The bearded business leader is becoming more common

New York

THESE are dark days for the shaving industry. After experiencing a century of fairly steady growth, makers of razors and other shaving equipment have seen revenues level off or fall in the last few years. Beards are back.

One striking feature of this resurgence is that for the first time in well over a century, a growing number of the world's business leaders are sporting facial hair.

Google's co-founder Sergey Brin, Goldman Sachs' chief executive Lloyd C Blankfein, and M…