Havana (AFP)

It is an international fashion but in Cuba, it has a special flavor: the beard has been blooming for some months on the faces of young Cubans, but without the political significance given by Fidel Castro and his rebels "bearded" during the 1959 revolution .

Ironically, in the government chaired by Miguel Diaz-Canel since April 2018, the only historical beard still present is that of the Commander of the Revolution Ramiro Valdes, 87, a vice-president.

In the streets of Havana, wearing a beard is now rather a matter of style.

"Many people, especially young people, let their beard grow, it's trendy," said 31-year-old barber David Gonzalez, cutting a customer's in his downtown living room. "Some wear it longer" but the majority prefer it short, heat requires.

Obispo Street, in the historic district of Havana, Franco Manso, 24, enjoys a moment of calm in his craft shop to make some alterations to his beard. "I saw that it went pretty well and, as it is fashionable, I kept it," he says, small scissors in hand.

- Fidel and his famous beard -

"My beard means a lot to my country," Fidel Castro told American television shortly after 1959. "When we have fulfilled our promise of good government, I shave my beard," he added.

He finally kept it and, until his death in 2016, it was while pretending to caress the goatee that the Cubans were referring to the father of the revolution, a way to avoid pronouncing his name in public.

The symbol was so strong that the CIA, determined to tarnish the image of Castro, had planned in the early 1960s to drop his famous beard. The idea, mentioned in the declassified archives of the CIA, was to take advantage of one of the movements of the Cuban leader abroad to introduce a powerful depilatory in his shoes. The cancellation of the trip caused the plan to be overthrown.

Over the years, the symbolism of the revolutionary beard has diminished, even if young Cubans still face in the street many images of Fidel Castro, Ernesto Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, the three most famous "barbudos" of the revolution.

For Alain Gil, 23, an employee of the Institut du cinéma (Icaic), wearing a beard, more than an international fashion, is above all "practical". "One day I did not want to shave, my beard started to grow and I liked it," said the young man, who also wears mini-earrings and a bun.

He does not regret his choice: "My girlfriend likes boys with beard, she says they are sexier."

- "Patriotic" razors -

In the early post-revolution decades, being bearded also had a pragmatic reason: razor blades were virtually untraceable.

Before 1959, the Cubans used the American razors Gillette, but from the embargo in 1962, "everything is complicated," says the journalist and writer Manuel Somoza, 74, who told this time in the book "Cronica desde las entrañas "(Chronic from the bowels).

"The use of the beard spread, not only because it had a patriotic or anecdotal connotation, but also by practical need because the blades of razors (which then arrived in Cuba) were of very poor quality and shaving was a nightmare, "said AFP this man now always clean shaven.

No more shaving cream and aftershave: you had to use soap, provided by the libreta (the supply booklet), just like the blades.

To replace the "imperialists" Gillette, Cuba had made in Czechoslovakia a "patriotic" brand under a name that was not trivial: "Venceremos" (we will overcome), followed by "Patria o Muerte" (the homeland or death), two revolutionary slogans.

Then came the Soviet razor blades Sputnik and the Neva, nicknamed in Cuba the "tears of man" as they mistreated the skin. The schoolchildren used it to sharpen their pencils.

To help their relatives in Cuba, the exiles abroad "sent, glued to their letters (...) one, two, three or four Gillette razor blades," says Manuel Somoza. "When they arrived, it was the party!"

When the Soviet bloc fell in 1990, Cuba fell into a severe economic crisis that further complicated access to razors, until 1993 when the use of the dollar was allowed: in shops using this currency, razors modern, then appeared, but at a high price.

"The beard of young people now has nothing to do with what we had," the reasons are different, "today young people are more connected to global fashion," says Manuel Somoza.

Even though it is true that most of them are facing the same economic problems as before and can only afford disposable razors sold at low prices, not the latest-generation models at more than $ 20.

© 2019 AFP