Alas, the fashion statement made by beards in 1970s seems to pale in comparison with that of the much more flamboyant 1970s mustaches. Nonetheless many bold expressions of chin hair were on view during "The Me Decade." A man's beard in the 1970s was groomed in a less manicured style than what one finds in the beards of the 1980s and beyond.

Beards in the 1970s required very little in the way of trimming or pruning. In keeping with the more relaxed style of 1970s fashion, hair styles, including facial hair styles, were unfussy and natural. Beard wearers would use scissors if they wanted the beard to more closely follow the jawline, or if they wanted a beard more in what we now think of as a "hippie" style, they simply let it grow.

In the 1970s, beards were often worn by members of the counterculture. Rock mucisians of the 1970s were frequently spotted in beards, as were men in less traditionally conservative professions, including college professors, activists, authors, and artists.

Some of the most iconic 1970s TV and film characters wore classic full beards. The earliest incarnation of "All in the Family's" Mike Stivic, liberal graduate student and nemesis to bigoted Archie Bunker, sported a fully ungroomed "hippie" style beard. The beard worn by Al Pacino in the 1973 Film Serpico figured into the plot as a marker of the passage of time. Obi Wan Kenobi's beard in the 1976 Star Wars film added to the sense that the character was a wise elder.

One of the most iconic and frequently photographed bearded 1970s celebrities was John Lennon, particularly as seen during the era when he was staging performance art with his wife Yoko Ono. But full 1970s beards weren't just the province of musicians. Beloved Muppet creator Jim Henson wore a classic, full beard. And, although his beard was more closely groomed than the creative types listed above, tennis champion Bjorn Borg wore his manicured facial hair on the manicured lawns of Wimbledon.