Beard Tax (#119)
Picture yourself one of the male philosophers from the philosophers' ship of fact #117. He has a beard, right? Like a massive, well trimmed, dignified beard.
In 17th century Russia, Emperor Peter the Great, tried to ban beards and established a beard tax. If you refused to pay it, the police was allowed to publicly shave it off.
However, if you paid the tax, you were handed a coin with a beard on it. This was your token and allowed you to wear a beard. Weird?
It's said that Peter the Great charged the tax to align with Western European styles. Yeah right... Have you ever seen a picture of him? To me, this smells like a serious case of beard envy.
PS: In Tajikistan there's kind of the opposite going on. You can only apply for a passport if you don‘t have a beard.
Beard Tax - Wikipedia
No country for bearded young men - RadioFreeEurope