JD Vance's Clean-Cut Look With Usha Feels Like A Different Timeline

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Before JD Vance was vice president and before he was a senator in Ohio, he was perhaps known best as the author of the controversial "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis." As an author in his pre-political life, JD had a completely different look; most notably, he didn't have the beard that we've now come to expect from him. When you look at a picture of him with a clean-shaven face together with his wife, a seemingly makeup-free Usha Vance, and their kids, it seems like a photo from an alternate timeline.

JD and Usha share three kids, though this picture was taken before their youngest child, Mirabel Rose Vance, was born. Not only is the VP missing his beard in this pic, JD's missing the suit and tie he's worn pretty much non-stop in public since entering politics. The two of them look happy together; far from the miserable look Usha had at a recent family event.

JD was also clean-shaven on his wedding day; it seems his entering politics is what inspired him to grow the beard (though we assume there was some sort of focus group about his look). His beard was, for a time, seen by some as a possible problem when it came to his VP chances. It had been over 100 years since someone with a full beard was on the executive office ticket; any facial hair at all has largely been avoided by candidates.

It's all about the societal perception of beards. Christopher Oldstone-Moore, author of "Of Beards And Men: The Revealing History of Facial Hair" told Politico: "There's been a linkage between clean-shavenness and several important masculine qualities that were valued in the 20th century and even up to the present. There was a strong association of shaving with regularity, efficiency, cooperation, [and] reliability." Does a bearded JD illustrate the opposite? Or rather, a change in society's collective opinion on beards? It's hard to say. Some have joked on social media that JD may have grown a beard to hide his weak chin. Another on X explained their reasoning for the beard: "He's marketing himself to look older and more masculine in the hopes it will be attractive." All we know is the photo of JD and Usha Vance from his pre-beard days shows them looking happy. We wish we could go back to that time and keep JD beard-free.