symbolized a grown man’s social privilege,” Jang wrote. “The decree changed public perceptions about the beard.”

Despite resistance stemming from the public's attitudes toward Confucian values, the decree was enforced. More Korean men began to trim their beards or shaved them off. The barbershops of the day functioned as a space that “reformed the hair and beard in a modern way,” according to Jang.

No whiskers on modern Korean men

Four then-lawmakers from the 17th National Assembly shave their beards at an event focusing on ″clean politics″ in an undated file photo. [JOONGANG ILBO]

Fast-forward to the 21st century, contemporary Korean men are opting to be clean-shaven.

Kim Gyung-chun, a state-certified artisan and barber with 35 years of experience, told the Korea JoongAng Daily that many Korean men struggle to grow beards due to differences in hair follicles compared to Westerners.

“Hair growing from the scalp and facial hair share similar characteristics,” Kim said. “Westerners tend to have thinner hair on both their heads and faces, with two to three strands sprouting from a single follicle. For Koreans, only one or two strands grow from a follicle.” This attribute makes it intrinsically difficult for Koreans to have a lush and dense beard.

Kim added that Westerners often have facial hair follicles extending from above the upper lip to the lower chin and jawline, creating the perfect conditions to grow goatees or full beards. In contrast, the area where facial hair grows on Korean men is relatively limited — and only occurs in smaller sections.

BTS performs ″Butter″ at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards on April 3, 2022, in Las Vegas. All members are clean-shaven. [AP/YONHAP]

A 33-year-old blogger, identified by his alias Goraebab, said he used to shave daily because he disliked how his beard grew on his face. He also said he has never admired the image of “rugged masculinity,” which is often associated with bearded men.

“It was also important to maintain a clean-looking appearance without a beard when working at a department store,” Goraebab said.

Sakong Jong-hwan, a clean-shaven, 34-year-old Korean man, said he had undertaken the same kind of procedure as K-pop idol Hyungwon. He received laser facial hair removal 15 times.

“In my life, I had never thought of growing a beard or mustache,” Sakong said. “You need to be seen well-groomed at workplaces, and razor shadow tends to be an unappealing factor in dating life.”

BTS member V shaves his beard in an undated video clip. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

From razor to laser

A YouTube video about a man receiving a laser facial hair removal procedure [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Fueled by a cultural favoritism toward clean-shaven looks, laser facial hair removal emerged as a convenient solution among Korean males.

Shin, a Korean man in his 30s who has already had laser facial hair removal 17 times, said he plans to continue the procedure. He paid 43,000 won ($30) each time, and each session took roughly 3 minutes.

“Thanks to the laser treatment, I no longer need to buy razors,” Shin said, praising the procedure for making him look younger — even a convenience store clerk asked him to present an ID card when buying beers, he claimed.

Undergoing the procedure to eradicate facial hair is not purely about aesthetics.

Kim, another Korean man in his 30s, said that razor-shaving often irritated his skin and caused skin troubles — so he turned to laser technology. After seven sessions, he found that the areas where facial hair grew shrank and that the strands of facial hair became thinner.

“Now the five o’clock shadow on my face is much smaller, and it makes me look cleaner with fewer skin troubles,” Kim said.

Winds of change

Left: Actor Byun Yo-han grows his beard in a photo uploaded to his Instagram account in 2022. Right: Actor Byun Yo-han is seen clean-shaven during a movie award ceremony in 2024. [SCREEN CAPTURE/NEWS1]

Despite Korean society’s apparent preference for clean-shaven faces, some men find beards fashionable.

Jung Byung-hyun, 38, has grown his beard for four years. He has been satisfied with his new look.

His beard did not come into perfect shape overnight. Jung bought an American-made hair growth solution from an online marketplace. Every day, he applied it to his face, jaw and sideburns to overcome the patchy growth of his beard. The routine continued for the first three to four months of his beard-growing period.

“I had to learn how to groom my beard through trial and error because there was no one to ask around me,” Jung said. “Now, I am satisfied with my beard, which portrays an image that men would admire, at least once in their lives.”

Another beard groomer and barber, who asked to be identified by his pseudonym Santa, has grown his beard to “create his own distinctive style” for nearly 14 years — except during his mandatory military service and job-seeking days.

His pursuit of the look was never easy. A few years ago, he encountered people who jokingly asked him if he was a foreigner, or who refused to sit next to him. Some women even demanded that he shave in order to go on a date.

“These days, more and more hairy men — who used to shave previously — are letting their beards grow,” Santa said. “They seem to be inspired by foreign examples in media and follow them for aesthetic reasons.”

Now, younger men are becoming a part of a new beard-grooming trend.

Kim, the veteran barber, noted that male college students often visit his shop to have their beards trimmed and styled.

“Undergraduates seek advice on how to groom beards to match their own personal style,” Kim said. “They want to have their own unique styles and take photos of themselves with their beards as a personal memento.”

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [[email protected]]