In the 19th century, a beard could be more than a fashion statement. Some doctors actually recommended one for a troublesome throat.

The idea was that facial hair protected the throat from cold air, dust and other irritants. An 1846 American health journal went considerably further, describing the beard as a “breast-work of protection for the lungs and throat” and calling it “nature’s own respirator.” The journal even suggested that clergymen suffered from throat problems more often than other public speakers because they were more likely to shave.

One patient apparently became a lifelong convert.

In 1892, William Johnston of Gloucester, England, wrote to the Gloucester Chronicle recalling what had happened about 42 years earlier. Johnston had suffered repeatedly from severe sore throats when his doctor, J. P. Hearne, advised him to stop shaving and grow a beard and moustache.

Johnston followed the advice and later claimed that he never had another sore throat. He was also pleased to report that friends thought the beard added considerably to the dignity of his appearance. 

Before long, he said, hundreds of men around Gloucester were growing facial hair too.

Source: The Journal of Health and Monthly Miscellany, 1846; Gloucester Chronicle, January 23, 1892, as documented by medical historian Alun Withey.