“Lincoln Wouldn’t Be Recognized Down In Springfield”
He never owned a razor in his life, and he didn’t visit a barber as frequently as Mrs. Lincoln thought he should. He neglected to groom his coarse, bushy hair, that stood out all over his head like horsehair. That irritated Mary Todd beyond words, and when she combed it, it was soon mussed again, by his bank-book, letters, and legal papers, which he carried in the top of his hat.
One day he was having his picture taken in Chicago, and the photographer urged him to “slick up” a bit. He replied that “a portrait of a slicked-up Lincoln wouldn’t be recognized down in Springfield.”
By Dale Carnegie，“Lincoln, the Unknown” ，Carnegie-070-07
Lincoln never was ashamed of these things —at least he never changed his habits when he came into national prominence, buit his continuance of them did not urlse from affectation. They were natural to him and he was not willing to have one set of manners for Washington and another for the people back In Illinois.
That he was careless of his appearance there was no doubt. When he sat for a photographer he never straightened his tie or smoothed his unkempt hair, but, like Crom-well, told the picture man to take him as he was. He knew that a portrait of a ” slicked up ” Lincoln, as he would have said, would not have been recognized In Springfield, and he didn’t want them to think he was putting on airs because they had elected him to the presidency.
–“Abraham Lincoln’s appearance”