It might have taken you what felt like forever to grow your beard to the right length and thickness but would you shave it off if we told you that your facial fuzz could carry more germs than a dog carries in its fur? Yes, that's right according to scientists, men with beards may carry bacteria in their chin hair which could be dangerous to their health, whereas pooches come off cleaner in general with lower levels of microbes. The study, which was uncovered by the Mail On Sunday, took swabs from the beards of 18 men and the necks of 30 dogs, across a range of breeds, and compared the results. So, technically, there were 12 more dogs than men...Professor Andreas Gutzeit, of Switzerland's Hirslanden Clinic, told the publication: "The researchers found a significantly higher bacterial load in specimens taken from the men's beards compared with the dogs' fur."On the basis of these findings, dogs can be considered as clean compared with bearded men."The study found that every single one of the 18 bearded men, aged between 18 and 76, showed high microbial counts. Compare this to only 23 of the 30 dogs having high levels with the remaining seven having 'moderate' levels and dogs are technically cleaner... apparently. You might argue that there were fewer fellas involved in the study than dogs however, every bloke in the is pretty much an undoubted dirty bastard and you can't really argue with that. There were even seven men found to have microbes that posed a threat to human health. Keith Flett, founder of the Beard Liberation Front (yes, that is such a thing), cast doubt on the report telling the MailOnline: "' I think it's possible to find all sorts of unpleasant things if you took swabs from people's hair and hands and then tested them."I don't believe that beards in themselves are unhygienic," he wouldn't really be considering his title...Mr Flett continued: "There seems to be a constant stream of negative stories about beards that suggest it's more about pogonophobia than anything else.
Pogonophobia is, of course, an extreme dislike of beards. Yes, that's also such a thing. But do remember, guys people with beards are just people without beards, with beards. Just a hell of a lot filthier maybe... but we don't judge around here.
