Rare Times King Charles Dabbled In Having Facial Hair

For much of his royal career, including his record-breaking 64-year tenure as the Prince of Wales, King Charles III has typically kept his face clean-shaven. This, it seems, was partially at the behest of his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, who famously wasn't a fan of facial hair. However, there were some rare instances where Charles dabbled in growing his out, to mixed results.

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The future King's brief love affair with facial hair largely took place in the mid-1970s, when he would have been serving in the Royal Navy. Then-Prince Charles even sported a full beard at certain points, as seen in the above photo on the left, which was taken at the Badminton Horse Trials in 1976. He also experimented with a standalone-mustache look, as seen in the photo on the right, which was taken during the 250th anniversary service for the Order of the Bath at Westminster Abbey in 1975.

Charles' more rugged look from his military days seems to be a particular favorite among royal watchers, with plenty of users on social media remarking that he should have kept his full beard. (The mustache, meanwhile, has less of a fanbase.) Frankly, the photos of a bearded Charles should also definitively put an end to the nasty rumors surrounding Prince Harry's "true" parentage. As one user on Reddit humorously commented in response to a separate photo of a bearded Charles serving in the Navy, "Harry is 100% his, haha."

It's hardly surprising that King Charles III's short-lived facial hair era primarily took place during his time in the British Armed Forces. After all, that's just about the only time his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, would have allowed it. It's a common misconception that royal men are forbidden to have beards, as no such rule actually exists — at least, not officially. However, Elizabeth herself was staunchly opposed to her sons and grandsons growing out their facial hair unless they were away with the military or off on some sort of similar excursion.

"She doesn't mind royal men growing beards when they are away in the Armed Forces or out in the wilds like Harry was in the Antarctic, but she expects them to be clean-shaven when they get home," an anonymous royal source said of Queen Elizabeth while speaking to the Daily Express in 2014. One notable rule-breaker in this respect during Elizabeth's reign was, ironically, the aforementioned Prince Harry. Charles' second-born did indeed shave after returning from the South Pole in early 2014, but decided to keep his re-grown beard after leaving the British Army in 2015.

Queen Elizabeth even gave Harry special permission to keep his beard for his 2018 wedding to Meghan Markle. This allegedly didn't sit right with Harry's older brother, Prince William, who had been made to shave years earlier. While William has since re-grown his own beard under his father's reign, Charles himself has remained whiskerless — despite the instance from some royal watchers that his Navy beard better suited him.