Fear the beard – What's in your beard can hurt you
Bottom Line: In the early part of this decade during the San Francisco Giants run of World Series wins – we “feared the beard” of closer Brian Wilson. Brian’s large black beard might have been intimidating for batters facing his near 100 mph heat but as it turns out the beard itself was most likely worthy of being feared.
Scientists recently swabbed and studied bearded men between the ages of 18 to 76 and found the following:
- 39% of the beards contained bacteria harmful to human health
- All of the beards contained potentially harmful bacteria
- The average dog is cleaner than the average human beard
With beards as trendy and popular as they’ve been in generations, it’s a little food for thought. Speaking of food – that's a lot of what’s getting into beards and growing bacteria. It speaks volumes that an animal tasked with cleaning itself is generally cleaner than the beard adjacent to one’s mouth.
The conclusion by researchers wasn’t that you can’t hygienically maintain a beard but that most men don’t. Washing it as you would the hair on your head is a good place to start. That is unless you want those around you to fear your beard.