Hair and Beard

The Tollund Man without his cap on. Big picture

The stubble on his face is approximately 1 millimeter long which means he didn't shave the last 24 hours of his life. It is a common belief that a person's nails and facial hair continue to grow after death, but forensic examiners will tell you that it's because the skin dries out that facial hair and nails seem to keep growing. In other words, it's not the facial hair that keeps growing but the skin that dries out and shrinks.

The Tollund Man didn't shave the last 24 hours of his life. Big picture

The Tollund Man and the other bog bodies discovered in Denmark were all clean-shaven and had short haircuts. It fits in with the razors we often find in graves from both the bronze and the iron age which hold the bodies of men.

It is not until the viking age that we find pictures of men with beards but then the beards are also perfectly trimmed and carefully arranged. Having a short haircut and no beard result in better personal hygiene - lice and fleas are not given very good living conditions.

Lindow Man, who was found in a bog in middle England, shows us that men in the iron age sometimes did have a beard. The different tribes in ancient history probably had different opinions about what "a real man" should look like.