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New year, old look: Paul Ryan shaves beard

Story highlights
  • The House speaker unveiled a clean look on Tuesday after sporting some scruff for a few weeks
  • In December, a Ryan spokeswoman said that he started growing the beard on November 22 and planned to keep it as long as his wife, Janna, let him

Washington(CNN) A new year, a new (or rather, former version of) Speaker Paul Ryan.

The House speaker unveiled a clean look on Tuesday after sporting some scruff for a few weeks.

He first posted a photo on his official Instagram account and then later tweeted it out.

He wrote in the post, "Fresh year. Fresh start. Fresh shave."

In December, a Ryan spokeswoman said that he started growing the beard on November 22 and planned to keep it as long as his wife, Janna, let him. He called it his "deer camp beard."

At the time, he tweeted out the Instagram picture and asked for the House historian to fact check whether he's the first speaker to have a beard in 100 years.

He is, in fact, the first speaker to have a beard in 90 years, not 100. The official account tweeted at Ryan, "It's been a while (Gillett & Cannon before him)."

Frederick H. Gillett served as House Speaker from 1919 to 1925, making him the last speaker before Ryan to have a beard.

CNN reached out to Ryan's office for comment on why he shaved his beard, but it has not responded yet.

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