THE fashion for beards shows no sign of abating, so now comes the question: is this trend having an impact on men’s health?
For recent research has found that the average dog is cleaner than the average beard.
The conclusion was reached after researchers compared bacterial counts taken from the beards on 18 men’s faces with samples from 30 canines, including dachshunds, collies and German shepherds — and the dogs were found to have lower levels of bacteria.
The initial reason for the study was to explore whether it is safe for dogs to be scanned in the same magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners as humans.
The fact is that, like humans, dogs are living longer and so are prone to more ailments — an MRI scanner is a useful tool, but most vet clinics cannot afford one. So, the researchers were studying whether it might be feasible, in hygiene terms, for dogs to use human MRIs.
The findings might sound alarming: surely we are cleaner than the average dog? But not all bacteria are bad news. Our bodies house nearly 40 trillion organisms (our skin alone has one billion bacteria on every square centimetre). What matters is whether the bacteria found on the dogs or in the beards of men were pathogenic — in other words, a potential health threat.
Of the 18 beards tested, seven did carry potentially harmful organisms. There were fewer on the neck fur of the dogs — the particularly unhygienic part of a dog, according to veterinarians.
But the vast majority of the beard bacteria were perfectly harmless — beneficial, even.
That does not mean abandoning good beard hygiene — which may be as advantageous for the partners of those with a beard, as it is entirely feasible to catch something from a person’s beard.
My advice to anyone who wishes to snuggle up to a bearded partner is to encourage them to wash their face and beard with soap and water twice a day, to help keep bugs at bay.
