>>18514089
I believe you're referring to the beard tax instituted by a russian emperor to (basically) imitate europeans.
He thought the nobility of his country having beards was a backward tradition (from the orthodox church and such) because modern europeans nobility in the 17th-18th-probably19th century "elites shaved their beards to larp as the Romans, who in turn wanted larp as Alexander the Great who was a beardlet 16 year old twink when he started his conquest".
The actual answer is fashion changes and has for millenia everywhere at different paces and for differznt reasons.