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Rambling non basketball discussion follows...
There seems to have been a great shift in this country regarding facial hair sometime in the early part of this century. There were several leaders and statesmen who had very full beards in the 19th and early 20th century. They were respected and viewed as honest, hardworking, etc. I don't know for sure what triggered the change, but the respect of facial hair largely fallen out of favor and has never returned.
There have been no bearded (or even mustached) Presidents in about 100 years while there were several before that (perhaps a majority). Was this related to the advent of TV or reasonable quality photos in print media? Before 1900 or so, people usually only read or heard about politicians and such. After it, they have been able to see the person.
Or was it the invention of a good quality razor that allowed clean shaves without having to be extremely careful?
The psychology that I have heard is that people like to see the expressions on people's faces. Facial hair can obscure some of the finer elements of facial expressions. Seeing these expressions is believed to influence (rightly or wrongly) the perception of honesty.
There are few areas, however, that seem to remain with the older values that would seem to contradict the current common views. It seems that judges often are bearded, while lawyers are not.
This seems to apply to basketball/officiating in a way that is similar to the views of society in general. Personally, I feel it is unneccessary and unjustified, but it is they way it is.
[Edited by Camron Rust on Jul 29th, 2002 at 01:09 PM]
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