Why do men henna their beards

He may have recently been on the Hajj. Muslim men aren't allowed to dye their hair unless they use henna ie henna is the only thing they can use to dye it. There's a guy that work at the corner newsstand by my work that keeps his beard dyed this way at least for the last year.

I've wondered the same thing. What pullayup said. It's often used to denote a Hajji somebody who's been on the mandated pilgrimage to Mecca posted by UbuRoivas at PM on April 6, This is also traditional in the kashmir region between India and Pakistan. Did it look like this? This page has lots of cites in explanation. The short answer appears to be that Muhammad is supposed to have, and some of his companions did, and there's an older tradition that Abraham did, so it became part of the "Sunnah" that Muslims follow.

The orange coloring that some older Somali men put in their hair is henna, the same stuff you see on the hands of newlywed women. A lot of men see a red beard as preferable to a gray or white beard. Back in Somalia it used to be a luxury thing, a way to show off how well you were doing, since henna was a little more expensive there and it took good amount of patience and time.

You have to sit still for hours in order for the henna to dry and turn your hair orange. The US and British-led "coalition of the willing" was about to invade Iraq and tensions were running high. At one point an Iraqi and Kuwaiti diplomat got into a public shouting match and the Iraqi yelled, "A curse on your moustache!

But facial hair is more than just a sociological identifier - it can also be a survival tactic. I spent two years reporting for the Los Angeles Times in Iraq after Saddam Hussein's overthrow, and my visual appearance was a key element in my ability to move around safely. I put hours of thought into how Iraqi men my age dressed, the kinds of shoes they wore and how they wore their facial hair.

Iraqis are a big moustache people - back to that whole manhood thing - and so for a couple of months, I abandoned my usual beard and attempted to grow an Iraqi-style moustache. It was a disaster - I could never get it to achieve that classic Saddam-level of bushiness. The experiment ended when I visited the US and my younger brother took one look and told me that I resembled a fat Freddy Mercury.

Listen back to the programme via BBC iPlayer or download a podcast. You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook. Spot the difference? Saddam Hussein and his sons were all keen on facial hair.