This is American hysteria's Aftershock, where I share with you a story that didn't make it into the main episode.

I'm your host, Chelsea Weber-Smith.

And today, we're talking about beards.

Especially in the last 15 years, I'm sure you've seen a mixologist, that's a

hipster word for bartender, with an ironic snidly whiplash villain's mustache curled up at the

ends and held there by hard wax. We've all seen that beautiful, perfectly sculpted beard of the

metrosexual of lore, combined with this blue-collar logger hipster look we love to hate and

talked about in our last episode. You might have even spotted Ted Cruz's callback to the

Confederacy with his mustache and mutton chops. Much of our current

culture around the beard traces back to the problematic 1800s, when crises of masculinity, as well as the

desire to get back to nature, combined, of course, with white supremacy and a long-term history of emulating our heroes.

While the market for razors has fallen a whopping 5%, gallons of beard oil and mustache wax have

flown off the shelves since the trend took us by storm in the mid-2000s.

Beard trimming is big business in L.A., and as it turns out, it's cutting into corporate

profits one close shave at a time.

That's the problem for Gillette and its parent company Procter & Gamble.

The company just announced an $8 billion non-cash write-down, which means huge losses as guys head to the barbershop

and away from the razor.

Hipster emulations of old school barbershops, complete with candy striped poles on the

outside, have been popping up in a number of gentrified city districts, places that already

have established black barbershops, and are providing

hip young men the total experience of being immersed in 19th century comfort, straight razor

...