Inside Israel’s Beard Revival

In 1989, a song by musician Korin Alal jokingly called Israel a “small country with a mustache,” referencing the one belonging to then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. Much like Shamir himself, 74 at the time, his mustache was a remnant of an older Israel, traditional and decidedly un-trendy when it came to men’s looks. It was also an odd sight in Israeli politics; until very recently, mustaches and beards in Israel were associated, for the most part, with religious and ethnic minority groups.

“For a long time, the Israeli idea of a beard could go two ways,” said Jonathan Keren, founder of Maapilim, a new men’s grooming brand in Israel. “Obviously you had religious Jews growing beards, as they have for centuries, but you also had a sort of kibbutznik aesthetic, a very free-growing and free-flowing facial hair that didn’t get too much attention.” Other groups traditionally affiliated with facial hair included Israeli Arabs and the Druze, who make up about 2 percent of the Israeli population.

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