Blue-bearded

1875, Charles Dickens, "In the French-Flemish Country" in The Uncommercial Traveller, The Works of Charles Dickens, National Edition, Volume XXX, London: Chapman & Hall, 1907, p. 354, https://archive.org/details/uncommercialtrav0030dick Blue-bearded though they were, and bereft of the youthful smoothness of cheek which is imparted by what is termed in Albion a ‘Whitechapel shave’ (and which is, in fact, whitening, judiciously applied to the jaws with the palm of the hand), I recognised them.

Grouped in the center of the hall were about two hundred men, all armed with sabers, — men of every age, and height and swarthiness, from stout, blue-bearded veterans to youths yet in their teens […]

Daniels Shadow Proof Inc. of Boston last week invaded the $50,000,000-a-year men's toiletries market with a carnation-scented, flesh-colored paste which will camouflage 5 o'clock shadow and banish that unshaven look. At Manhattan's Macy's, one excited employee hailed it as " the biggest thing since wired brassieres. " A stubble-bearded conservative quipped: " You don't look like you need a shave. You just look embalmed. " But Founder Daniels figured his foxhole gag might be a good idea. Among his first users was blue-bearded he-man Clark Gable. And in its first week the company sold about 57,000 jars of its camouflage at $1 apiece.