Why Tarzan has no beard

In all the movies, TV series, and cartoon shows, comic books, lunch boxes, coloring books and art of all kinds, Tarzan is never shown with a beard. Even though he lives in the jungle and is definitely an adult male!

There’s a reason for that. Are you ready?

He shaves!

Here’s why and how. In the original book by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan’s parents were marooned on the African coast and died when he was a baby. They had a cabin they had built with some of their things in it. When the baby was rescued by the female ape named Kala, she took him away from that place and raised him.

Later, young Tarzan rediscovered his parents’ old home. He saw pictures of humans and realized that these were his people, not the apes. Not only did he learn to read from the picture books he found, he also learned other things about humans and so he shaved with his knife when he got old enough to grow a beard. I always liked Tarzan because he fought with his wits. He relied mostly on a rope till he got his knife, and though he was strong he knew he was far weaker than the other creatures he lived among. He never killed without need and he had a fine sense of justice.

As an additional point of interest, Tarzan did not live with chimps or gorillas, he lived with a large, intelligent and as yet undiscovered type of anthropoid ape.