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hey, why not itchy chins and the possibility of fleas from horses and dogs ?

Because these possibilities are not really glamorous.

I seem to remember reading that Alexander's lack of facial hair was initially due to his youth when he assumed the throne. As he was not old enough to grow a proper Macedonian beard yet he ordered the whole army to be clean shaven as well! After time it probably just became fashionable, as most things associated with Alexander became!

He was 20 years old when he assumed the throne, more than old enough to have grown a beard.

Alexander wore his hair long like Achilles, as was his hair like Achilles: copper-gold!Cheers!Alexander's Amazon Queen

Sure he was old enough Tre, but he didn't have enough hair to grow a beard!(don't ask me for any sources because I cannot possibly remember where I read this at!)

Which reminds me of the story about the Duke of Wellington and Queen Victoria. When inspecting one of the Guards regiments, the queen asked the duke what was it was that she could smell. The Duke replied: "esprit de corps, ma'am".What a wag! :-)All the bestMarcus

Here's another comparison, then.During the 12-13th centuries, the Knights Templar gained a fearsome reputation in the Holy Land. Once of the reasons for this was the stricture that members of the order were never to cut their hair or beards. This was during a period when the fashion in Western Europe was for the clean-shaven look.Consquently, the Moslems regarded most crusaders as being rather effete, but the Templars were respectfully regarded as being "real men", because of their beards.All the bestMarcus