Sorry Lumberjack Look! Study Claims That Men With Beards Carry More Germs Than Dogs

The next time your men with their hirsute looking beard of a forest comes near you, tell him to stay a mile away! Because a new hair-raising study claims that men with beards carry more germs than dogs including deadly bacteria in their facial ball of hair. Researchers discovered that nearly half of all sampled beards hosted bugs dangerous to human health. The study, which was published by the Daily Mail took swabs from the beards of 18 men and the necks of 30 dogs, across a range of breeds, and compared the results.

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."

Keith Flett, founder of the Beard Liberation Front seems to argue otherwise against this bushy debate.

'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,' he said. 'I don't believe that beards in themselves are unhygienic.

'There seems to be a constant stream of negative stories about beards that suggest it's more about pogonophobia than anything else’ Flett adds.

And with that, are you giving a second thought about re-grabbing the razor stashed away in the washroom?